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Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community

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Simon Chan has given us here a challenging proposal that takes the evangelicals' self-searching mode a huge step forward as regards its worship and liturgy. In the intro, he evaluates the recent calls for renewal of the evangelical movement by theologians such as David Wells, Donald Bloesch and Stanley Grenz. Taking off from the works of Grenz and Robert Jenkins, the fresh insights he brings to the table include the need for the evangelical church to go beyond discussing style and technique and develop a more robust self-understanding that is rooted in the perichoretic union with the Trinity ie. the ontology of the church. What is interesting is his view of the church as prior to creation in the divine economy. This in his view has far reaching implications for the ecclesial life. Rather than being co-opted as a handmaiden to the world's agendas, the church's raison detre is found in God's irrevocable gift of election to the praise of his glory.

This means that the church is most clearly herself at worship. Drawing largely from the Great Tradition (of the first five centuries), he sees the normative liturgy as constituted by Word and Sacrament, flanked on both ends by the welcome and the dismissal. Within this order, he sees the Eucharist as the basic centre that gives shape and orientation to the liturgy. This is a corrective to the evangelicals' tendency in seeing the whole service as revolving around the sermon. It is the Eucharist, he contends, that realizes the Church in her most basic character as communion.

Chan then fleshes out his proposal as he looks at Christian initiation (Catechism)and the Sunday Liturgy and concludes with some thoughts on how the church can be formed spiritually through 'active participation' in worship. His program is a far cry from the mass appeal, humanly contrived and instant gratification models we see so much in the popular evangelical scene but if taken seriously and with perseverance, the church may for those rare times find herself buoyed up again by God's own Spirit to be what she has been called to be from before the foundation of the earth.

Chan's writing is eloquent and lucid, evident of a first rate theological mind with both feet planted firmly on the ground. His relatively simple prose may mask deep insights that can be mined only through patient listening (lectio divina!), ruminations and further readings. My only small 'complaint' is that the book is too short, leaving some assertions less rigorously argued than I would wish for (but he did make clear that this is not a full-blown work on liturgical theology) and this gifted teacher needs to write more and bless the Church with his refreshing insights.

Although written by an evangelical Protestant, the book has a strong Catholic orientation and good insight into the weaknesses of the evangelical tradition. Well worth a Catholic reading to bolster his own faith as welll as understand the larger Christian world, and the influences that have brought me into the Catholic Church. I recommend the book be read in small segments meditatively as the book is pretty meaty with ideas that need to be digested and pondered. Written at an easy post-graduate level.

As an Anglican I very much appreciated this look at liturgy and worship as what Chan calls primary theology. Though I don't agree with everything in this book, he manages to explain the liturgy from both a theological, historical, and Scriptural point of view, as well as getting very practical in going piece-by-piece through the Sunday liturgy.

It wasn't until halfway through the book that I learned from another source that the author is not an Anglican, but is a Pentecostal!

Highly recommended for anyone who comes from a "liturgical" background and wants to challenge himself or herself to understand better the underpinnings of that.

Although the text's approachability varies throughout the book, it is a well presented argument for liturgical worship. The church has become a social club, not the worshiping community that God intended it to be. The church has become like the world, not in the world.

Liturgical Theology

By: Simon Chan (Ph.D., Cambridge)

Article written by: rm Kocak (please visit my blog for a more comprehensive article: [...])

"What marks Christians as God's people is that they have become a community that worships God in spirit and in truth. This is what the church must aim at in mission. Mission does not seek to turn sinners into saved individuals; it seeks, rather, to turn disparate individuals into a worshipping community."
- Liturgical Theology, pg. 45.

I first began reading Simon Chan's Liturgical Theology last summer when I was in St. Louis on a tour with the Air Force. As I pieced through my notes to write this book preview, I realized how influential and timely Chan's book was for me. Chan gives stinging critique of some of Evangelicalism's `bad habits' (I would call it EPS: Enlightenment Presupposition Syndrome); however, Chan clearly states, "If my critique is severe, it is because the tradition is worth correcting." Chan's premier concern in the the book is not to bash Evangelicals (he is one), but to develop and articulate an ecclesiology (view of the church) that is rooted in Scripture, Church History, and worship.

After a page of acknowledgements and an introduction to the book, Chan plots a course that deals with two aspects of the church:

1. Foundations:
The Ontology of the Church
The Worship of the Church
The Shape of the Liturgy
The Liturgy as Ecclesial Practice
2. Practices
The Catechumenate
The Sunday Liturgy
Active Participation

Liturgical Theology uses an occasional theological word or two that the average person may not be acquainted with (I even learned a few new theological terms myself), but don't let this deter you from working through this MUST READ book (a pocket dictionary of theological terms or a Google search will help).

THE BIG IDEA

"We are not saved as individuals first and then incorporated into the church; rather, to be a Christian is to be incorporated into the church by baptism and nourished by the spiritual food of the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist. Failure to understand this fact has led to a reduction of the church's role to a largely sociological one of a service provider catering to individual believers' spiritual needs."
- Liturgical Theology, pg. 24.

Chan's chapter on the "Ontology of the Church" awakened me to a deeper reality of what it means to be a member of the Church, the body of Christ. Chan echoes the famous assertion of Cyprian: "He who has not the Church for his mother, has not God for his Father." Chan further develops the church's ontological relationship with the triune God in terms of three biblical images: the people of God, body of Christ, and temple of the Spirit.

SEED IDEA #1

"... truth is not part of living worship but is almost exclusively confined to the sermon... The operating assumption is that teaching people the right things will lead to right living... Right belief and right practice (orthopraxis) can only come from right worship (orthodoxia), and vice versa."
- Liturgical Theology, pg. 52.
In the chapter on "The Worship of the Church," one can find a treasure chest full of seed ideas concerning various aspects of worship. Chan develops his view of worship by looking at the dialectical nature of worship and theology. Chan refers to the use of liturgy in worship as participating in "primary theology." It is out of this primary theology that secondary theology (Doctrine) arises. There is a connection between the rule of praying (worship) and the rule of belief. A section that is particularly worth reading in this chapter is concerning worship and divine glory. God's glory is characterized in the following ways: First, it can never be something we do for God. Second, it is its own end. Third, it is a response to God's total character, more specifically to the triune God (53).

SEED IDEA #2

"Sunday points to the transformation of time. It is one of the days of the week, the first day, yet it points beyond present time to the new creation, the kingdom `not of this world, ` the eighth day. "By remaining one of the ordinary days, and yet by revealing itself through the Eucharist as the eighth and first day, it gave all days their true meaning. It made the time of this world a time of the end, and it made it also the time of the beginning."
- Liturgical Theology, pg. 81.

Chan has a way of articulating the significance of liturgy in a way that is not sterile, dry, or lethargic. In studying the sacramental theology of the Reformation, I have found very few Reformers (perhaps maybe Calvin) who have articulated the eschatological nature of the Eucharist (as evidenced in the liturgies of the early Church). Chan does well in exploring the church calendar, liturgies, and sacraments in light of eschatology.

THE TAKE HOME

Whether you come from a sacramental background (Chan is ironically, a Pentecostal), Liturgical Theology remains a MUST READ for seminary students, pastors, and worship leaders.


Worship and the Reality of God: An Evangelical Theology of Real Presence

Liturgical Theology
Simon Chan

For those that are grappling with the questions of what it means to be the church, Simon Chan's book, Liturgical Theology, is a fantastic read.

As the Evangelical church has conducted its own internal audit it has been found wanting. The fact that evangelism is in crisis is not the topic of debate but a common ascent. Deliberation begins when we begin to suggest answers to the critique. Simon Chan's recommendation is to go beyond changing attitudes, abstract ideas or propositions and recover an adequate ecclesiology (The branch of theology that is concerned with the nature, constitution, and functions of a church).

His primary assertion is that the church is identified in what it IS (ontology) not what it does (function). The function of the church as an instrument of the Kingdom is the inevitable result of living into what it essentially is. Another words, `creation forms the backdrop for God's covenant relationship with His people not vice versa. Creation is the means by which God's grace is realized.'

The church is ontologically identified in three ways: the people of God, the body of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit. As the people of God, we are connected with other sojourners in the Old Testament. To recognize the church as the people of God, is to recognize a people with a history of mountain peaks and shadowy valleys, a people with successes and failures, bright spots and moments of shame, a people on the move, a people on pilgrimage that haven't yet arrived. As the body of Christ, Christ is really present among His people. We have communion with and in Jesus which means that church life is primarily characterized by agape or unselfish love in community. As the temple of the Holy Spirit, we are vivified in Christ. The Spirit of the end times has inaugurated what is to come.

While I agree that the shape of liturgy contains the two essential ingredients of Word and Sacrament, I disagree with his rigid view on the expression of liturgy. He goes a bit far when drawing a one to one correlation between content and execution that leaves the application on par with the theology that drives it. The inordinate application of ecclesiology by no means disqualifies this book as a worthwhile read, rather, Chan's ontological understanding of the church is spot on and his application will serve to challenge the reader. I will continue to recommend this book to up and coming church leadership and any who want to give further thought to the nature of the church.

In his book, Liturgical Theology Simon Chan challenges the universal Christian church to adopt a liturgical tradition in the pattern of the early church. He critiques the theology and practice of the church in light of Scripture and the witness of the early church. His writing is motivated by what he perceives as a severe disconnect between the evangelical church today with the traditions and practices of the early church that made such an impact on the world. This is Chan's answer to the question of how can the church become a distinct community that shapes individual's lives in the image of Christ and bears witness as Christ's body to the world at large.

For Chan, the greatest challenge facing the church today is to regain its shape and force in order to transform lives and cultures. In the face of growing secularism, relativism and individualism among Christians, Chan argues for the need of a clear theological understanding of the definition of the church coupled with a strong liturgical practice as the foundation of all other ecclesial practices. This theology and liturgy must flow from the memory of the church consisting of the teachings of Scripture, the traditions of the early church that shaped the Christian mind and practices, the unity prescribed for the church and the church's call to be a worshipping community distinct from the world.

Chan first suggests that evangelicals need to regain an adequate ecclesiology, a theology and practice of being the church. He notes that evangelicals have generally resisted and rejected ordered and conscious ecclesiology due to an aversion to hierarchy and its potential for abuse. Evangelicals' penchant for individualism and freedom has also led to little appreciation for ecclesiology. Chan, however, sees ecclesiology as being synergetic with and inseparable from pneumatology. By examining Scripture and early church tradition, Chan asserts that ecclesiology is inherent in the nature of the church as a worshipping community and as the body of Christ.

The ecclesiology of the church is the tradition passed down from the apostles and enlivened by the Holy Spirit. It forms the shape of the "one, holy and catholic church" that evangelicals confess. Chan suggests that only within a church that is catholic and alive are truths received as a living faith and not as abstract ideas and propositions. The tested and tried ecclesial traditions are what have been proven to effectively shape the Christian mind to stand against the culture of the world.

Chan develops the argument that that the practice of the liturgy provides the basis for all other ecclesial practices. He writes, "a normative liturgy is the true way of becoming church." He recognizes that evangelicals must be taught that liturgical worship is effective because it involves the cooperative action of the Spirit and the church. The liturgy is shown as developing in conjunction with the Spirit's movements and empowering work within the early church. Chan shows that the liturgy is the fruit of the Spirit for the church. Through the book, Chan effectively illustrates how the Spirit ministers through the liturgy and forms the church corporately while transforming individual Christians.

He also advocates personal prayers and devotional times for all Christians. His caveat in this area is the idea of privatized prayer as an individual practice apart from the community. He is concerned that individual devotional habits reinforce the idea of Christianity being about an individual and God. Chan is very concerned about the Christian being active in the Christian community. He writes, "Personal devotional habits, then, should be understood as a necessary preparation for better participation in common prayer." He also suggests that when the liturgy is done well in the church the priest's private prayers will be superfluous to the liturgical worship done in community.

Although I think all Christians should pray in preparation for community worship that we might all come with a spiritual gift or blessing for others, I think Chan my do his message a disservice by giving private devotions short shrift in the Christian's life. Attempting to detract from "quiet times" or to set private and corporate prayers and devotion in any kind of opposition will not serve to advance the liturgical worship Chan advocates. I think both forms of prayers must be uplifted and presented as complementary.

Chan advocates a for a formalized catechesis process to be reinistituted within churches, so that Christians will come to understand theology and practice of Christianity.

For me, Chan's Liturgical Theology serves as a handbook for how I would like to lead worship, teach the liturgy, develop disciples within a concrete community and bear witness to the world.

Most evangelical thinkers agree. The main problem that plagues evangelicalism is its faulty ecclesiology. Because of this inadequate understanding of the doctrine of the church, our worship suffers.

Simon Chan's Liturgical Theology: The Church as Worshiping Community (IVP Academic, 2006) seeks to remedy the problem by grounding our theology in the historic liturgies of the church. Chan puts his finger on many of the problems with our worship, including our targeting a "market niche" instead of asking the perennial question: What does it mean to be a Christian?

I agree with many of Chan's complaints regarding shallow worship, man-centered services, and an emphasis on instant conversions instead of life-long discipleship. I also find intriguing Chan's declaration that the church does not exist for the world, but the world for the church. Could it be though that this inward focus on the church has undesired implications?

I do have to part ways with Chan when it comes to the rest of his proposal. Though I agree (for the most part) with Chan's description of evangelicalism's shortcomings, I firmly disagree with his solutions. Chan sees the answer to evangelicalism's problems in readopting the worship of the ancient church. Not the New Testament church, but the early church.

In order to do this, he must do away with sola Scriptura, which he does in the first chapter. He makes the case for seeing Tradition as authoritative, and even declares that tradition (not Scripture) is the means by which the church understands its true identity. Once he establishes Tradition as authoritative, he is free to blaze right through the remaining chapters and argue for a liturgy like that of the third and fourth centuries, footnoting church fathers all along the way.

To be fair, there are times when Chan believes evangelicalism corrects the excesses of the early church. But overall, he unapologetically calls for evangelicals to return to the forms and beliefs of the ancient church.

I do not have a problem with Chan's proposal that we learn from the ancient church. After all, there are plenty of traditions within Christianity's 2000 year history that are worth keeping, including the liturgical rhythm of Word and Sacrament in a worship service, the Church calendar which re-tells the Gospel story every year, and the reestablishment of catechesis as an initiation into the church.

Unfortunately, Chan seems to uncritically adopt ancient church rituals and beliefs, including many of the false presuppositions that come with them. At one point, he argues forcefully for the doctrine of transubstantiation. He confuses conversion with discipleship by declaring "conversion must be seen as a process rather than merely a crisis event." But the most surprising of Chan's suggestions is that we begin to read Scripture allegorically again, according to the "spiritual sense" advocated by many church fathers.

Perhaps that last example best shows what I disliked about this book. Chan is right to see the shortcomings of modern day evangelicalism, especially the ways we have been formed by culture instead of by Scripture. But I would ask: What about the shortcomings of the ancient church? Weren't there ways that the ancient church was formed by culture as well (especially in the Greek-influenced hermeneutic that influenced Bible interpretation)?

Liturgical Theology sounds promising for evangelicalism, but it ultimately brings us to the border of Roman Catholicism. The problem is that Chan chose to critique evangelicalism based on a romantic view of ancient church tradition instead of going back even further... to the New Testament itself.

Chan achieves an excellent balance between not enough info and too much. Even though written at a post-grad level, it is quite readable. It is very applicable, insightful and important.

Impressed! Impressed! I have been enjoying the read very much. Bro. Chan is very insightful and does my heart good to finally have a voice to what we've been doing for years. Great book!!