Tuesday Teaching Tips | Episode 253 | Malcolm Cox

Craig Douglas Erickson: “Liturgical participation and the renewal of the church”

“Christian worship is by its very nature participator re-worship… Because all Christians are priests.” 231

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 1 Pet 2.9

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Rom 12:1

Are all the worshippers worshiping?

How do we know?

  1. Trust Holy Spirit
    1. Inhabits:  You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. Rom 8:9
    2. Active:  And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 2 Cor 3:18
    3. “the experience of Christian worship is most fully accessible only to the illuminated, whose eyes have been opened to the mystery of prayer in the name of Jesus, whose conversion continues to be confirmed for the sanctifying grace and baptism.” 231
    4. Someone might not be a particularly engaged in the building, but you don’t know what’s going on once they’ve left.
      1. “immediate effectiveness can often be a misleading criterion by which to gauge the degree of participation.” 234
  2. Preparation
    1. Prayer for your teaching to be ‘participatory’ for the hearers
    2. Prayer that you are in the right place
    3. Techniques: questions; discussion; relevance; illustrations; media
    4. How prevent it becoming manipulative? Can we?
    5. Jesus’ parables don’t give the impression of being made up off the cuff
  3. Mission
    1. Participation in worship connects us with the one we are worshipping
    2. His heart is missionary.
    3. Part of the effectiveness of the way that we curate corporate worship is as to whether those with whom we have worshipped or engaged in a missionary sense
    4. The purpose of corporate worship is not corporate worship The purpose of corporate worship “..is the glorification of God and equipping of Christians with power, to carry out the mission of the church in the world. The two are inseparable.”232
  4. Barriers to participation
    1. Ignorance of Bible
    2. Ignorance of why we do what we do

Please add your comments on this week’s topic. We learn best when we learn in community.

Do you have a question about teaching the Bible? Is it theological, technical, practical? Send me your questions or suggestions. Here’s the email: [malcolm@malcolmcox.org](mailto:malcolm@malcolmcox.org).

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“Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.” (Psalms 100:2 NIV11)

God bless, Malcolm