Ancient-Future Talk
Wartime Worship Service

Buff Delcamp asks: "Our church wants to prepare an immediate worship time if and when the U.S. declares war. Do you have any service outline, suggestions, or resources related to that?"

Thanks, Buff, for the question! I'll use this column to explain the service.

First, I avoided a "civil religion" service, which occurs when the church and its worship advocate a worldly political agenda. The Christian Church and its worship cannot support any one nation on earth because the church is a body of people from all the tribes and nations of the world.

The church and its worship are about God's mission to save the world. The Christian political battle is with forces of evil, over which Christ triumphs. As Christians, we are called to witness to his accomplished mission in Jesus Christ.

Second, all Christians are citizens of this world (aliens and strangers) and are commanded by God to serve their nations through prayer. What I have developed is a service of prayer that centers on lament and intercession. I have drawn especially from the Psalms of Lament, which were developed in Israel as responses to wars and other national crises.

Keep the atmosphere of this service penitential: ask people to assemble and leave in silence; use quiet instrumentation or a cappela; offer the entire service to God as a prayer arising from a humble and contrite spirit; and, use a single candle in a dimly lit room to signify Christ the Light of the World who has come to dispel all darkness.

The service consists of three parts. It begins with the people gathering to confess their need for God's help. Next, the service of Lament and Prayer aids people in presenting their grief to God, in hearing God's word, and in praying to God for those who lead, engage in, and suffer because of war. The service closes with a call upon God to guide and be present to all in their anxiety and to watch over and protect American troops and the world situation.

You can also add the Lord's Supper, but make sure to accent its eschatological nature—that Christ is the ultimate victor over all the powers that oppose him and his reign of righteousness.

If you use the service, use as is, or change the style to suit your setting. Keep it simple, penitential, and prayerful. God's peace be with you!

See the attachment for outline. [This service is not under any copyright. It may be used as is or adapted to another style and circumstance.]

I am convinced that the best place in the world to get a professional education in worship is at the Institute for Worship Studies. I say "professional" because the IWS course of study does not attempt to compete with a Ph.D. in worship (for example at Notre Dame). Instead, IWS takes the best of scholarship (several of our professors have their Ph.D. from Notre Dame) and put it into the hands of the worship practitioner to renew worship in their local church!

Last month I described the first course, "The Biblical and Historical Foundations of Worship." The second course will be, "The Renewal of Sunday Worship: Music and the Arts."

This course, led by Dr. Constance Cherry and Todd Farley, focuses on the theology and practice of Sunday worship. Why do we gather weekly to worship? What is the distinction between content, structure, and style? What is common to all worship traditions? What part has music, drama, dance, architecture, and icons played in worship? How can we take insights from all the worship traditions—from house church to liturgical—and apply them to our worship setting today?

These are only a few of the issues you will discuss in this significant eight-hour course. In addition to learning from skilled practitioners, you will rub shoulders with classmates who teach worship in seminaries or colleges and interact with those who lead worship every Sunday in the local church.

The course of study is also very user friendly. Each course meets for one week (in June and January) at our campus in Orange Park, Florida (a suburb of Jacksonville). You do some reading before the course and then have three months to complete your work at home in your ministry. For more information, see IWSFLA.org or call our toll free number.