lifeasmission

Quote from Christianity Today article, “A Deeper Relevance“…

It is precisely the point of the liturgy to take people out of their worlds and usher them into a strange, new world—to show them that, despite appearances, the last thing in the world they need is more of the world out of which they’ve come. The world the liturgy reveals does not seem relevant at first glance, but it turns out that the world it reveals is more real than the one we inhabit day by day.

This statement about liturgy, a term we could easily replace with, “corporate worship,” is perhaps a perfect remedy to arguments we so often hear over cultural relevance.  Churches who seek to be “culturally relevant” in their worship (as opposed to incarnational in their lives and witness) have flipped the gospel on its head by beginning with the world the gospel addresses rather than the world the gospel call us to.  This is a call for the corporate worship gathering to be first and foremost a means of formation and discipleship for those who comprise the body of Christ as followers of Jesus.