C. S. Lewis on Worship, Part 2

Here’s another great quote on worship from Lewis’ Letters to Malcom, Chiefly on Prayer:

“Novelty may fix our attention not even on the service but on the celebrant. You know what I mean. Try as one may exclude it, the question “What on earth is he up to now?” will intrude. It lays one’s devotion waste. there is really some excuse for the man who said, “I wish they’d remember that the charge to Peter was Feed my sheep; not Try experiments on my rats, even, Teach my performing dogs new tricks.”

“Thus my whole liturgiological position really boils down to an entreaty for permanence and uniformity. I can make do with almost any kind of service whatever, if only it will stay put. But if each form is snatched away just when I am beginning to feel at home in it, then I can never make any progress in the art of worship. You give me no chance to acquire the trained habit–habito dell’arte.” (pg. 5)

Lewis is making the argument that change is worship style or format is a hindrance, rather than a help, to authentic worship. He seems to be annoyed with church leaders who are constantly tinkering with worship (what he calls the “Liturgical Fidget” later in the chapter). I wonder if his thoughts are more of a reflection on his personality and culture, or some kind of broader principle whereby the default setting for worship should be a fixed order or format, with little room for change.

Every church has a liturgy of some kind. It’s how the people approach worship. That approach can be rigid and fixed, or it can prescribe various levels of change from week to week. The Bible doesn’t give us any firm guidance on how much change we should introduce in worship–only that “all things should be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14.40). It will depend on a variety of factors, including our tradition, culture, and the people in our church.

Questions: Do you agree or disagree with Lewis? How much change is too much? How does your church approach the question of what changes to introduce in worship, and what to keep the same?

C. S. Lewis on Worship

One of the reasons I love C. S. Lewis’ writing is that he is so brilliant, yet so down to earth in his thinking. In Chapter 1 of Letters to Malcom, Chiefly on Prayer he talks about corporate worship, a subject he barely feels qualified to write about (!). He makes these observations about innovation in worship (and remember that is writing about the Church of England about a half-century ago):

“Novelty, simply as such, can have only an entertainment value. And they don’t go to church to be entertained. They go to use the service, or, if you prefer, to enact it. Every service is a structure of acts and words through which we receive a sacrament, or repent, or supplicate, or adore. And it enables us to do these things best–if you like, it “works” best–when, through long familiarity, we don’t have to think about it. As long as you notice, and have to count, the steps, you are not yet dancing but only learning to dance. A good shoe is a shoe you don’t notice. Good reading becomes possible when you need not consciously think about eyes, or light, or print, or spelling. The perfect church service would be one we were almost unaware of; our attention would have been on God.” (pg. 4)

Questions: What do you think about innovation and change in worship today? Do we have too much, or too little? Is it sometimes distracting, or do we need more?