This is the second in a series of posts. The first is here.
Call to Worship
Prayer
Doxology
Let's begin at the beginning: the 'Call to Worship'. It's very important that you understand something here. This is not the leader calling the people to worship. No, actually, it's God calling the people to worship. No, really! He just happens to be using the leader up front. This makes a huge difference. This means that worship isn't the weekly meeting of some religious club. Club meetings are a bunch of people getting together to do whatever they do at such meetings. And that's fine. But that's not what's going on during worship on Sundays. The 'Call to Worship' is God inviting His people into His special presence so that He can have a conversation with them. Think Mt. Sinai out in the desert. God descends to the mountain, and He calls to His people to assemble. He does this so that He can speak to them and they can answer Him. That's what happened at Mt. Sinai, and its what happens wherever the people of God gather for worship. So, you see, worship is a conversation between God and His people, at His invitation. In our liturgy God calls us to worship and we respond to His invitation through Prayer, offered by the leader as mouthpiece of the people, as well as praise, our singing of a Doxology. And thus the conversation begins.