Rules for Church Service

Today, I presided over the congregation and led our church in scripture reading, prayer, and singing. There was no sermon, however, and this upset a couple members of our church.

You see, our pastor was away, and in his absence he had arranged for a substitute from the Association to preach in his place. The bulletins were even printed to reflect this.

However, being close as we are to our pastor, we suggested an alternative last Wednesday evening, a plan we got from attending another church's prayer night.

We proposed to instead take a text from Romans and pray through it, encouraging the congregation to let the text and the lyrics we sang inspire and inform much needed prayer. After all, we felt attention to prayer is something our church could use more of. Our pastor was enthusiastic about our plan, expressed that he wished he could be there for it, and even mentioned doing it again when he's around.

So the Pookies spent most of Friday, and Saturday evening, creating an order of worship in three parts. We would look at who God is, who we are, and how we are changed.

The first section began with a reading and brief application of Romans 11:33-36. We prayed aloud as a congregation, those who felt led filling in the following sentence: "God, we praise you because…"

The second section drew our attention to our nature as we continued into Romans 12:1-3. What is keeping you conformed to the pattern of the world? A few minutes were structured to give our brothers and sisters quiet time in prayer to confess sins.

The last section focused on Romans 12:9-21, which is enough material to convict any Christian. We exchanged one prayer request with the person next to us, to use in petition this week.

Nine and a half well-chosen, smoothly executed songs were woven throughout. This is a credit to our piano-playing collaborator, and the wifey who alternated between guitar and djembe.

Three other scripture passages were read in addition, and the whole mix felt to me Spirit-filled and reverent, and edifying.

Two people walked out at the beginning, however, displeased with what we had done, unhappy that what was happening was not what was in the bulletin.

We attended a big church in Houston this summer where the sermon was replaced by prayer. We found this acceptable, in the way we believe this morning's service was pleasing to God and edifying to His people. That, to me, is the litmus test. We gather together as Christ's body to edify one another, to hear God's word, to praise God, and to examine one's heart before Him.

What do you think?