Kim Gentes

James F. White's "Introduction to Christian Worship" has much to say about the progression of practices over the centuries of church history.  It has been a surprising time as I have enjoyed learning about the ancient church fathers, the monastic movement, the reformers and the struggle of various groups to somehow capture good Christian thinking and turn it into good Christian practice.  The tension between theology and orthopraxy weighed on our historic faith soon after the 1rst century. Yet a vibrant connection with the suffering of Christ (through the persecution of the early Church) kept alive a a foundation of personal trust and daily engagement in gathering together, prayer, reading the scriptures and taking communion.

But as the years moved beyond the first four centuries of Christian faith, the primary practices of the saints of history became so systematized (in the hopes of preserving them for future generations) that they gradually became traditions that lost meaning and power for many people.  Further, the engagement of those practices became more segregated from the common believer and held captive by a professional clergy, "...by the sixteenth century, daily public prayer had become almost entirely a clerical and monastic monopoly"(1). Perhaps most harmful was a turn of the focus of segments of public worship and gathering that moved the focus from a presiding trust in God's great goodness and deeds to a self-reflective and (perhaps) neurotic fixation with our unworthiness.  Certainly, we are unworthy, but the message of Jesus of the first century was that freedom had come, He had set us free, and the focus of our freedom and thanks should be on him as the axiom. White highlights this by saying of the middle ages, "It was a slow and subtle change... it signaled a shift in emphasis away fro mthe assembly gathered to rejoice in what God has done to an assembly of individuals met to bemoan their sin before the Almighty."(2)

The Reformation movement in the 1500-1600s was a response to this segregation of access to the "sacred" practices of the Christian faith, with the goal largely to restore some central tenants back to the hands of the common believer.  However, the problem of the last 500 years has been that as Martin Luther and his contemporaries tried to correct the faults of the religious systems that had taken hold, they intentionally and unintentionally removed some powerful components of tradition that proved to be useful to believers for centuries before.  This included eliminating some ancillary saints days, and other festival days from the Christian calendar(3), attempted removal of all music for worship by some (4), and "...losses in Old Testament lection and intercessory prayer."(5) Out of the reformation, many protestant churches moved to "free" traditions themselves, including some (Quakers) that removed all but silence from their "liturgy"(6).

I believe the ebb and flow of public prayer and scripture reading engaging lay people, are two key points of flux that have greatly impacted the history of our faith. For many Christians today in contemporary churches, these practices would scarcely be recognizable as a part of their public services.  I believe it is time to restore both public prayer and scripture reading to our modern and post-modern worship practices.  This gains strength for our generation of believers in the doing of it, and plants seeds of encouragement from our past heritage into future generations who will benefit from it as well by seeing our example.

"for: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen's University , Essentials Red Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt "

(1) Introduction to Christian Worship, Third Edition, Revised and Expanded (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000), Page 140
(2) Ibid, Page 157
(3) Ibid, Page 65
(4) Ibid, Page 123
(5) Ibid, Page 123
(6) Ibid, Page 125-126