As explained previously, there isn’t a Biblical prescription for how group worship gatherings are to be executed. Even though some things are taught as necessary for inclusion (preaching the Gospel, singing, and the like), no order of public worship (aka “Liturgy”) is given in the Bible. This often comes as a surprise to folks who have any sort of background with church participation. Some are familiar with a low form of church order and expect an extended warm-up of singing and praying before a man in a suit or t-shirt stands before them and talks about the Bible. Others are more accustomed to standing, sitting, bowing, chanting, lighting candles and incense, and listening to a few words read from a lectionary before darting out to catch kick-off.

We believe and value an approach to group worship that can be explained simply as Revelation and Response. The pattern continually explained in the Scriptures is that God reveals Himself and the people to whom He reveals Himself respond. Our hope and prayer is that God would be gracious and reveal Himself to us and that we would respond joyfully and faithfully to Him. Therefore our Liturgy is structured to maximize that desire.

The elements included are as follows:
(Revelation)
-Hospitable Welcome
-Call to Worship
-Prayer
-Gospel Sermon
(Response)
-Offering
-Eucharist (or Communion)
-Response
-Body Life
-Benediction

We believe that this order aids us to celebrate God’s victory over sin and injustice, convict and transform sinners to become saints (or forgiven sinners), and announce the coming of God’s eternal Kingdom.

In the upcoming posts, I’ll break down the theology and practice of each element. We’ll begin with Hospitality and finish up with Benediction.

The difficulty in developing an exhaustive list is that the Bible is radically silent on the required elements of group worship. We can look for descriptions, but beyond a few prescribed elements (preaching, singing, sacraments), there is freedom. It would be much easier if we could turn to chapter and verse and read, “Thus saith the Lord, ‘thou shalt gather in a public building on Sunday between the hours of…sing for a period of…incline thine ears to the oration of the Scriptures for…and give thanks to Him who giveth all things as thou hasten forth before thy Sunday lunch.’”

At Missio Dei, we are committed to gathering for the purpose of proclaiming the good news that Jesus Christ lived perfectly as our substitute, died in our place as a guilty sinner, and overcame sin and death in the Resurrection giving to believers His Divine Spirit as a downpayment until He comes again to perfectly restore creation. Our aim is to make everything we do as the Church gathered (from the welcoming of newcomers, to the blessing of our community as they go) to proclaim this magnificent truth and so we include various elements hoping to make it clear.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll break down the included elements giving a theological basis and goals. I’ll attempt to cover them systematically, biblically, and historically in the hopes that we approach our gathering times together with greater intentionality and a more clear proclamation of the Gospel.

After a lengthy, prayed through process of dialoguing and meeting, Missio Dei Church and The Bridge Church will be merging over the next few weeks and months. This is a providential big win for both communities as we push forward to proclaim the Gospel, connect people, and serve the city of Cincinnati.

I had anticipated Tim Dunn, Lead Pastor of the Bridge, remaining and helping to Pastor, however, he is compelled to follow an opportunity to Pastor in Madison, WI and so we’ll move forward. This Sunday, our core group will join the Bridge at their gathering space at Strattford Heights on UC Campus. Next Sunday, June 5, we’ll gather together to hear one last time from Pastor Tim at our new building on Essex Pl in Walnut Hills. We’ll follow this with a catered cookout and plenty of time to send the Dunn’s off well, say farewell to students for the summer and have time to generally get to know one another better.

Our new season together will being on June 12, where Pastor Kurt will teach, “Where do we go now?” to kick off a six week, Vision, Values and Mission series. Mid July, we’ll work through a seven week overview of the entire Bible before making our Fall Kick-off on Sept. 11, with a long-term series in the Sermon on the Mount.

There is a tremendous amount to do over the next few weeks and months and I’m am genuinely overwhelmed at the hand of God in all of this. The timing of leaving Asheville, connecting with Tim, walking through this transitional season, etc. has been just shy of miraculous. It is a great joy to walk with Jesus as He carries out His plans. I look forward to many years, locking arms with this community and charging the gates of hell, even if we’re only armed with squirt pistols.

Patrick was not Irish, but first came to Ireland as a captured slave from Britain. After escaping, he returned as an ordained missionary with a heart to contextualize the Gospel of Christ to the Irish culture. His desire was that those who captured him and held him in slavery could be freed from their own spiritual slavery to sin and death.

God used Patrick to spread the Christian Gospel of salvation by grace through faith in Jesus and a life empowered by God’s Holy Spirit throughout a barbaric Irish culture, and that, without bloodshed. Patrick and his missionary teams were masters at relating truths revealed in Scripture in ways easily grasped by the Celts, Druids, and various clans throughout Ireland. So effective were they that their theologically rich artistic expressions (Trinitarian knots, lyrical poetry, etc) are still cherished, 1600 years after their inception.

Patrick has never officially been canonized as a Saint by a Pope in the Roman Church, but based on his confession of Jesus and witness to the Irish people, most Reformed Christians are happy to brand him with the biblical title of Saint. The title is appropriate for all those professing Christ as savior, set apart, not by men or the church, but by God.

Patrick deeply loved the culture he was called to reach. Most of us who have been burned are reticent to engage those who have burned us. But Patrick, at great personal and emotional expense pursued the Irish people. He understood the pursuit of Jesus toward Him and couldn’t help but go and tell the good news that though we killed God when He came to us, He is alive to forgive, redeem and restore us. So strong was love Patrick had for Ireland, that he is considered the patron Saint of Ireland, and he’s not even Irish.

This is a good reminder for us as March 17 approaches. My hope is that we won’t simply mimic our culture, but pause to reflect. Do we have a confidence that God desires men and women in our culture to be transformed by Jesus? Do we love the culture around us, even if they have sinned against us? Do we strive to re-tell the story (not re-shape the story), in a way that our culture will understand? I pray for believers everywhere to embrace the Gospel in a way similar to St. Patrick, so that countless tribes, tongues and languages can hear the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven, repent, and be transformed for God’s glory.

Brief History of Lent
The celebration of Lent can be traced back to at least the year 130 ad. It was used as a two or three day fast and preparation for those who were entering the Christian faith through Baptism. By the year 325 ad, around the time of the Council of Nicaea, this preparatory fast would last 40 days and soon after, not only were prospects for baptisms participating, but also entire congregations, including those already baptized.

What is Lent?
Lent is a season of community wide reflection that lasts 40 days (excluding Sundays) preceding the celebration of Easter. The 40 days are reminiscent of Moses 40 days on Mt. Sinai (Ex. 24:18) as well as Jesus 40 day fast and preparation for his public, Spirit-filled ministry (Matt. 4:1-11).

Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, so named after a tradition of marking participants with ash, a sign used in the Scriptures to denote mourning and repentance. Many congregations hold an Ash Wednesday gathering and participate in this custom.

The final week of Lent (Holy Week) is marked with several observations. The first day of the week (Sunday) is Palm Sunday, commemorating Jesus entry into Jerusalem where the people confessed and praised him as the Savior King. In less than a week, the same people will be crying out, “crucify him, crucify him.”

Maundy Thursday commemorates the Passover meal, the final meal Jesus shared with his disciples. Passover was an observance of God rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt and was highly important for Jesus to keep as he fulfilled the old covenant and pointed to the new covenant he would make with God’s people, rescuing them from spiritual slavery, sin and death. This was the point in Jesus’ ministry where he washed the disciples feet and instituted the Lord’s Supper, which is celebrated weekly in many congregations.

Good Friday is a commemoration of Jesus substitutionary death on the cross to appease the wrath of God for the sins of the world.

Finally, Easter Sunday is a commemoration of the victory of God over sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus. This is the most important of all Christian celebrations as the Apostle Paul points out:
“If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ… And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” (I Cor. 15:15-17).

Participants of Lent are, in a sense, being annually refreshed for the result of the Easter resurrection celebration, namely, a spirit-filled lifestyle.

What to do during Lent
Scripture – When facing temptation in the desert, Jesus relied on Scripture to counter the deception of the devil. It is a formidable weapon for us as well. Biblical illiteracy among Christians of all types is rampant and, quite honestly, shameful. Lent is an excellent time to begin to remedy this problem. Choosing portions of Scripture to read and upon which to meditate is a great exercise during Lent.

Fasting – Temporary abstaining from those things that are pleasurable (usually food or certain kinds of food), for reflective or spiritual purposes. The ancient church would fast all but one meal per day during the 40 day Lenten season with a strict fast on Ash Wednesday and Good Friday.  Sunday is always a feast of Resurrection and is a break from the fast. In our culture, where food and technology are so readily available, we recommend fasting from both. Perhaps a fast from television, social media, beverage use of alcohol, etc. would be meaningful.

Prayer – Fasting for the sake of fasting can become spiritually meaningless. The purpose of fasting is to use those times to focus deeply on prayer. Hunger pains can serve as reminders that your spirit is in need of nourishing. It would also be a helpful practice to start a prayer journal and answer the simple questions from your Scripture readings.

There is no abiding law for the season of Lent. Participation should be driven by an attitude of grace and joy.

I posed the question to the group and we collectively drew out the various ingredients that help us to understand repentance. We agreed that biblically, it involved a recognition of our brokenness, Jesus, turning, and being changed. Those were the ingredients, but weren’t quite clear in defining repentance. As one of our men put it, we need a back pocket definition to help us with it.

Here’s what I threw out; Repentance is trusting Jesus to change you from what your being to what you should be. I like this definition, because it involves the biblical emphasis on identity and heart motivation rather than mere external behavior, includes Jesus and requires His life and power to heal brokenness. In addition, it’s somewhat memorable and hopefully not too ethereal. Having worked through this functional definition of repentance, I realized that an earlier episode with my son could have been handled better than I handled it.

My son received a knife from his godparents for his baby dedication when he was a baby. Because he’s yet only six, he’s not been allowed to keep it yet, but he knows where I keep it. Last night, he sneaked into my bedroom and took the knife from my dresser drawer and ended up cutting his foot with it. When Momma asked him about it, he lied. When I talked with him about it later, I only took him so far with repentance.

Ashe and I talked about taking things without asking and how that’s stealing and that he covered it up with lying. These fruits revealed that he’s a thief and a liar, since thieves steal and liars lie. I also told him that Jesus loves him and became a thief and a liar and died on the cross so that he could have forgiveness. He then appropriately asked for forgiveness, which Shan and I both granted, and I prayed with him so that he was assured that Jesus forgives him and we went about our night.

Here’s where I fell short. Having assurance of forgiveness is not repentance. I rightly taught him that forgiveness is not based on repentance, but I did not teach him that forgiveness gives the freedom for repentance. What I should have done is carried this through with teaching him that Jesus wants to forgive you for being a thief and liar and fill you with spirit power so that you live out the truth that he’s made you a giver and a truth teller. That’s trusting Jesus to change you from what your being to what you should be, and it’s the fruit of the Gospel.

Plan B was to meet at a coffee shop about 5 minutes from the community center. We knew parking would be limited, but it would beat trying to meet at the park and stand in the freezing rain. We got word out that we’d be at the second venue and made our way without trailer and extras. When we arrived at the coffee shop, it turned out to be far too small to accommodate the group of adults and kids that we were expecting, so we had to make a plan C.

Plan C was to hit another coffee shop where we regularly meet for Sunday morning Scripture study and within 30 minutes, transform it into a worship space, hold final rehearsal and sound check, setup kids space, and inform everyone showing up of the new, third venue.

Two rooms were cleared moving tables, chairs, pool & foosball tables. The band set up and raced through a quick rehearsal and sound check, while the lyrics for our music were being projected onto a makeshift screen of driftwood on an old rickety ladder to hold it. People began to trickle in and exchange smiles and greetings. When the call to worship was issued, you would have never known that this was the third venue of the morning.

Two days later, I’m still stunned to silent amazement at the movement of the Spirit among our people. While I sat in isolation in my driveway that morning, praying that the car would start and frustrated at how much of the load I felt I was carrying, God was orchestrating the events of the morning to show me how Missio Dei is in reality His church and His burden.

Our people really stepped up and everyone pitched in so that we could make much of Jesus, learn from Him, receive Him in communion, and praise Him through giving, singing and praying. The Gospel was proclaimed, hearts were stirred and lives were transformed on Sunday, maybe especially the pastor’s heart. I am thankful for the joyful privilege of pastoring this congregation and I look forward to the many continued ways that God demonstrates His mighty hand upon us.

I went hoping to get some clarity from Jesus on “what’s next?” I spent the day reading through and reflecting upon the Pastoral Epistles from the Apostle Paul (1,2 Timothy, Titus) and Peter’s letters hoping to draw strengthening reminders of how to establish a Gospel-centered community in the midst of transition.

Not only was the retreat fruitful on a personal level (God revealing sin and offering grace and courage to grow), I left with a clear resolve about how to continue leading Missio Dei Church. A few key convictions that were affirmed during the retreat:

1. Continue to “seek God first.” This means that I’ve got to be disciplined in my patterns of looking for retreat daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annually. Not only am I to do this for me, but I’m to lead in it and help the folks under my care to do the same. It’s easy to get side-tracked, even (maybe especially) doing ministry.

2. God’s calling, providence, and continued leading have affirmed the original intentions for Missio Dei Church. At the center of our strategy for church planting is a city-wide focus. This means two things: a) we must remain centrally located, in a neighborhood ripe for a culture-engaging church, and b) while we pay close attention to the needs, culture, and pulse of the immediate neighborhood where we find ourselves, our focus must be broader. Our office space is located in the Gas-Light district of Clifton and our Theology on Tap as well as our worship gathering space are in Northside. These neighborhoods will serve as the hub for ministry activity for Missio Dei Church.

3. The friendships that are developing among our core members are good and healthy and need to be intentionally fostered and encouraged. Paul talks in 2 Tim.1 about how he remembers the tears of his dear friend and longs to see him so that he can be filled with joy. These are not the words of a distant, shallow-speaking, religious type, but the words of a loving mentor who genuinely cared about the company of his disciples. He rejoiced at the thought of simply hanging out with his friends.

These convictions will continue to carry our community through the next few weeks and months as we seek to make Jesus known in our hearts and to the people of Cincinnati.

I will begin with the assumption that the church is the primary venue through which God is displaying Himself to the worlds seen and unseen (Eph. 3:10). I will also work from the assumption that the church is a community shaped by the reality that while God created humans to create beautiful culture that reflected His perfections, we refused and rebelled and that Jesus, in our place and as our substitute bore the punishment for our brokenness through His death on the cross. In His resurrection, the faithful find renewed life and purpose and work with God, by the power of His Spirit to bring renewal to the world. This Gospel forms and directs the community and while it has various expressions cannot be considered a church if it abandons this central message.

With those presuppositions, I want to explore two reasons people get into church planting with an intention to evaluate and reflect.

The first reason is to do church in old ways. This is the denominational way of church planting. A pastor or group considers an area and asks the question, “Is there a Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. congregation there?” If the answer is no, then, resources are poured out to get one started.

Sometimes this can be a good reason and sometimes, it can be bad. It is bad when the primary reason for starting a congregation is to express denominational distinctives when resources could be better used to build up a congregation that may not view eschatology, the work of the Holy Spirit, etc. the same way your particular denomination does. It can promote divisiveness rather than unity as it tends toward “majoring on the minors.” However, at times, it can be very uniting when one can start a church with distinctives that bring out nuances of the Gospel that are missed without the presence of that particular congregation.

One of the key lessons I learned from the men at the seminary I attended was that you can hold very strongly to your convictions and extend grace and mercy to those who disagree. This is a wonderful picture of unity, if unity is defined as harmony among diversity.

The second reason is to do church in new ways. This is perhaps the most prominent reason presented to me when I have the privilege to assess men who want to plant new churches. Again, sometimes this is a good reason, and sometimes it is not. It’s not a good reason when you’re asked what the church will be like and the only response you have is what the church won’t be like (i.e. “the music won’t be cheesy…it won’t be full of programs focused only on church people…it won’t…”). When the motivation to plant is a negative view of the current situation, what often happens is that people come up with new ways of being disobedient to God and the Gospel in an immature attempt at deconstructing what may be valid problems in a church. It’s very easy with our criticism to tear things down and it’s often coming from a guy who doesn’t wish to start a church, but wants to simply gather a crowd who will listen to his own bizzare take on the bible. It’s much more difficult to build things up. We should realize that church plants are usually reactions, but we must recognize those reactions so that they don’t become sinful overreactions.

However, it is a good reason to do church in new ways when the current ways are not connecting with the culture. This isn’t done for the sake of being novel, but for the sake of getting the Gospel message, which is unchanging, to a culture that is constantly changing. This should be done thoughtfully and more importantly, prayerfully. The revealing of God is at stake here and the eternal destiny of His people hang in the balance.

As a closing reflection, the key here is to consider motivation in planting. Certainly God uses the most perverse of our motivations to accomplish His glory and reflection of His magnificence. The point of church planting is to make disciples who follow Jesus in their way of living. Scripture teaches that this requires a community of people who through Jesus are reunited to God and one another and focused on the culture around them. My hope and prayer is that the excitement will continue.

Our Core Group continues to meet on Wednesday nights in Hyde Park.

Our Sunday Morning Bible Study, “Origins:” a look at some key points in the book of Acts will kick of on Nov. 21 at 10:00am at the Hannah’s house. All are welcome, childcare will be limited. For more details, email Pastor Kurt (kurt@mdcincy.org).

In two weeks, we’ll kick off our first monthly project, Theology on Tap. The purpose of TOT is to engage the culture in honest, friendly dialogue about the questions they have concerning theological topics such as life, culture, beauty, meaning, sexuality, etc. We’ll meet at 7pm at Northside Tavern in Northside. I’d love to get the ball rolling on this by having you post questions to be used for discussion topics. What are the questions on your mind, that you’ve not felt freedom or permission to ask before? What are the questions your friends are asking that they have not felt the freedom or permission to ask? Post your questions in the comments section (*Questions will NOT be published).