In Tuesday’s Life of Jesus class, we talked a bit about liturgical worship in church.
No one form or expression has an exclusive claim to the right worship of God. Personal experience and one’s personality may draw a person to one style of worship, or make some other style less appealing to that same person.
Some may think that liturgical worship, such as the services in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer, is especially prone to becoming dry and lifeless.
One writer addresses this:
All forms of worship run this risk. This is more of an indicator of the state of one’s heart than the form of worship. In fact, most churches do have some kind of “ritual” in their worship even if they don’t call it that, i.e., it follows the same form week after week: sing songs, give announcements, pray, hear a sermon, and conclude with a song. Anything we do and any form of worship can become empty and meaningless when it is not done in the right spirit; it will become merely acting out a part rather than participating with our hearts, minds, and spirits. But if our worship is truly Spirit-filled and our hearts are open to God, then our worship will glorify God. The key to authentic worship is having a heart and attitude of praise and reverence that seeks to earnestly glorify God. Liturgy seeks to facilitate true worship.
There is no absolute “right” or “wrong” form of worship, in fact, it may be that certain forms are more [accessible] to some people than others. But worship that seeks to glorify God (and not merely to make the individual most comfortable or stimulated) will strive to create a worship environment that is utterly pleasing to God, whatever form that may take.