Preach Magazine Issue 3 - Preaching and the Holy Spirit | Page 28

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FEATURE

ALL THINGS DECENTLY AND
IN ORDER
Paul reminds us that the purpose
of our worship is not to talk about
God abstractly but to experience
his presence, to encounter him as
his people, to be ‘built up’ by him1.
In worship, both believers and
unbelievers should come face to face
with God, and realise that God is
God and they are not. Worship is not
primarily how we make our meaning
of God, but through worship we
realise by the Spirit that we are to
be God-made – we let him make and
transform us.
It is the Holy Spirit who in worship
liberates us from the bondage of our
own wills, a bondage that often places
us at the centre of life, with God meant
to do our bidding. This revelation
by the Spirit allows me in worship
to ‘yield myself to God’s order and
freely take my place within it.’ 2 This
liberation is the Pentecost gift of the
Holy Spirit that renews us in worship.
Or as Martin Luther explained it, the
Spirit comes and ‘rapts’ us, literally
raptures and seizes us into a new
existence, in which we are truly free.3
The Spirit releases us from bondage
to ourselves, and brings us into the
freedom of God – who is the only one
who is really free.4 Paul places front
and centre the requirement that
we anticipate, expect and plan our
worship to be a place where the Spirit
comes down, to surprise us, overcome
us and convict us in power.5
Yet in the midst of this exhortation to
be open to the movement of the Holy
Spirit, Paul provides some perhaps
surprising direction about the order
of our worship. Whilst we are to be
open to the Spirit, we are to do so in
a way that shows our concern for
others as much as ourselves, and
especially for unbelievers. For the
‘Spirit of the prophet is under the
control of the prophet’ Paul instructs
us (1 Corinthians 14:32). Christians are
not to believe or practice Holy Spirit

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possession. There is no place in our
worship for a worshipper to say ‘the
Spirit made me do it’, or ‘I had to say
that, or do that, or get that off my
chest’.
In our worship, no matter how much
we experience the Spirit individually,
we are to consider how he works with
us as a community. The Spirit works
within the patterns of our worship
to establish our experience as a
community and not just our private
experience. Exploring more of how
the Spirit works communally with us
might help us better understand the
‘decently and in order’ aspect of our
worship planning.

SACRAMENTAL PENTECOSTAL
CHARISMATICS
I am going to draw on my own
Pentecostal charismatic tradition and
experience here, not to be pejorative
about other forms of church worship,
but to draw on the resources of my
own church tradition in relation to the
challenge of worship services. Most
evangelicals are less likely to refer to
the Spirit as a direct personal presence.
They are more likely to describe the
Spirit as the one working behind the
scenes in the things God is doing with
them. Pentecostal charismatics like
me on the other hand are far more
likely to understand the person of the
Holy Spirit as the direct cause and
subject of our experiences in worship.6
There is an expectation by Pentecostal
charismatics of things taking place
in worship, directly created and
enacted by the Spirit. Yet beyond this
understanding of the Spirit, Pentecostal
charismatics have very little
articulated doctrine and understanding
of the Spirit. The result is that the
Spirit is often reduced to something
personal, individual, and direct; our
understanding of how the Spirit works
corporately is very limited.7
Non-Pentecostals, such as AngloCatholics, however, have a more
sacramental understanding of

the Spirit and the Church that is
far more communal in practice
and understanding. For example,
for Anglo-Catholics the church is
constituted eucharistically, by the
Spirit. In other words, it is the ordered
elements of worship such as the
Eucharist through which the Spirit
meets with the people of God.8
How might Pentecostal charismatics
like me be more sacramental and
liturgical, understanding the role of
the Spirit communally, and thereby
avoid measuring the work of the
Spirit by personal choice and selfexpression? How might we do so,
without the perennial problem of
‘quenching the Spirit’ as we lean
into the ‘decently and in order’
mode of worship? I want to suggest
that there is something already
taking place sacramentally for
Pentecostal charismatics like me,
that if understood would help us to
have a better experience of ‘all things
decently and in order.’

THE RECAPITULATION OF
THE CHRIST EVENT
We can understand any form of
life and any form of worship as
liturgy – repeated stories and habits
around what we think life is really
about. All forms of worship, even the
most ostensibly open forms, have a
discernible liturgy of their own. My
low-church worship tradition that
seeks to be open to the Holy Spirit has
a similar pattern every week; in most
Vineyard churches, worship services
begin with a welcome, the singing of
several songs without interruption,
notices, a conversational style talk,
and then finish with a time to wait on
God to speak to us and for the Spirit
to minister to us. There is a pattern
we follow to allow the Spirit to move
spontaneously.
Sacramental, and more liturgical
forms of worship in Anglo-Catholic
traditions also have a story and
understanding of life that they retell.

17/04/2015 15:42:59