A Non-liturgical Liturgy
[This post might be on the shorter side. This morning we learned that our landlord simply gave our garage to another tenant—moved our belongings from the garage to the basement, then voila!, some strange car is in our garage. Our lease clearly states that we have the garage spot, so we’re hoping to resolve this quickly. But sort of an amazing magic trick made possible by our landlord’s power and money.]
One of the biggest shocks when I transitioned from my evangelical days to my participation in a (mainline Protestant) seminary’s chapel was the LITURGY. People told me the chapel was a blend of different styles, practices, preaching, and what not but the LITURGY. I showed up to my first class, Spiritual Formation, and on the way in I was handed both a syllabus and a LITURGY.
Liturgy is “a form or formulary according to which public religious worship, especially Christian worship, is conducted.” (A bit confusingly, the word also refers to the worship service itself that follows the form/formulary.) It is an order of worship that indicates exactly which activities will take place and who will lead and participate in them. Most liturgies include prayers to be read aloud, some lines by only the leader and some lines by the entire congregation in unison.
The presence or absence of a known, tangible liturgy can make a big difference: I’ve heard some people say they love “liturgical worship” and some say they hate it. But I bolded that phrase because I think there’s something we might as well acknowledge about communal worship—it’s nearly always liturgical.
When I worked at an evangelical megachurch, we never said the word liturgy. Not a single time, to my knowledge, in 6 years on staff and 6 more as a member. We never handed out an order of worship, we never recited prayers together, we never “passed the peace” or opened our hymnals. Our liturgy was unspoken, and it was very different from a typical Presbyterian or Lutheran one. But a liturgy we had.
Everything happened in a prescribed order, on a tightly monitored schedule and with clearly defines roles. We merely called this order of events—never shared with the congregants, occasionally printed out for staff, always available on the latest Worship Service App™—the “schedule.” And so it was. But it was also a form or formulary according to which public Christian worship was conducted.
All this to say that here at Harbor Online Community, though we may be the lowest of “low church,” we do have a liturgy. This does not mean we’re following some formula or that what we do is artificial. It just means that we have settled (for now) on how we like to spend our scheduled time together.
I’d like to share our liturgy here, but first a couple more caveats. First, this list really did develop organically. Our community learned how to use Zoom and be Harbor together, and this liturgy is just the current picture of how we do that in our weekly gathering. Second, this is subject to change. We continue to evolve individually and collectively, and I’m sure our gatherings will too.
I. Greetings
What happens: the host greets each person by name and gives them the chance to verbally check in
What’s going on: every single person on the call matters, and this is one way of making that clear
II. Harbor guidelines
What happens: the host shares the list of Harbor guidelines
What’s going on: in order to be a harbor, we must provide real safety, so we’ve established some relational norms to ensure safe discussions
III. Icebreaker rooms
What happens: the host provides an optional icebreaker question, and the co-host sends everyone to breakout rooms of 3-4 people for a short time
What’s going on: our ministry is very participatory, so it’s important to form connections and get everyone talking
IV. Sacred story
What happens: one scheduled participant shares for 5-10 minutes about their spiritual journey; the floor is opened for anyone to ask questions; we sit in silent reflection and/or prayer for the sharer (sometimes with music)
What’s going on: this is an important way for people to get to know each other on a deep level, something missing from most traditional worship services
V. Scripture/theology discussion
What happens: the content leader introduces Scripture readings, additional theological perspectives, and discussion themes; the co-host sends everyone to breakout rooms of 7-12 people for 35-40 minutes; room facilitators lead discussions
What’s going on: this is the primary learning component of our gathering, which takes place in dialogue rather than sermon form to allow for mutual learning
VI. Contemplation exercise
What happens: the host facilitates a brief time of reflection and/or prayer; this includes silence, a reading of Scripture or poetry, and an extemporaneous prayer
What’s going on: this is how we include prayer in a meeting where some people may not be into prayer; it is meant to be a flexible practice allowing for prayer, reflection, or meditation
VII. Goodbyes and afterparty
What happens: the unstructured afterparty begins immediately; when anyone is about to leave, they are encouraged to let everyone know verbally or in the written chat rather than just logging off
What’s going on: FUN; also the personalized goodbyes are, like the individual greetings, an expression of value for each person
If you’d like to experience this liturgy firsthand, you can sign up here to join us!
[So this piece wasn’t particularly brief after all. Maybe I was channeling my anger into something productive??]
