Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 13:4 (Fall 2004)
Article: Classical Worship for Today: The Fuel of Hospitable Worship
Author: Wilbur Ellsworth

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Classical Worship for Today:
The Fuel of Hospitable Worship

Wilbur Ellsworth

Most people come to Christian faith and into the life of the church because a friend has helped them find the way. That is not new information. Yet many of us must confess that we have few relationships in our neighborhoods, workplaces and even in our extended families that can bear the weight of that kind of ministry. Throughout this past year I have used this space to describe and plead for a return to classical Christian worship, for worship in the Great Tradition. I have tried to make the case that “seeker-sensitive” worship, with its sincere desire to introduce people to Christ and his kingdom, seems in reality to be more “shopper-sensitive” worship, where the demand for instantly understandable and satisfying religious experience diminishes the possibility of exploring and entering into worship in the Great Tradition. This kind of worship reflects popular culture more than the roots and patterns of worship laid down both in Scripture and in the Spirit’s guidance of the church through the centuries.

So then, how are we to think about worship and evangelism if the worship we embrace seems remote from the interests and tastes of so many? We have to work harder, build better bridges and in the end, burn brighter for worship that exalts God and lifts up people to fulfill their calling as images of the living God. We need to accept the reality that a culture

RAR 13:4 (Fall 2004) p. 156

going deeper into secular patterns of thought, emotion and choice is going to require more if it is going to be brought back to the faith and the worship “once for all delivered to the saints.”

The story of Gideon in fudges 7 created a vision in the apostle Paul’s own life that he gave to the Corinthian church in his second letter. In 2 Corinthians 4 Paul makes a striking connection between the strange story of Gideon using just three hundred men with trumpets and torches inside clay jars as a description of ministry in the new covenant. In using this Old Testament story Paul makes it clear that new covenant ministry is always warfare, but warfare of a different kind. All new covenant ministry is warfare that requires boldness, brokenness and blessing. These three elements suggest components of the Christian love of the stranger that can break open the glory of God in the sight of people who are entrenched in the vision and pursuits of the world. Paul’s vision of new covenant ministry offers a pattern for loving the stranger that may encourage him toward biblically-rooted worship.

First, loving the stranger to discover worship in the Great Tradition requires...