6.3.2026
Since I am away this week and after a conversation reflecting on last week’s Pastor’s note, Kim volunteered to write a guest note for our newsletter:
From my earliest memories my grandmother led the music at my little church, and each Sunday we sang the Doxology in the service. Sometimes she incorporated responsive readings in her worship planning which were found in the back of the hymnal. I can also remember watching her toward the end of the preaching as she thumbed through the hymnal trying to find an “altar call” song that would align in some way with whatever the preacher had preached. There was not much preplanning or intentionality about worship services. I don’t know that she ever met with the pastor to plan anything. What was intentional was the rather “spur of the moment” and “Spirit led” quality of each week’s service. That was the liturgy. I became curious about other church liturgy later in my life.
Back in 1981 when I met Pastor Terry in college, he was not the Pastor Terry you all know today. Whenever he talks about the “tradition in which he was raised,” I know exactly what he is talking about because I was raised in the same tradition. I have many good memories of those church days, but they were quite different from what we experience today at Christ Church. As he said in his Pastor’s Note last week, there was liturgy, but it wasn’t like our liturgy.
Back then, the focus of the church service was mainly on the sermon. That was the “meat” and the main reason we came together. The scripture the pastor used could have been a single verse, a study of Galatians or Romans or even a popular book study where the author quoted a Bible verse. I remember one time I looked up a book the pastor mentioned in the sermon and found he was plagiarizing it nearly word for word, one chapter a week.
We did not follow the Christian calendar of Advent, Epiphany, Lent, Easter and Pentecost or the lectionary. Whatever the pastor felt led to preach, he or she preached. There was little to no ordered teaching of the Word, and connections were seldom made between the Old and New Testaments that I can recall.
When I was first learning about Christ Church via Facebook around the spring of 2020, I wondered what had changed in Pastor Terry to have brought him to this style of worship. I eventually asked him about the change, and I began to learn about this form of liturgy from his weekly Pastor’s Notes, in conversations we had, and in our weekly church services.
What I’ve come to love so much about our liturgy is the intentional planning that goes into each element of it. From the prelude to the final hymn, everything is meant to align.
Each Sunday, and in special holiday services, I love to hear, “Let us join our voices with the saints of all the ages as we affirm our faith…” before we recite the Apostles or Nicene Creed. When I think about the fact that I believe the same basic tenets of Christianity that millions have throughout the ages, it encourages and connects me! When we sing the Trisagion, I think of the early church singing it while they were in hiding. These thoughts keep me grounded in the worship service.
Next, it is so fascinating to me each week to listen to how the Old Testament, Psalm and New Testament/Gospel readings are connected. It is a mental challenge for me to make some connections even before the sermon is preached.
In our liturgy the sermon is preached much earlier in the service right after those three scripture readings, which is quite different from my earlier tradition. The focus is on what has just been read in the scriptures, then Pastor Terry makes even more connections than we ourselves may have thought about. He shows us how these three (or more) passages of scripture are linked together to give one unified message. I appreciate how much time he puts into his sermon preparation and planning.
After the sermon I look forward to the Selah and prayer time to give me another opportunity for making a connection to what I’ve heard and for allowing me some time to meditate. But it’s not over yet. The best is still to come!
The “central” part of the liturgy isn’t the sermon! It’s the supper! We come together to celebrate Jesus and what He has done for us. We recognize his mercy and grace in our preparation for communion. From the prayer for pardon to the consecration of the elements and the Lord’s prayer, we are given an opportunity to evaluate our lives and come ready to receive the Lord’s Supper at the Table each week. While some may say this is “formal and cold” in its repetitiveness, I would challenge that it is each person’s responsibility not to allow it to be so. I need to examine my life, ask for forgiveness and help in the areas I’ve failed, and prepare myself during this time that has been set aside for me each week during the service. If these are “repetitive words” to me, that’s my fault, not the fault of the liturgy.
We close with a hymn and the benediction, then we fellowship as we leave. And to be honest, I’m always a little sad that the service is over. My burdens from the previous week have become lighter. There has been time for me to think, learn and meditate, and there will be time in the week ahead where I will remember what I’ve heard, reflect upon it, and come to understand it better. The liturgy will help carry me through whatever trouble or stress the coming week holds, whether I encounter it personally or through technology.
It’s time for me to apply the liturgy of the hour or so in the service to my daily walk with Jesus. It’s time to obey with all my heart, to love my neighbor, to love God and to remember Whose I am each moment as I seek to be His hands and feet in my little piece of the world. The responsibility is mine to participate just as purposefully as the planning that was put into the service. My participation is best expressed in my life outside the church building where I live out what I’ve learned through this beautiful, intentional liturgy.
Blessings,
Kim Elliott