Years ago, Robert Webber proposed the concept that we rehearse or retell the Christ event in worship in order for our worship to be in spirit and truth and meaningful in our lives.
Because we live in a secularized world many are basing worship on "Christian" entertainment, or overly intellectualizing, or emphasis on sentimentality, or centering on self. If we are not careful, our worship becomes based on a non-Christian event. The Church needs to recover the sense that worship is a celebration of Christ's life, death, and resurrection. It centers on the Christ event. It is that Christ event that begins and sustains the church. Much like Jewish worship, Christian worship is rooted in an event. Christians celebrate the Christ-event. It is the gathering of the Body of Christ to re-tell, rehearse, remember and celebrate all that Christ is. We preach, we pray, we sing hymns and spiritual songs, we confess, we partake the Lord's Supper all for the re-telling and celebrating the fullness of Christ Jesus our Lord and what He is doing in us and the church. A basic definition of public worship is gathering the Body to tell and act-out the Christ-event for the glory of God! Every time we gather, may we remember Who and what we celebrate, . . . lest we forget. mjm
