A Worship Triad: Liturgist, Holy Spirit, Preacher

Gennifer B. Brooks

Worship is the people’s response to God’s saving presence in our lives, and preaching, an integral part of each service, is the proclamation of the good news of God’s active, transformative presence in human lives. I assert that preaching occurs only in the context of worship, and in the first chapter of my book Good News Preaching: Offering the Gospel in Every Sermon, I give particular attention to “the sources of good news, the importance of explicitly presenting good news, and the work of the Holy Spirit in making the good news of the sermon effective in our lives. I also look at the nature of the sermon as good news in the context of worship.”¹ With God as the originator, ultimately, the source or location of the good news is Scripture, which provides evidence of God’s ongoing relationship in human lives over time. As such, the sermon must have a foundation in Scripture, and the application of said Scripture to the waiting congregation requires not only analysis of the congregation, but direct communication with the Holy Spirit, the sustainer of our lives. In chapter six of Good News Preaching, under the subheading of “Preaching in the Place of Worship,” these words speak directly to the focus of this writing: 

Worship reveals God. Preaching proclaims the Word of God, and through that proclamation God is revealed. Thus, preaching and worship stand together. Preaching occurs in the context and location of worship, and preaching is an act of worship. . . . Liturgy is the work of the people; it is worship of God offered in community. . . . 

Through the words of the sermon, the preacher invites the people to participate actively in remembering God’s grace, receiving that grace for themselves, and participating in the work of grace in the world. Preaching that is located in the context of worship has corporate ownership and responsibility.²

This corporate responsibility implies and requires an unavoidable, necessary, and therefore deliberate collaboration among all the participants in worship. Such collaboration means that in developing the sermon, the preacher must not only consider carefully the situation of the people, both their personal lives and their Christian discipleship, but also give conscious and careful attention to the liturgy within which that sermon will be preached. The preacher must have knowledge of the ongoing and present lives of the people in order to make the sermon relevant to their lives, but they must first bring to bear their personal faith relationship with the divine and specifically the Holy Spirit. James Forbes, in his iconic book Preaching and the Holy Spirit, says:

The person who preaches the gospel makes a statement about the Holy Spirit just by entering the pulpit. Even before the first word is uttered, presuppositions and definitions from across the centuries speak volumes about the Spirit-led event to be experienced by the preacher and the community of worshippers. The preaching event itself—without reference to specific texts and themes—is a living, breathing, flesh-and-blood expression of the theology of the Holy Spirit.³

In other words, even though Scripture is the foundation on which the sermon stands, the Holy Spirit as a living presence is the greatest and most essential power that can give life to the words of proclamation. In order for the sermon to have influence on the life of the people, the preacher must not only understand the meaning of Scripture to be expounded in the sermon in its own context, but they must also make plain its application to the lives of the people. Kenyatta Gilbert puts it this way: “The most fundamental task of the preacher is to interpret Scripture within human community, in service to Jesus Christ.”⁴ The application of the biblical text in its context to the lives of the people in the present context gives Scripture its relevancy. Without that application, done carefully and honestly, what we have is a source of variable styles of literature that may have sound but little fury to change lives for the sake of the gospel. 

Through their knowledge and understanding of the Bible as the Christian’s book of faith that provides evidence of the divine human relationship in all of life in both the development and the delivery of the sermon, the preacher can and should make the connection not only with the contexts of the text, but perhaps most importantly, with Scripture as the word of God for the people of God. It should be noted that while in their own right the various forms of biblical literature have place and purpose for the reader or hearer, without the element of faith and the overarching influence of the Holy Spirit, it cannot engage or apply substantively to the lives of the persons who read, hear, or receive its contents. Any attempt to take those words as they appear in the various versions of Bible translations and simply present them without determining what God would have them say to the particular people represents an abuse of both the people and the Word of God. 

As such, whether they are the published words of Scripture or the written words of the liturgy or the sermon, they are without effect unless they are ordained by the Holy Spirit. That names the Holy Spirit directly as a known or unrecognized collaborator with the preacher and the worship leaders in developing the substance of the liturgy and the contents of the worship form that will be engaged by the people. According to Forbes, the participation of the Holy Spirit in the process of Scripture selection and sermon creation is visible and engaging as a partner in the entire process. He writes:

Consider how the Holy Spirit has been at work to make possible the traditional preaching situation: It is the Spirit who has inspired the scripture lessons of the day. It is the Spirit who has shepherded the word through compilation, translation, canonization, and transmission to the present time. It is the Spirit who convenes a congregation to hear the word of God. And it is the Spirit who opens our hearts and minds to receive anew God’s self-disclosure as the living word.⁵

Although his textbook in which these words appear is focused on preaching, Forbes expands his reach into the surrounding feeder and supporting activities that are part of the wider liturgical event that includes the delivery of a sermon. The preaching event is a planned and (hopefully) carefully orchestrated happening that involves several, many, or in some cases a multitude of persons who directly or tangentially engage in the development of the liturgy or the form of the service, or any of the elements that are part of or relate to the worship experience. To be efficacious to the lives of the worshipers, such collaboration must also be under the direction of the Holy Spirit. In fact, it is my belief that the choice of persons to be involved and to participate in the leadership of the worship event is best directed by the Holy Spirit. And in the same way that the anointing of the Holy Spirit on the preacher is essential to the preaching of the gospel, so too is that divine anointing required for all those who are part of the process of both the development of the liturgy and the leadership of the subsequent worship in the same way and to the same extent as it is in the development and the delivery of the sermon.

At the start of every preaching class I teach, and also at the beginning of most preaching workshops I lead, I engage with those present the text of Luke 4:16–30. There are several points I highlight from the text, but perhaps the most important point, which has relevance for this writing, is taken from verse 18: “‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.’” Based on this verse, I share with my audience my belief that in order to preach the good news with effect, one requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit. To expand that even further in light of the focus on collaboration by the Holy Spirit, I believe that when one desires to do the work of God among the people of God, one requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit, whatever that work may be. Therefore, if the intention is to create liturgy that will be used in worship by the people of God, then engaging the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in the development of said liturgical materials, including the sermon, is an absolute requirement. To my mind, that begs the question about the need for the worship planner and worship leaders to be in collaboration with each other in developing the shape, form, and contents of the worship service. However, while having multiple persons involved in developing the structure of the liturgy and in leading the worship service is already part and parcel of a large percentage of churches, what is often taken for granted, and in fact not generally considered, is the need to engage deliberately the divine presence and seek divine direction through the Holy Spirit in developing the contents of the liturgy.

In The Homiletic of All Believers, O. Wesley Allen describes a conversational homiletic that names the church as “a Community of Conversations,”⁶ wherein the dialog among different groups of members provides fodder and direction for the preacher in developing the shape and content of the sermon. With respect to the use of Scripture in preaching, he rightly notes that the method of exegeting the biblical text for preaching is shaped by questions related to the recognition of God’s presence in the world,⁷ yet in his very appropriate directives in developing the sermon, there is little mention of the preacher’s need to invoke or engage the Holy Spirit as a partner in the process. Further, Allen’s overlapping circles—or matrix of conversations—engage sociohistorical, personal, theological, and congregational contexts; however, the liturgical context is central and takes pride of place in determining the content of the sermon.⁸

Although focused on preaching, Allen’s model is one that can be applied to the process of creating the liturgy for worship, but the collaboration it demands stops short of including a divine element. There is no specific mention of inviting the anointing of the Holy Spirit into the process. The case study he presents of the conversational homiletic in use includes an incident of collaboration among the music minister, the director of Christian education, and the preacher as the liturgy for the upcoming worship service was created, yet there was no mention of seeking divine direction in the process. I am certain that the lack of specific reference to the divine does not mean that God has been left out of the process of developing the sermon, but that it has simply been taken for granted that God is present in all of life and is also present during the process of creating the elements of worship. But as I do in my own practice, deliberate, intentional invitation and engagement of the divine to participate in the work of liturgical development is necessary. It also provides evidence of personal awareness of the need for the Holy Spirit’s active participation in the life, work, and worship of the people of God.

In a somewhat dated text, The Holy Spirit—Shy Member of the Trinity, F. Dale Bruner writes:

A Christian wants to have every possible resource for living the Christian life. A Christian, by definition, wants to be christened by, or filled with, the Spirit. The desire for spiritual filling is particularly keen in those preparing for Christian ministry because the expectations of the people of God are so high and the needs of the world so deep. Ministers of the gospel (and serious disciples) are not only eager for their own filling with the Spirit, they also seek to be the means of their people’s filling with the Spirit as well.¹⁰

Although according to academic standards this textbook is well past its useful life, I find many of the sentiments expressed by the authors to still be relevant and therefore of value in this present age. Given the date of the writing, the reference to those who are preparing for Christian ministry and even further references in the text make them applicable mainly to pastors and preachers—persons and occupations that are considered by many as the epitome of Christian ministry. Further, the authors place the Holy Spirit as second to Jesus Christ. They note,

[T]he Spirit is mediated to the people of God when pastors, teachers, and people so present Jesus Christ to others that faith is awakened. In the New Testament, there is one way to the filling of the Spirit, the simple Christocentricity (or Christopistics, “faith-in-Christ-ness”).¹¹

This subjugation or downplay of the Holy Spirit is compounded by the dependence on the pastor or professional minister to bring the Spirit alive to those in their charge. I wonder, perhaps, if some semblance of this position of belief is the reason why some churches, such as mainline United Methodists (my denomination), experience discomfort in speaking of or engaging the power and presence of the Holy Spirit to the congregation, except on Pentecost Sunday. Or perhaps it accounts for the sense of superiority and the feeling of discomfort or even disdain expressed by some who observe the physical and vocal expressions of Pentecostal fervor in some denominations and persons.

What is too often the case is that unless they are actively engaged in prayer or Bible study, the persons who participate in leading the liturgy are often regular members at worship, and they simply follow the outline provided without consideration of the need for divine participation or deliberate attention to the Spirit’s presence or guidance in this important work. Bringing to their attention the collaborative presence of the Holy Spirit in all aspects of the preparation, leadership, and experience of worship might be a foreign and perhaps intrusive act on the part of the worship leader. While it is true that in many, if not most churches, those who are part of the worship leadership—generally the choir, the liturgist, and the preacher—will gather for prayer before the worship service begins, in my experience, this is generally done as a matter of form and with no intentional or deliberate thought regarding the need for the Holy Spirit as an active, visible presence in that moment or specifically or recognizably in the worship service. And yet giving deliberate attention to the Spirit’s presence is important. As Allen says, “[E]verything in her field of vision is fair game, for the Holy Spirit is alive and well in it all.”¹² As noted earlier in this writing, Allen’s comment is related to the preacher’s activities in developing the sermon, and as a critical part of the liturgy, that is important, but that same attention needs to be extended to the entire content of the liturgy and those who lead and those who use it in their acts of worship.

Rebecca Button Prichard, engaging her study of the Holy Spirit from a feminist perspective, gives voice to a metaphor that relates to the collaborative nature of the Spirit’s work with those who provide the elements for worship. She writes:

The rush of God’s Spirit, mighty and creative, blows also across wind pipes, forming words, language, speech. Finding a voice, speaking up, being heard into speech, these give our lives meaning and value, enabling us to make sense of things, including our lives as creatures related to God, to creation, to others, to self. Just so, the sound of God’s Spirit, the mighty wind of Pentecost, is the sound of human language, of being understood, of preaching, of proclamation, of praise, of song and speech and silence. . . .

     The Spirit who gives us breath is the Spirit who makes a home in the temples of our bodies.¹³

Creating the liturgy is a creative endeavor in the same way that creating a sermon is. The pastor who is charged with leading the people under their care in worship week by week is called to employ that same creativity and imagination in order to keep the congregation engaged, inspired, and uplifted in each worship experience. Why then would the persons who have responsibility for creating the liturgical resources (including the sermon) not invite the Holy Spirit into the process and the subsequent activities involved its creation? Indeed, to collaborate with the musicians, the liturgist, the readers, and to engage the Scriptures, the hymns and songs, the prayers, the theologies, the exegesis, the personal and critical reflections, knowledge of the various contexts—to collaborate with all are part and parcel of the process, action, and resources required to put in place the elements for worship by the waiting congregation. So why not deliberately collaborate with the Holy Spirit?

This article names “A Worship Triad: Liturgist, Holy Spirit, Preacher,” and in doing so, it enfolds the human dimension of preparing the resources for worship into two human activities—creating the liturgy and preaching. And although those two activities may represent multiple human bodies that contribute in some way to the liturgical requirements for developing and leading worship in the church, they are nevertheless limited by their humanness. However, the divine presence named as the third person of the Trinity knows no limit. The work of the Holy Spirit transcends human limitations. The power of the Holy Spirit can make and shape, fashion and form any and all persons into the image of Christ. The same Holy Spirit that remade cowering, fearful disciples into giants of faith, whose actions helped to create a worldwide movement in the name of Jesus Christ, stands ready to collaborate in the present with those who would continue the movement that brings into being the kin-dom of Christ on earth.

As Christian leaders, both laity and clergy, take on the important work of calling and leading other Christians to worship the living Lord, it makes sense to call on, engage, and collaborate with the Holy Spirit, the source of power and the epitome of divine grace. God’s grace, the gift of the Holy Spirit, is ever and always available to anyone who calls on the Spirit. The Holy Spirit can guide us in our work of developing worship resources, can direct us in fruitful ways of offering those resources to the waiting congregation, and can empower our work and witness as we lead and join the present congregation in their worship of God. As developers of liturgical resources and worship leaders, we need all the help we can get to offer those we lead resources that are inviting and engaging and above all can connect us with the God we serve. The Holy Spirit is an unbeatable source of inspiration. While there are resources created by others that may be useful for carrying out our responsibilities, there is none greater than the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is divine power that has no equal, and that power is available to all who call on the Spirit. Just as the preacher’s work is supported by liturgy that relates to the topic of the sermon and/or the Scripture text that is the foundation of the sermon, and just as the development of the worship liturgy is supported by the message of the sermon, so too the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit provides support and direction in the creation of all liturgical resources. The triad of liturgist, Holy Spirit, and preacher is an unbeatable combination insofar as developing, providing, and leading persons with worship resources that, with the ever-present Holy Spirit, can help to build their lives as Christians and disciples of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit in worship offers the ultimate collaboration between the human and the divine. Let’s collaborate with the Holy Spirit for the sake of the world and Christ’s kin-dom. 

Notes

1. Gennifer Benjamin Brooks, Good News Preaching: Offering the Gospel in Every Sermon (Cleveland, OH: Pilgrim Press, 2009), 1–2.
2. Brooks, 105.
3. James Forbes, The Holy Spirit and Preaching (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1989), 19.
4. Kenyatta R. Gilbert, The Journey and Promise of African American Preaching (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2011), 7.
5. Forbes, The Holy Spirit and Preaching, 19.
6. O. Wesley Allen, The Homiletic of All Believers: A Conversational Approach (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005), 17.
7. Allen, 70.
8. Allen, 48. Allen notes that these contexts evolve slowly over time and rarely change radically over time.
9. Allen, 95.
10. Frederick Dale Bruner and William Hordern, The Holy Spirit—Shy Member of the Trinity (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1984), 11.
11. Bruner and Hordern, 21.
12. Allen, The Homiletic of All Believers, 46.
13. Rebecca Button Prichard, Sensing the Spirit: The Holy Spirit in Feminine Perspective (St. Louis, MO: Chalice Press, 1999), 10.