LITURGY
WHY LITURGY MATTERS & how it is helpful
As human beings, we are a people who are “story-formed” and we need to continually be “re-storied” (to borrow a term from James K.A. Smith) with the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We all naturally, corporately, and culturally have a story to our lives that we are following, and one of the goals of discipleship is to properly place our stories under THE Story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.
A structured liturgy helps our corporate worship effectively retell and remind us of the story of redemption centered on Jesus Christ. If we can clearly tell the story of the gospel each and every single week, drawing people to insert themselves into God’s story, to see the redemptive work of Christ, and to respond with repentance & faith, we are aimed in the right direction. A structured liturgy & flow helps us to do this well, and has been used for thousands of years to accomplish this very purpose, which is why we incorporate liturgy in a variety of ways at Aletheia.
A structured liturgy also allows us to clearly explain what we are doing in our corporate gathering, and to emphasize key aspects of our interaction with God as he meets us through the Spirit through the mediation of His Son.
A few ways we incorporate structured liturgy into our corporate gathering:
Call to Worship
Confession, Repentance & Assurance of Pardon
Benediction & Blessing