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Church Planting Liturgy
Over the first year of our plant, our leaders sought to apply our doctrine and values into what we affectionally referred to as our “unwritten liturgy” for Sunday services.

In seminary, I took a class called “Baptist History.” It was touted as the hardest class in the MDiv program because it covered such a breadth of details that make up the history of Baptistic faith and practice. I took it as late as possible in the program because I figured it would be tremendously boring and impractical to the current work I was preparing for: planting a new church.
One of the items that stood out to me was the Sandy Creek and Charleston divide. These two associations of churches from the Carolinas represented a distinct partition within Baptist heritage in mid-18th century America. While there are more differences that could be discussed, one of the major, general differences that were highlighted in my class was “high church” vs. “low church” practice. From that perspective, I was firmly in the Sandy Creek camp. I grew up in a small country church that grew to be a really, really big country church. Traditional? Nope. Hymnals gave way to “yellow chorus books” and screens as far back as I could remember. Services, at least from my untrained eyes, were as far from “liturgical” as I could imagine. We didn’t follow the regulative principle of worship and were so informal, that local busybodies might even say we didn’t follow the normative principle of worship either. (While many snakes could be found in the woods just outside our building, none were ever brought inside to participate, contrary to popular gossip.)
So, consider me surprised when, upon finishing my final semester in seminary, I was firmly convinced that my brand-new church plant needed a clear, distinct liturgy that shaped all that we did when we met weekly for gathered worship. And over the years, here’s what I found: even without knowing it perhaps, every church develops a liturgy. Some of them just do it on purpose. For some churches, the liturgy is formal and explicit and lined out in a bulletin. For others, their informality and “liturgilessness” is their liturgy. But intentional or not, every church moves into rhythms and patterns for gathered worship, even if their rhythms and patterns are, “we work hard to not have any.”
So, over the first year of our plant, our leaders sought to apply our doctrine and values into what we affectionally referred to as our “unwritten liturgy” for Sunday services. Here’s what it included:
Song(s) of Declaration
We opened every weekly worship service with at least one song that allowed us to declare to one another the character, attributes, and works of God. This was often accompanied by a word of welcome and a declaration from Scripture, giving God “the first word.” We wanted to do what we saw described (or some might argue, prescribed) for us in the Scriptures and “enter His gates with thanksgiving, and enter his courts with praise” (Psalm 106:4). Our belief was, that when we begin with declaring things that are true, our worship is no longer based on how we feel or what we brought in with us. Our worship can firmly flow from what we’ve just agreed is true about God and His gospel.
Song(s) of Preparation
According to Scripture, one of the main reasons the local church gathers is for preaching and teaching the Scriptures. Through the declared Word, the very voice of God speaks to His people. We wanted to prepare our hearts to receive His voice. This often meant a song or two that directed our focus to our need for God and His gospel. This time would move us from horizontal to vertical, asking God to meet with us.
Preaching of the Word
Have you ever heard that a church’s architecture and furniture arrangement explain its liturgy? Have you noticed that in centuries gone by and even in some denominations today, the pulpit is off to the side? That’s because, in many of those traditions, they practice a form of sacerdotalism, and the communion table is at center stage for the leaders to lead. But in evangelical and reformed traditions, the pulpit is at center stage, and the communion table is often in the front on the floor, giving access to the people. There are actual doctrinal reasons for this! But for the purpose at hand, let me just say this: evangelicalism has declared that the preaching of the Word is central to all the gathered church does. Therefore, we felt it good and right to center the service around it and give it the largest chunk of time in our schedule.
Declaration of the Gospel and Invitation to Respond
It has been said that a sermon isn’t a Christian sermon until the gospel is preached. Yet, some texts are easier to make a beeline to the gospel with than others. But we were convinced that the gospel must be declared each and every week as one of our stated purposes to gather was to “remember and rehearse the gospel.” So, at the end of each sermon, or as the first word in our time of response, the gospel was explained and the lost and saved alike were called to believe it and respond. For us, this included a few invitations.
First, we explained communion/the Lord’s Supper and invited everyone to believe the gospel, repent of their sins, and trust Christ afresh. “Fencing the table,” we would explain that communion was only for believers and invited those who are not yet Christians to be saved by trusting in the finished work of Christ on the cross and in the empty tomb. We stationed a prayer team across the back of the room to receive people for prayer of any kind (salvation, sickness, suffering, and even celebration). We invited people to give as a response of faith in the power of the gospel to save in our city and to the ends of the earth (where our dollars would be invested).
Song(s) of Response
During our time of response, the band would lead us in worship that allowed introspection, prayer, contrition, and intimate, personal time with the Lord.
Song(s) of Celebration and Sending
Having been fed by the Word, reminded of the Gospel, and given space to respond, we never wanted to just “leave” the worship service. Like we’re taught in the Lord’s prayer by Jesus, we wanted to be sent with a sense of readiness (“and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the Kingdom…”). The song choice here was for that purpose. At the end of this time, a pastor or deacon would come up to give the congregation “Next Steps” (notice, not “announcements,” because we were inviting them to do something not just being made aware of it) and lead in a sending prayer. And every week, for years and years, the final words spoken were, “Go to love, serve, and tell (which was our definition of evangelism). You are SENT.”
Corporate Prayer
There is something special about prayer in gathered worship that we don’t get when we’re alone. We see it repeatedly throughout the book of Acts. God responds to the prayers of His people as they pray to Him together, not just individually. Corporate prayer became so important to us as a church that we carved about 5-10 minutes in every service to pray together. This element moved around and was determined as the preaching pastor and worship leader saw the service take shape. It might be used as a part of preparation. It might be used as a part of sending. A lot of time it was used as a part of response, especially when a text lent itself to a more corporate response.
Baptism
We were blessed by the Lord to see hundreds of people baptized in the 15 years I served as the lead pastor of the church I planted. And we really wanted our mode and execution of baptism to fit our doctrine, values, and liturgy. So, here’s how we did it. Because we believed baptism to be an ordinance given to the local church, we always did baptisms as a part of the church service. We also believed baptism involved more than just the baptizer and one being baptized; it is a public testimony for all those in attendance who may need to give witness to the baptized’s commitment to Christ in moments of sin or despair. We also believed it to be a celebration. After bringing up all those who have requested to be baptized and interviewed by a pastor, allowing them to give public profession before the congregation, and praying over them, the music would start. And one by one, they would enter the baptism trough which had the words “Death to Life” painted on the front. After they were plunged beneath the water and as they were brought back up, the congregation would erupt in worshipful celebration that God had rescued another sinner through the finished work of Christ. If Heaven rejoices over the repentance of one sinner, we want that to be our benchmark to follow.
The inclusion of all these elements meant that our weekly services lasted somewhere around 80-90 minutes and for the majority of her history, our church existed in multiple services due to space restraints. It made for a long day for our leaders and staff, but we believed the importance of gathered worship and all of its elements were worth it.
No doubt, church planter, your church will develop its own liturgy. My challenge for you and your liturgy—do it on purpose and do it according to Scripture.