PUTTING AN END TO WORSHIP WARS - Elmer Towns

individuals. Those gifted in this ministry are supportive of others and are concerned with helping
them in any way possible. They usually enjoy manual tasks. Often they are most comfortable
worshipping God in a Liturgical Church.
A second factor in the phenomenon of the Liturgical Church is history. The development
of worship traditions take time, therefore Liturgical Churches are most likely to be found among
the older denominations. It is not uncommon to find church members who are the third or fourth
generation of a family attending a particular church. Among ethnic groups involved in Liturgical
Churches, families may have identified for several generations with a particular denominations.
The strength of the Presbyterian church not only in Scotland but also in China and Korea is
reflected in the number of immigrants from those countries which tend to gravitate toward
Presbyterian churches in North America. Similarly, many immigrants from northern Europe tend
to gravitate toward Lutheran churches in America.
The strength of Liturgical Churches and the tendency of Liturgical Church members to
become actively involved in their society has resulted in many leaders in this movement
emerging. Henrietta Mears and Peter Marshall are two Presbyterian leaders who made a
significant impact on American church life in the first part of this century. More recently, D.
James Kennedy, Lloyd Olgilvie and Robert Schuller are widely recognized leaders of Liturgical
Churches. Internationally, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Francis Schaeffer were widely respected
leaders within their lifetimes. Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa was awarded the
Nobel Prize several years ago for his efforts to bring about an end to apartheid in South Africa.
THE STRENGTHS AND CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE LITURGICAL
CHURCH
One of the strengths of the Liturgical Church is the rich tradition of its worship. With the
growth in popularity of contemporary praise music, many churches worship God in a manner
which assumes the Holy Spirit did not move Christians to worship God prior to the sixties.
Other churches limit their worship to the popular hymns of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. Liturgical Churches tend to utilize two millennium of worship tradition in their
worship of God. Historical hymns, the English Psalter and creedal statements from various era
virtually ignored by other worship styles are commonly part of a Liturgical Church worship
service.
Critics of the "high church" sometimes claim their church services are filled with empty
and/or vain traditions. That value judgement is not always true. While some people may recite
the Lord's Prayer of Apostle's Creed without thinking about the words, others find the recitation
of the Lord's Prayer helps them express themselves to God in prayer and the reciting of a creed
helps them express their faith in God. Likewise, the words of Psalm 100 can be a meaningful
expression of worship and praise not only when sung to a contemporary melody, but also when
sung as arranged by Isaac Watts, the Scottish Psalter, a medieval chant or a Latin hymn. Various
musical arrangements will appeal to different people. This appeal has more to do with personal
preference and taste in music than one's spirituality or lack of spirituality.