Our worship is an experience of dialogue with the living God perceived through vibrant and creative liturgy, preaching to the mind and heart, and sacramental communion with God through Jesus Christ.

We want our worship to be fresh while remaining historically rooted to the traditions of the ancient Christian church. The Book of Psalms contains a subcurrent, the drama of the cycle of faith. This cycle parallels the faith experience of God’s people throughout time. When God is near, we are drawn inevitably to praise. Yet troubles always strike because of the evil that exists in the world. Then the Psalmist laments, begging God for assistance or rescue. God answers, rescuing us in the person of his son, Jesus Christ. The Psalmist responds with thanksgiving for what God has done and for who God is. The cycle moves from praise to trouble to deliverance to thanksgiving to praise.

The ancient church liturgy followed a similar pattern. God’s people were called into God’s presence and welcomed, being greeted by God himself. We call this the “Orientation.” It is the part where we are oriented towards God. This includes such elements as the welcome, opening songs of praise, and the greeting. We include the preaching of the Word here too, because the Word draws us to God and orients us toward him.

Continuing to draw upon the subcurrent of Psalms and ancient liturgical tradition, we include the element of disharmony, the realization that things are not as they should be. We express this through confession, lament, a time of silence, or a reading from a contemporary or ancient source that points to our brokenness or the brokenness in the world. We are drawn to God in the preaching, but as we stop to think about the reality of the world and our lives in it, we realize that things are amiss and we need God’s help. We call this the “Disorientation” section. The Disorientation is typically uncomfortable, transitioning without being fully resolved.

Finally in the ancient liturgy is the Lord’s Supper, the second time where we receive sacramental grace. We experience the table together as a way of being rescued and renewed by God from the terror and sin that we expressed and experienced in the Disorientation. The Table reassures us that our salvation is secure in Christ, and it is a way for us to experience the victory God grants us through Christ in the sharing of his body and blood. We call this the “Reorientation” section, for, after having faltered under sin, God reorients us towards his grace and love. We typically include the assurance of pardon following the Lord’s Supper. From here, we leave having experienced renewal with a song of thanksgiving and praise.

The beauty of this Orientation, Disorientation and Reorientation schema is that it is highly flexible, and allows for a variety of elements to be switched around or added while keeping the overall movement similar. This movement is the cycle of the life of faith, and it is important for all of us to experience this in worship as a way of giving shape and voice to our individual lives of faith.

To see some samples of our liturgies, email bspalink@cityfellowshipchurch.com.