One of the difficult responsibilities of worship planning is balancing the Hallmark [Mother's Day; Father's Day, etc.] and civic holiday [4th of July; Memorial Day; etc.] calendars with the work of God-glorifying worship that should happen on a given weekend.
I have struggeled for some time to find creative ways to honor these ‘calendar’ events, yet still keep the Sabbath focus on Trinitarian worship-elements that give glory to the Father, Son, and Spirit.
I know there are different lines that exist within Evangelicalism. Some have troubled me, others have been refreshing.
I have long held the view that the Church and following, Christian worship, should be very careful of letting nationalism rise above the One who reigns over all the universe [which includes many nations, mind you], especially surrounding civic holidays. But I’ve struggled to put it into words.
So why not let someone else?
No really, today I got my June 2006 edition of Reformed Worship and found an article reprinted from 1990 by now president of Fuller Theological Seminary, Richard Mouw. In short, Mouw has put words to my thoughts. Here they are…
