R. H. HILLIER
Graduated from the Federal College of the Bible in 1947, and served with the church at Victoria Park, W.A., until December 1949. He then served as Youth Director in Western Australia until December 1956. He is at present minister of the church at Thornbury, Victoria.

      The morning service had just concluded, the congregation was moving towards the door, John Churchman angled his way through the people towards the morning president. "That was one of the most satisfying worship services I have ever experienced. I'm glad I went to that camp last weekend and shared in the study on worship." It's a pity every member had not been there. The service certainly comes to life when you know where you are going and understand the rhythm of worship.

      A significant worship experience does not just happen. It must be planned and prepared for by both those leading and participating in worship. Estelle Barber says, "If persons are to come into possession of those life-giving values inherent in worship, they must have guidance in so doing. They must have guidance in forming those concepts that are basic to worship. They must have guidance in developing those attitudes which create the desire for worship. They must have guidance in choosing those experiences which are conducive to worship; in choosing the materials which are the channels of worship; in directing those impulses which are the outgrowth of worship."

      Any adequate discussion of our morning service must begin with the question

WHAT IS WORSHIP?

      There are, I believe, at least three ways of thinking about worship. Two of these ways are common and inadequate.

      1. There are those who say of worship--IT MAKES ME FEEL BETTER." There are different ways of expressing this idea. Some say that in worship they "get new ideas," others, that they "worship in order to become better persons." Whether expressed in terms of the emotions--feeling, or the mind--ideas, or becoming better persons--character, the idea is the same. Worship does something for us. Worship is something we do to impress ourselves; its primary concern is with us. This is to make "self" the object of our worship, whereas true worship has one object alone; God. "You shall have no other Gods before me" (Exodus 20:3).

      "Pure worship is self-loss, adoration." This places "self" in right perspective. The worshipper does not leave his impulses, habits, sentiments and ideals at the door with his hat. Nor does he bring them for an injection. He brings these native qualities before the object of his worship, God, as an offering. As Andrew Blackwood reminds us, "the wrong way to worship is to strive to get, the right way is to wish to give." Paradoxically it is when we give ourselves in this way that life is sanctified. We do become better persons.

      2. There are those who would say, "WORSHIP IS OUR QUEST FOR GOD." Again there are many expressions of this idea. "Worship is one of the ways by which we make contact with God." It is a matter of "finding the right wave-length so we can tune into God." This may be a perfectly good definition of worship for a Hindu or a Buddhist, but never for a Christian. To think of worship as our quest for God is to ignore the central facts of the Gospel, the Incarnation, the Cross and Resurrection. These speak, not of our quest for God, but of God's searching and giving of Himself for us. "In many and, various ways God spoke of old to our

fathers by the prophets; but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). It is always God who takes the initiative. Worship is "man's response to God's revelation of himself." "Worship is incited not by man's needs or wishes, but God's presence and incitement first invoke it."

      When we come to morning worship, "as the Scripture is read, it may be that He is declaring His holy will for us; then we must reply in words of confession, acknowledging that we have not kept it. It may be that He is reminding us of all that he has done and is doing for us; then our reply must be in words of thanksgiving and gratitude. It may be that He is proclaiming His unfailing love for us; then we must answer in words of faith and loyalty. It may be that He is asking for our hearts and hands in obedient service; then we must reply in words of dedication, "Here am I, send me."

      3. This leads us to say that "WORSHIP IS CONVERSATION." A worship service is a conversation with God. A conversation in which we are likely to find ourselves both chastened and forgiven, broken and renewed. In which our faith is disquieted and confirmed, our desires purified and quickened. In which we find ourselves at one with our fellows in sorrow and joy, fear and hope, disobedience and dedication. it is a personal encounter with the living God.

      Should this conversation degenerate into a conversation about God, and this can easily happen, the worship service becomes an impersonal and disintegrating experience in which we find ourselves separated from each other and God.

THE MORNING SERVICE AS CONVERSATION

      Too often the whole worship service is like the indistinguishable babble which precedes most of our services. Here there is no certain or ordered conversation, no one voice is clear, hence the consequent "mumbo jumbo" of noise. So, in worship, we are uncertain when God speaks and consequently do not know when or how to respond, and the resultant conversation becomes meaningless chatter.

      How does God speak?

      We hear God speak through the silences before and at the conclusion of the service; we hear Him through the Scriptures; He speaks to us through the Lord's Supper; through the persons of the minister, and president, hymn writer or poet. His Holy Spirit gathers all and interprets His voice to our waiting spirit.

      How do we reply?

      We reply through hymns, prayer, silence, offering, through accepting or receiving God's gift of peace and power and through dedicated living. We reply in the voice of adoration and thanksgiving, confession, intercession, petition or supplication and dedication.

AN EXAMPLE

      One of the most perfect examples of worship occurs in Isaiah 6:1-9. It will be helpful if we examine this passage in the light of what we have discovered so far.

      V. 1. "In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple."

      God initiates the conversation. In the presence of the Almighty both awe and wonder are evoked.

      V. 2. "Above him stood the seraphim each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew."

      A service of worship begins with a Call to Worship, this should be a word from Scripture, God's Word, for He initiates the conversation.

      V. 3.  "And one called to another and said:
                Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts:
                The whole earth is full of his glory."

      The opening hymn is usually one of adoration or praise to God, a moment when we become aware of the Majesty of God, or where we praise Him for what He is.

      V. 4. "And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke."

      The opening prayer is often a prayer of adoration and thanksgiving, we begin with God.

      V. 5. "And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

      We respond now in the voice of confession. In the presence of God, we become aware of our sinfulness both as an individual and as a member of society. How rarely we hear any confession of OUR sins as a church or OUR sins as a community. We prefer to sit in judgment. Appropriately the opening prayer is very often a prayer of thanksgiving and confession, or a prayer of confession is introduced later in the service.

      V. 6. "Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having in his hand a burning coal, which he had taken with tongs from the altar."

      God speaks and acts. We see here a danger of pressing too literally the word we have chosen to describe worship, "conversation," God's conversation, unlike ours, cannot be separated from His action. Here God offers cleansing and redemption. Our response is in accepting His gift. Like conversation, acceptance which is passive and unrelated to action is not acceptance at all.

      V. 7. "And he touched my mouth, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven."

      In our morning worship service, God's action is symbolised in the Lord's Supper, and our response is in thanksgiving, or in a hymn, or in a confession of faith. This confession of faith may be a reading from Scripture, or through a hymn, or through the prayer of Intercession.

      V. 8. "And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here I am! Send me'."

      V. 9. "And he said, "Go, and say to this people . . . ."

      God gives us both the task and the message. Neither the task nor the message is ours. Through the reading of His Word, through the singing of a hymn or the message from the minister, God may give us our task and equip us with His message for our time. We respond in the service of Worship in dedication, which is expressed in prayer or hymn, and ultimately in action in the world.

      It is significant that God has both the first and last word.

      So, in our service of worship we "receive the benediction," God's blessing. "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations . . . . and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matt. 28:16-20).

OUR MORNING SERVICE

      We find a very similar pattern of worship to that of Isaiah in the order of our morning worship. This is not to say that the pattern must be slavishly followed, or that all our services must be of the same pattern. The important thing is that we know when it is that God speaks; what our response should be and make sure that our whole service follows the rhythm of worship. The following order of worship is used to demonstrate the principles we have discussed, because it appears to be that followed by the majority of our churches.

      Call to Worship: God speaks, He calls us together.

      Hymn: Adoration or praise--may be a contemplation of God's Majesty, Might or Power, or a response to His unfailing Goodness and Mercy.

      Prayer: Usually adoration, thanksgiving and confession. This is our response to God.

      Readings: Taken from the Old and New Testaments, are God's Word to us.

      Hymn: Could be a response to God's Word--this response can take many forms, depending upon the readings. It may be praise, confession of faith, confession of sin, prayer for forgiveness etc. Usually we use it as a preparation for Communion and hence it is God speaking through the mighty saving works of His Son.

      Communion: Is the whole warship experience compacted into a single act. God speaks through the drama of the Cross and Resurrection,, which are re-enacted in the symbols of the bread and wine. We respond in adoration, thanksgiving, confession, acceptance of

      His gift of redemption and in the dedication of ourselves.

      Prayer: Called, usually, "the prayers of the Church"--such prayers include Petition and Intercession, and are in themselves an act of faith in response to God's goodness. It is because he has heard us and acted in the past that we confidently ask on our own and others behalf.

      Hymn: Is our response, our confession of faith in God.

      Offering: Our response and dedication.

      Address: God speaks, giving us our task and our message.

      Hymn: We respond in dedication to His Word.

      Benediction: God speaks; sending us forth with His blessing and His power.

      It was this understanding of the meaning of worship, the ability to distinguish God's voice clearly and to respond confidently and intelligently that made the morning worship service such a rich experience for John Churchman, whom we met in the first paragraph.

THE MORNING SERVICE AS OFFERING

      If we view the whole service as an offering to God, then the roles we play in worship have deep significance and carry rare responsibility. Every person, the president, the readers, the helpers, those praying, the preacher, and the congregation, all contribute something to the service. The following comments and suggestions about various aspects of worship are made in the hope that the whole service may be an offering well pleasing in His sight.

      Call to Worship. The selection of a suitable passage or verse is as important as any other facet of the worship service. It is desirable that there be a relationship between this and the opening hymn,' which is our response to God's Word; the opening hymn may even be a continuation of this thought. The back of Psalms is rich in resources, but we should

not confine ourselves to this field. There are many passages in the New Testament which could be used. Watch for them in your daily reading. Two examples from the New Testament will suffice--"There is one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (I Cor. 8:6). "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God". (Romans 8:14).

      The congregation which is alert and ready to hear God speak will derive great benefit from thoughtful acceptance of this Word.

      Prayer. Perhaps here more than in any other place, we reveal our ignorance of the rhythm of worship. To recognise that this is a moment for adoration, thanksgiving, confession, petition or intercession, is to give meaning and pointedness to our prayer. It saves the person praying from a meaningless meander, and the congregation from a worship blackout. It also saves the time-keepers from adding "time on." Our morning services would probably benefit from an increase in the number of prayers, with a corresponding decrease in length, which would be brought about by these directed prayers. Certainly there is room for the use of responsive prayer, or the bidding prayer. In the bidding prayer, the leader "bids" the congregation pray for specific things and allows time for members to participate.

      Public prayer is quite different from private prayer. Public prayer is much more demanding. It calls for a "self-emptying" and "otherness." For we are uttering words not on our own behalf alone, but on behalf of the Household of God. Whether you use a prayer written by someone else, write or outline your own, or whether you prefer to pray extemporaneously, this offering to God demands thoughtful, prayerful preparation.

      A woman once said, "If I receive nothing else from a service, I can always find something in the Benediction." She went on to say that even this was spoilt by the way the benediction was spoken on occasions. Like the call to worship, different occasions demand different benedictions. It may be helpful to paste several in the back of your Bible. Let us avoid the criticism we love to make of others; that of vain repetition.

      The Offering. How can we change the mood of the offering from that of an "interval"--to an act of worship? One suggestion is, that we introduce the offering with a Word from God, so we become conscious of it as a response. A word like that from 2 Corinthians 8:9; "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich," would be appropriate. The offering then becomes part of our conversation, as does the prayer which follows.

      The Lord's Supper. We have already noted that this act is a complete worship experience in itself. It is the "high moment" of our coming together. There seems good reason to suggest that this act of worship should be the climax of the whole Service, and therefore should come as the consummation of all that has gone before. On the other hand, it is possible that many would not be able to sustain the upward movement for an hour. There may be wisdom in having two peaks in the rhythm of worship; Communion and Preaching.

      The office of President is the most sacred ministry to which the Church calls a man. He has a two-fold responsibility.

      (i) He is responsible to the congregation. He must identify himself with the people in their needs. He must be aware that there are before him the frightened who need

courage, the sad who need comfort, the discouraged looking for hope, the tempted longing for peace, the estranged needing forgiveness and a deep sense of unity, the unwanted and unloved seeking for love.

      (ii) He is responsible to God. This is not the moment for personal reminiscence, or gaudy illustration. It is a moment when he must set forth the mighty act of God in Christ the Saviour. Nor must he forget that in the emblems of the bread and wine, and indeed the whole of the Communion service, God is speaking in symbolic language, greater than any word of ours.

      The distribution of the emblems is another point in our morning worship where we may well be accused of vain repetition. There are many suitable passages, suggesting aspects of God's mighty act, other than those of 1 Corinthians 11:23-29, or the words "drink ye all, of it." When distributing the Bread, such passages as "the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven, and gives life to the world," or "I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst," are helpful (John 6:33 and 35). When distributing the cup, "He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin, and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Guardian of your souls" (1 Peter 2:24, 25), and other passages can be used. It is helpful to use the text of the presidential remarks when bidding the congregation to drink of the cup.

      Perhaps we all need, from time to time, to remind ourselves of the meaning of the Communion. A member from another branch of the Christian Church once asked, "Is Communion for Churches of Christ simply a memorial, a remembrance, or do you stress the sacrificial element as well?" By the "sacrificial element" he meant, are we conscious of taking to ourselves the sacrifice, forgiveness and grace of God, when we partake of the bread and cup. We wrote earlier of the aspect of worship whereby we receive God's grace. This acceptance of all that God has done for us, is our response to His love, and gives meaning to the whole of our life. If this deepest of meanings is to be experienced, there needs to be a deeper sense of--"let a man examine himself"--of confession, as we approach the Lord's Table. Only when we have a true estimate of ourselves, can we plumb the depths of God's grace and mercy; His coming to us in Christ. Then it is that thanksgiving becomes more than a shallow formality. Then it is that we joyfully, "by the mercies of God, present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our spiritual worship."

PRESIDENTIAL TALKS

      (It was suggested that this pamphlet might contain two talks for use by presidents. I very humbly offer these as poor examples of the principles I have tried to enunciate.)

JUSTIFIED BY FAITH

      J. B. Phillips translates Romans 5:1: "Since then, it is by faith that we are justified, let us grasp the fact that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

      How often the rich and precious words of the New Testament fall from our lips, poor, unappreciated truths from another world. Take for instance the word "Justify"--"Since then it is by faith we are justified." What does this mean?

      To justify, usually means, "to put ourselves right with another," "to make ourselves right in the sight of others or ourselves." It is something we do in an attempt to justify our thoughts and actions.

      A moment's reflection reveals that this cannot be the meaning in the New Testament. It has been said, "There is no man so good who, were he to submit his thoughts and actions to the laws, would not deserve hanging ten times in his life." If this is true with regard to human law, how much more is it true of divine law? "All men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God!" Justification is not something which we can earn for ourselves.

      Here, in these emblems before us, we come to the wonder of the amazing love of God. He is willing to treat us, with all our imperfections as if we are "right" and "just" in our relationship to Him. The moment we discover that, the moment we stake our faith on that, we are in a new relationship with God. We are at peace, no longer separated by sin, but at home with Him.

      Barclay has translated Romans 5:1; "Since through faith we have been put into a right relationship with him, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

      Our coming to this table is a reminder, a re-enactment before our eyes of that forgiving, justifying love. As we partake of these emblems we are taking to ourselves Christ, the gift of His love. That love which puts us into right relationships with Him, and our fellows.

      Words when distributing the emblems:

      Bread: "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

      Cup: at moment of partaking--Romans 5:1--Barclay's translation.

THE GIFT OF HEALING

      Jeremiah has expressed the cry which comes from the heart of us all:

"Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: Save me, and I shall be saved: For thou art my praise."

--Jeremiah 17:14.

      God has heard our cry and has offered us healing and wholeness in Christ, who expressed the purpose of His coming thus:

      The gift of God's healing is sublimely expressed in the emblems here before us. "He Himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin, and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the Shepherd, and Guardian of your souls" (1 Peter 2:24-25).

      Thus, like the crowds of old, we, with all our varying needs and concerns, come to Him that we might touch Him and be made whole. "And the crowd sought to touch him, for power came forth from him and He healed them all."

      Let us receive God's gift of healing.

      Words when distributing the emblems:

      Bread: 1 Peter 2:24.

      Cup: at the moment of partaking--"By his wounds you are healed."