The Lord's Service: The Grace of Covenant Renewal Worship

by Jeffrey J. Meyers

Before we address all the messy details about what ought and ought not to go on during a worship service, we must answer one foundational question: what is the purpose of a Sunday church service? In other words, why does a church come together on Sunday? Why is the congregation gathered together? What are they doing? What is the point?

Since the ill-named “Second Great Awakening” in the early nineteenth century, many Protestant churches have embraced evangelistic effectiveness as the foremost criteria for effective worship.

When evangelism becomes the overriding purpose of worship, then what is done in the service easily degenerates into a technique for evangelism.

A full-bodied liturgical service in which the people are honestly confessing their sins, carefully listening to large portions of the Bible being read, energetically reciting and singing the Psalms, loudly confessing their faith by reciting the creeds, and so on, ought to have a profound impact on visiting outsiders.

The manner in which doctrine is embodied, communicated, lived, and sung is not neutral. Style equals form, and form matters. In other words, the form or manner in which we approach God in worship is not something indifferent (adiaphora). The way we pray and how we worship is inexorably related to who we are, to whom we are praying, and what we believe about the One we engage in prayer and praise. Style (form) and doctrine are mutually conditioning. Or at least they ought to be. What you believe will influence how you pray, worship, and sing. The way in which you worship will impact what you believe.

In modern American church services, edification is cut loose from its doctrinal moorings and is blown about by every humanistic, trendy gust of psychological and sociological silliness. It is almost as if the greatest achievement of corporate worship is to engineer within the worshipers some kind of praise-induced emotional or psychological ecstasy.

One reason why so many are mystified by the word covenant and the concept of covenanting is that it is almost impossible to reduce it to a slogan or nice neat definition.

To describe the worship of the Church as a time when people engage in or enrich their “personal relationships” with God can mean almost anything.

For pedagogical purposes I will analyze God’s covenant under five headings: 1) God takes hold, 2) God separates and makes something new, 3) God speaks, 4) God grants ritual signs and seals, and 5) God arranges for the future.

Christian worship is sacrificial; when we say Christian worship is covenant renewal worship we mean that it takes the form of sacrifice and offering.

Sacrifice describes the essence of the Church’s mission in the world: “You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Pet. 2:5).

The way in which God renews His covenant with us is the way of sacrifice. Our reasonable liturgy, the apostle Paul says, is to “offer ourselves as living sacrifices” (Rom. 12:1–2). On the Lord’s Day God Himself draws near to draw His people near. The flaying knife of God’s Word and the transforming fire of his presence reconstitute and restore the congregation, making them fit for life in His presence and work in His kingdom.2 In response to God’s covenantal initiative—His drawing near to us—we submit to His sacrificial work; that is, we confess, thank, praise, and pray as we are renewed through the Spirit and enabled to give unto our Covenant Lord the glory due His Name. And it all culminates with a meal. The Lord serves us bread and wine at the Table, where we experience as a community His shalom.

The liturgy moves from tension to rest, from death to life, from mourning to joy.14 God calls us together, cleans us up, tells us how to live, fuels us for service in His kingdom, and sends us forth to do His work. We strip off our soiled garments, are washed clean by the blood of Christ, are given white robes of holiness which serve as wedding garments of glory for the meal, and finally, as a result of our worship, we are outfitted with armor to carry out our mission in the world.