During the church service at the Orthodox Church, all the activities are designed to follow a specific rigid format. First, it is imperative describing the characteristics of the clergy and the congregation since it bears a critical difference to the rest of the services attended for the objective of this assignment. In this case, the congregation at the church was quite distinct from the clergy and the choir. The choir was dressed in official black and white attire while the clergy wore official mass officiation ceremonial attire, which was expensively decorated. Lastly, the congregation, which was merely a hundred people, did not have a specific dress code observable to an outsider.
The clergy, especially the leader of the worship, was the center of the processes on that Sunday morning. The choir sang traditional hymns, which anyone new to the church would have had issues following. The hymns were organized into a printed pamphlet of the songs to be sang that Sunday in their sequential order. One could observe that while the choir sang, the rest of the congregation stayed dormant, watching as the activities unfolded before them. There were first hymns to welcome the leader of the service, who assumed a traditional priestly look and who was surrounded by a series of aides. The whole of the team leading the service was made up of men while women would only sing alongside men in the choir or be part of the small congregation.
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Hymns appeared to be central to the process of worship, the choir sang to create an atmosphere for God’s revelation. There were no musical instruments in the church. The hymns were useful during the blessing of the priest through a series of objects of religious significance to the church. For instance, several candles of different colors were light around a table from where the priest would lead the service. The service also used incense as a form of responding to God’s revelation, since the worshipers considered that it was necessary to create a suitable atmosphere for the presence of God. The objects of religious significance become among the most important elements of the worship service since the priest and the rest of the clergy would bow down to them occasionally. Much importance was given to the bible, which was kept in an expensive closet. Ordaining the priest before he assumed his roles was meant to prepare him to receive the bible, which he did in great honor, kissing and bowing to it.
During the entire time, hymns continued in the background and the congregation watched on, never getting a chance to participate. In fact, even the prayers that the priest recited were sang to the tune of the hymns in the background, and one could hardly hear what they concerned. The congregation would only make signs of the cross, which the priest did on countless occasions to accompany each of the steps of handling the objects of worship presented to him. There was no extensive bible reading. The preacher recited a verse from the Old Testament in a song format, and the congregation responded with a series of recitations of the apostle’s creed. Thereafter, they recited the Lord’s Prayer without the preacher saying anything else. Towards the end of the service, the priest undertook a series of procedures to prepare the Holy Communion that he then invited the congregation to partake. The whole service lasted one hour and ten minutes.
Tradition Service at Fields United Methodist Church
The church service also happened on a Sunday morning and the church placed much significance on the Sabbath day. Unlike the liturgy of the Orthodox Church, the service started with a series of announcements that were relevant to the congregation, but irrelevant to the worship process. There was no distinctive clothing to differentiate the different members of the church. The service proceeded to a program in which new members of the church were introduced by the preacher. He asked them a series of questions concerning their faith in Jesus, reaffirmed their stand in salvation through asking them to repent of any sins before leading the congregation to recite a series of prayers that would welcome the new members.
After the preliminary welcoming of the new church members, the preacher introduced a certain woman who he said she would be leading the worship through playing the flute. After she had introduced herself and the pieces she would be playing, the preacher asked the congregation to greet each other with the love of Jesus Christ. After the initial greetings, the congregation sang two hymns from a hymnbook, which focused on the greatness of God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. The hymns were succeed by a recitation of procedural prayers. The preacher than asked the congregation to shift their attention to others through asking anyone who needed prayers for their friends and family to make their request. When the prayer list was completed, the congregation first prayed in silence, a period that resembled great religious meditation. The preacher then led the congregation in a communal prayer in which he followed the steps of prayer described by Dr. Gary Parrett instead of leading them to recite the Lord’s Prayer.
After such procedures, biblical readings were made from the old and new testaments, in the books of Jeramiah and the Gospel of Saint Luke respectively. The flute was then played to guide people towards the worship of God through their offerings to the church. The preacher prayed before he started his sermon on the importance of fellowshipping together as a church. He emphasized the need for the congregation to practice their faith through actions and prayer. After the preaching, the church sang several hymns before reciting the 2 Corinthians 13:14— May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all — before leaving for their homes. The entire service had lasted one hour and two minutes.
Contemporary Church Service at King Street Church
The service on Sunday morning started with the leaders of the church welcoming visitors before asking the congregation to welcome each other to the service. While quoting from the book of psalms, the leader reminded the congregation for the need to share with each other the love of God, which he manifested in allowing his son, Christ Jesus to die on the cross. As the congregation was busy meditating on the love of God, the choir started singing songs exhausting the holiness and mightiness of Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit. The singing was accompanied by a series of instruments, including guitar, drums, and the keyboard. The audience actively participated in the singing, occasionally shouting, lifting hands, crying, moving around their seats, and clapping along the tune of the music.
When the singing was done, the leaders of the service led the congregation into personal prayers that seemed to transform gradually from silent worship to loud praying before the leader summarized with a single prayer on behalf of the congregation, who responded to every word that praised God. An offerings session followed soon after, which was done alongside singing and rejoicing from the congregation and the choir. Preaching was the core part of the service, and the preacher read mainly from the gospels and epistles to emphasize the need for the church to emulate Jesus in their practice of faith. Intense prayers followed the sermon, which allowed the congregation to meditate on the will of God and invite the Holy Spirt to move around them while attending to their needs and desires. After the prayer, the choir led a session of praise songs for what God had done before the preacher led those who wished to surrender to Jesus to repent their sins and join the body of Christ. A closing prayer followed this session brining the service to an end after an hour and a half of intense worshipping.
A Reflection on the Three Events
From the three experiences of worship and Dr. Gary Parrett’s teachings on the same subject revealed the different forms in which worship occurs. I learned that regardless of the forms of worship, the focus was always on the reverence of the worshippers to God. For this reason, each of the services that I attended focused on the developed of environments in which the congregation would focus on God and the Holy Trinity. The variations in the forms of worship did not hinder the services from resembling each other since in all of them since the focus of the leaders was on the communication of the supremacy of God. Responses from the congregation, however minimal they were, were special ways in which the congregations responded to the revelation of God.
I learned that worship was more concentrated on God and the Holy Spirit in settings where the focus of the church was not on the fulfillment of the traditional worship procedures, but on the meaning of God. I learned that people would meditate more on the power of God and His will in their lives in congregations in which the preachers read the scriptures, prayed, and involved them in responding to God more often. I learned that singing is the most common form of worship and that contemporary services tend to mix other elements of worship, such as clapping, shouting, crying, and other forms that are uncommon in other forms of worship. For this reason, in my perspective, contemporary worship inclines more to the teachings of Jesus and the bible at large on the meaning of worship as a means of subjecting to God in the whole of who humans are and the whole that God is. Therefore, if my church would improve its worship towards the biblical teaching, it has to focus on the events that reveal the power of God and the responses that the worshippers would have towards such revelation.
Question 2: The Power of Prayer
Power through Prayer by E.M. Bounds influenced my prayer life in a multiple ways. First, it emphasized the need for ministers of the gospel of Christ to be as prayerful as possible. I have always this demanding side of a powerful Christian ministerial life, but not to the level that the book describes. For instance, I learned that the book suggested that for one to be spiritually powerful, they must dedicate most of their free time to prayer (Bounds, 2009, pp. 2). According to the author, anyone who does not pray regularly is spiritually powerless in the proclamation of the gospel and such persons would rather avoid the temptations to call themselves ministers. For example, Bounds suggests, “If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry,” (Bounds, 2009, pp. 4).
The book teaches that people who do not pray frequently do not share in the sufficiency of God. The author uses the teachings of Paul to suggest that anyone who wants to walk under the full grace of God should strive to connect a permanent bond with Him through the Holy Spirit, something that is only attainable through consistent prayer (Bounds, 2009, pp. 8). The book helped me in shaping my understanding of the manner in which one should balance their dedication to prayer while meeting the ministerial objectives of preaching the Gospel. The author suggested that it would be useless for one to lock themselves up in prayer the whole week and avoid interacting with the public to whom they should serve in spreading the gospel. At the same time, the book warns people of the tendency to focus on ministerial objectives of popularizing the gospel at the expense of sparing enough time for prayer (Bounds, 2009, pp.14). In this case, praying frequently would provide the required guidance to the minister and help in solving any forms of controversy that would arise in attempting to balance the two elements of Christianity.
The book taught me that prayer is the most important element of a Christian’s life since it is the foundation of their believe in God and the Holy Trinity. All along, I used to think that faith is the most important element, which means that the author challenged my perspective of Christianity. For instance, the author’s citation of Thomas Buxton, “You know the value of prayer: it is precious beyond all price. Never, never neglect it,” (Bounds, 2009, pp.17) influenced my perspective of prayer. I would like to be a prayer warrior as the author suggests since it is only through such means that one may build their capacity to resist the temptations of the devil. The book provided a formula, which I have been using anyway, of the approach to living a powerful Christian life, which is to start the day with prayer. While I have been aware of this formula, I must accept that the book challenged my understanding of the role of starting the day with prayers. For example, it informed me that such an approach to living a Christian life is only a foundation for many more prayer events that would come later in the day. Therefore, at the root of everything, starting the day with a prayer will not always be sufficient for anyone who wishes to walk under the full sufficiency of the Lord.
The author approached the subject of prayer in a style that is uncommon among many other writers. His focus on prayer as a devotion to God’s service is quite different from what anyone would find in other books. By devotion, the author suggested that one had the duty to pray if they have to serve God in His mightiness and holiness. The argument in the book may also be taken to suggest that the author meant that anyone claiming to be Christian should understand of the burden that they have towards prayer. It would be only through prayer, for example, that one would understand the full revelation of the will of God in their life. Therefore, after reading the book, I am prepared to face the obstacles to sufficient Christian living through becoming part of the prayer team of the world. Prayerfulness, as the book taught me, would bond me in spirit with God and allow me to grow my faith in his promises to Christians and help me in proclaiming the gospel to more people across the world.
Bibliography
Bounds, E. M. (2009). Power through prayer . Chicago, Moody Publishers. http://public.eblib.com/choice/publicfullrecord.aspx?p=4905181.
