(3) Celebration of the actions of the gospel in the life of the church
I could talk till Christmas on this theme. I simply want to say at this point that if we neglect the actions of Christ in baptism and the Lord's Supper we are disobedient to Jesus and unfaithful to the bible, and we betray the gospel.
Baptism is the Spirit-given sign of coming to faith in Christ and the means of entering fully into the life of his people. The Lord's Supper is the Spirit-given sign and means of growing into the full stature of Christ.
My dream for evangelical worship is that we will use them and love them because Jesus uses them and loves us through them. And my dream is for song writers to write songs that relate to the sacraments and can be used when they are celebrated.
C. Evangelical worship is called to tell and show the gospel in the life of the church through the powerful working of the Spirit.
Beyond underlining the need for our worship to be enlivened and inspired by the Spirit - a calling that requires a continual invocation and expectation of the Spirit, I want to make three points briefly.
1 Worship is to be responsive and open to the movement of the Spirit.
A positive approach to the use of liturgy does not mean being bound by the book, it does not mean being straitjacketed by liturgy. The deep evangelical instinct for room to manoeuvre in worship is a godly thing. Since C17 evangelicalism has brought varying degrees of pressure on the Church of England to loosen up its worship. In the latter part of C20 this joined forces with shifts in liturgical scholarship and major cultural changes. The result is an official approach to liturgy - embodied in Common Worship - that is a wonderful gift to evangelicals, especially to evangelical charismatics.
My dream for evangelical worship is that it will grasp this opportunity - that it will take hold of this freedom in the liturgical freedom or, better, that it will take hold of this liturgical tradition as a framework for freedom.
2 Worship that will embrace the use of spiritual gifts
Properly used, there is nothing un-Anglican about the use of spiritual gifts in worship. They are part of the ancient apostolic liturgical tradition which has been passed on to us.
My dream for evangelical worship is that we will see these gifts being used in the normal course of worship in a culturally appropriate form.
3 Worship - this sort of worship - will require Spirit-inspired leaders of worship
My dream for evangelical worship is that this ministry will not just be devolved to the leader of musical worship, but that there will be inspired presiders of worship who can work creatively with musicians and every other ministry to respond to the movement of the Spirit in the planning and leading of worship.
The Rt Rev Dr Christopher Cocksworth is Bishop of Coventry and previously was Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. This address was originally published on Fulcrum www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/
