Worship pastors have the unique privilege of placing the very words of worship into the mouths, hearts, and minds of the people we lead—an enormous assignment carrying with it profound implications. We have the responsibility not only of providing the words for the worshiper in the dialogue of worship but also, and more profoundly, of representing God, his words, his actions, his character, and his nature in the dialogue of worship. We must faithfully represent both sides of the worship conversation—the overtures of the Creator and the responses of the creature. The very idea that we are called upon to represent God in the discourse of worship should bring us to our knees in humble submission to God and to God’s word.
Lex orandi, lex credendi is an ancient Latin phrase that essentially means, “what is expressed in worship becomes the basis and norm for what the Church is to believe— theology flows from worship.”[1] Because the worship service is spiritually formational, it is a vitally important event in a believer’s life perhaps only trumped by his or her daily devotional life with God. Because the worship event is so important and so formational, the worship service requires our thoughtful care and attention to the meticulous details of planning and preparing the drama of the worship dialogue that will be played out Sunday by Sunday in churches throughout the globe.
Worship pastors, for you to tell the story of God well, order and sequence matter. God was transcendent first before he was immanent. Convey God’s transcendence first in your worship service, either through song, through Scripture, through prayer, or through a brief reflection about God in his transcendent otherness. Where you start matters. Where you start can affect your final destination. Use the biblical models as your scriptural mandate to provide a theological substructure to your worship that incorporates the rhythm of transcendence then immanence throughout your worship service, but especially at its beginning.
Worship pastors, as you lead your congregations to celebrate God’s amazing work of grace through Christ’s great redemptive act on the cross, please remember that the cross and the gospel can only be most clearly understood against the backdrop of God’s holiness and his sovereignty, both of which represent profound transcendent attributes of God. As you tell the story of the gospel, reenact its profound passion, and celebrate its wonderful redemption, I implore you to remember that the gospel does not begin at the cross. As stated earlier, the gospel begins with this foundational truth: “God is holy”—arguably the most profound representation of the transcendent nature of God. The cross of redemption must always be considered through the lens of God’s transcendent wholly otherness in order for the gospel to be most clearly communicated. With transcendence in full view first, the starting point of the gospel becomes God and God’s holiness rather than man and man’s corruption by sin. As a result, the transcendence of God and the immanence of God in Christ will both be magnified to their appropriate levels of significance.
Worship pastors, always be aware that only God’s transcendence can provide the appropriate context for understanding most fully and completely God’s immanence. We must fight modern culture’s propensity to casually bypass the transcendence of God while running ill-equipped to embrace God’s nearness, God’s provision, God’s care, and God’s works on our behalf—all of which will be misunderstood without the appropriate transcendent contextualization. How often do we sidestep the mysterious, fearful, aweful (awe-full), righteous transcendence of God to embrace him primarily as the one from whom all blessings flow? Praising God for what he has done is not wrong; in fact we are commanded to praise him for his magnificent work on our behalf. However, it is a mistake to praise God for his work without establishing first who God is.
To reverse the “rush to immanence” propensity of modern times will require effort and intentionality. We must fight our own acculturated tendencies and inclinations and, as worship pastors, establish the transcendent otherness of God as we call our people to come in fear and trembling before a God who is above, beyond, and other than we are. Worship pastors, we must ensure that believers understand the God they worship, the wholly other transcendent God for whom their transcendence-starved souls hunger. Then, the work of God and the blessings of God (expressions of his immanent care and concern) may be all the more valued and appreciated.
The following questions may prove helpful in developing a more intentional application of the rhythm of transcendence then immanence in your worship service planning and design:
- What story am I telling about God?
- What picture of God am I forming in the mind and heart of my congregation?
- What biblical paradigms am I using to shape the services I lead?
- Is my service design or service template a help or hindrance to painting an accurate picture of God?
- Are the categories of transcendence and immanence significant players in my mind and heart as I prepare worship?
- Does the rhythm of transcendence then immanence affect the way I select and sequence elements for worship services?
- Is the foundational picture of God that I paint each Sunday grand, enormous, majestic, holy, sovereign, glorious, all-mighty, timelessly eternal, infinite, all-wise, and all-knowing?
- Has the cultural “rush to immanence” affected the way I plan a worship service?
- Do I focus more on what God does than who God is?
Finally, worship pastors, I encourage you to look carefully at the words you say or sing in your services of worship. Words matter. Words communicate. Cautiously select the words you will say. Ask yourself, “what am I communicating about God, about his people, or about the world?” Carefully chosen words will accomplish more than poorly chosen words. Write them out. Revise and craft your thoughts for maximum impact. Compare them to Scripture. Inform them with Scripture. God’s words will always be more powerful than human words. A carefully chosen word takes time, energy, effort, thought, and prayer. Yet, “like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word spoken in right circumstances” (Prov. 25:11). The impact on your congregation is worth the investment.[2]
Also examine carefully the words that you place into your congregation’s mouths to say or sing. Meticulously scrutinize the lyrics of the songs you select to offer in the dialogue of worship. Write out lyrics to the songs for maximum apprehension of the song’s meaning. This will help you to know the message you are communicating as well as enable you to evaluate the lyrical content of each song. Ask, “what is the message of this song?” “What does the message communicate about the transcendence of God?” “What does the song teach about the immanence of God?” “What do the lyrics teach about God, man, or the relationship between God and the world?” “Are the lyrics scripturally informed and biblically faithful?” “Will the lyrics help to form a fuller and more accurate picture of who God is?” “Will the lyrics appropriately frame God’s love, care, and concern for his people in the appropriate context of God’s transcendent otherness?”
Your role as a worship pastor is hugely consequential. You are a pastoral artist called on weekly to paint a portrait of God for your congregation. God has given you the paint, the brush, and the canvass through his Word in order to craft momentous opportunities for weekly encounters for the gathered church with their God. Your role is to “inspire worshipers to see the true and holy God of glory,”[3] to turn their gaze from the mundane to that which is eternal, to celebrate God for who he is, and then to celebrate what God does. You have been given stewardship of God’s story, God’s character, and God’s condescending grace and mercy that save undeserving sinful man. Remain true to the faith once delivered to the saints. In your freedom, employ sound biblical principles and models to form a solid theological infrastructure for your worship services. Much is at stake.
Conclusion
Are the categories of transcendence and immanence important considerations for worship planning and design? The answer is a resounding yes. Not only are they important, but they are also of paramount importance for a worship pastor’s consideration as he contemplates and plans worship services.
Worship in the free church runs the risk of being impoverished from a lack of biblical groundings. I do not endorse meaningless ritual and am not proposing that all free evangelical churches embrace liturgical structures. What I am proposing, however, is that order and sequence are consequential. Order and sequence are defining principles in every tradition, including the free evangelical tradition. Order and sequence establish the relative importance of the elements that are included in a worship service. Order establishes the beginning place of worship and, therefore, is immensely influential to the overall direction and ultimate destination of any worship journey. What comes first in an order of worship interprets and establishes the context for every other element.
My ultimate recommendation is this: worship pastors in free evangelical churches, because they are not governed by set liturgical formulae, should seek other scriptural guiding principles that can inform the goals, values, and objectives that influence how they select and order the elements of worship that will make up the worship offering of their congregations Sunday by Sunday. A service of worship properly constructed deepens a congregation’s understanding of God and helps them to accurately perceive themselves and their world as God’s creation.[4] Though little is said about the form of New Testament worship, liturgical practices can definitely be inferred from Scripture in both Testaments. Since Scripture is the sole and sufficient rule of faith and practice, worship pastors may discern direction from Scripture to form appropriate paradigms and guiding principles to help them construct God-glorifying, Christ-honoring services of worship.[5]
For the free evangelical church, perhaps the most important theological substructure to be applied to worship planning and design is that of the rhythm of transcendence first and immanence second. Worship is affected, empowered, enhanced, or diminished by the manner in which the worshiper conceives and perceives God. In the words of Allen Ross in Recalling the Hope of Glory, “The greater our appreciation and apprehension of the majestic God whom we say we worship, the greater will be our reverence, adoration, and service.”[6]
That God revealed himself first as the transcendent Creator of the universe is no accident. To worship God more fully, God must be understood first in his transcendent otherness. Then, and only then, will God’s gracious condescension be understood in all of it fullness and with all of its meaning. When the transcendence of God forms the appropriate context for Christian worship, believers are rescued from their “rush to immanence” and from their culturally-shaped fixation upon themselves. When the rhythm of transcendence then immanence guides the worship journey, believers experience the mystery, awe, and wonder of God that their souls long for and often look for outside the church. When the rhythm of transcendence then immanence shapes a service of worship, God will be seen in his glorious splendor for who he is first and then for what he does on behalf of those he created in his image second. May the word of God and the biblical rhythm of transcendence then immanence form and transform the way worship is planned in the free evangelical church, and may the boundless God of wonder and glory be exalted in an ever-greater way by those who call him Lord.
May worship leaders be encouraged that what they do week by week is far larger than simply creating a set list. You, your goals, values, and objectives, indeed your own view of God are shaping an entire congregation’s view of God, themselves, and their world. Where you begin matters. How you sequence a service matters. What you say matters. Your role is consequential to the corporate and individual worship lives of your congregation. May worship leaders find the rhythm of transcendence then immanence as a strong biblical principle upon which worship services may be formulated and led.
[1]Christopher J. Ellis, Gathering: A Theology and Spirituality of Worship in Free Church Tradition (London: SCM Press, 2004), 17.
[2]Rienstra and Rienstra, Worship Words, 19.
[3]Allen P. Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory: Biblical Worship from the Garden to the New Creation (Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications, 2006), 37.
[4]Don E. Saliers, Worship as Theology: Foretaste of Glory Divine (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1994), 37.
[5]Chan, Liturgical Theology, 30.
[6]Ross, Recalling the Hope of Glory, 41.