Your Order of Worship Disciples
Your order of worship, liturgy, planning center order, bulletin, or whatever your church may call it, disciples your congregation. It is teaching them whether you want it to or not.
How you begin your worship gathering will either point people to God or to man.
How much scripture you read aside from what you preach teaches your people whether the Bible is authoritative or not. Do our churches love God’s word in such a way that we delight in the mere reading of it?
The songs you sing will either teach sound doctrine or teach false doctrine. The songs you sing will either stir emotions because of truth or emotionalism. The arrangement and key of the songs you sing will either teach the congregation that they’re spectators or participants.
If prayer is only used to make transitions, then it will teach your congregation that prayer is not important. It is something you do for a smooth transition. Extended and focused times of prayer teach your congregation that talking to the living God requires reverence and attention.
What you pray publicly teaches your people what to pray. Do you only pray about things God can give you? Or do you praise God for who he is? Do you pray a prayer of confession pleading for God’s mercy? Do you thank him for answered prayer? Do you pray for what’s going on in the world and other churches? Do you pray for those in authority and high positions? (1 Tim. 2:2) Prayer is not only private, but communal as Jesus modeled in the Lord’s Prayer.
“Our father in heaven…”
“Give us this day our daily bread…”
“Forgive us our trespasses…”
“Lead us not into temptation…”
“Deliver us…”
How often you take the Lord’s supper will either show the congregation that it is simply a memory, or a spiritual feast to savor. How you practice it will emphasize that it is a private moment between them and God, or a sacrament where they are reminded that though they are many parts, they are one body (1 Cor. 10:17).
How you practice baptism will either show your congregation that it is an individual experience or a corporate one. It will either teach the congregation they have a responsibility to disciple the newly-baptized believer or that baptism is just the finish line of salvation.
Think about how much discipling could be done by prioritizing the right things in your gathering. While discipling may be more than this, it is certainly not less.
Your order of worship disciples.
We do this best when we:
Read the word
Sing the word
Pray the word
Preach the word
See the word in baptism and the Lord’s Supper
— Ligon Duncan
