In the next month or so, I will be reflecting on a blog series called “What Is Faith Formation?” I wrote back in 2019. Partly, this is because it’s an important topic that is always relevant to our work here at Spirit & Truth Publishing. The other part is that I’m a bit buried in work, so a little respite from blog writing is a huge help. 😉

What is your congregation’s best-attended, most common faith formation opportunity? Your corporate worship service! The purpose of worship is to show God our love, but one (intended) effect is to form our faith.

In the previous post in this series, I posed an essential question for both faith formation leaders and a faith formation publisher: “What Do We Mean by Forming Faith?” I reflected on what we mean by “faith” and moved to the singular mission of the Church (with two aspects). In this post, I argue that worship is an essential element of faith formation.

Faith Formation Defined

As a brief refresher, the definition I use for faith formation is:

Every action, experience, or relationship that nurtures a transformative relationship of trust with the triune God and shapes the way we see and interact with God’s world.

It’s a broad definition since I think that faith formation has a broad scope. Faith formation is definitely not limited to what happens within the walls of a church building, or any other church-sponsored event. [Please note that I specifically chose the word “nurture” in my definition, since faith formation is not about how we receive the gift of faith but what we do afterward.]

As I mentioned in the last post, I see the mission of the Church as singular with two aspects. “Inside” the church, the mission is faith formation. “Outside” the church, the mission is to spread God’s kingdom throughout the world. The two aspects, faith formation and spreading the kingdom, are so intertwined that I consider them two sides of the same arrow (not coin because it’s going somewhere). But, if the internal aspect of the church’s mission is faith formation, that means that everything a church does within its own congregational community should relate to faith formation.

Worship Defined

If I’m going to argue that worship is faith formation, I’d better explain what I mean by “worship,” right? I’ve spent a fair amount of time thinking about the general definition of worship, being that I wrote an elementary-aged curriculum on the topic. This is what I came up with:

Worship is anything we do to show God our love for all that God has done for us.

Worship is an active response, and it is what we are doing when we obey the greatest commandment.

Worship vs. the Worship Service

If worship encompasses anything (and everything) we do to show God our love, it is not limited to a church’s worship service or any specific practice or ritual that we typically categorize as worship. It is about our whole lives. But, gathering for corporate worship is one of the main reasons a local congregation exists (at least practically speaking). Our entire lives should be devoted to worshipping God, but specific practices like singing, praying, sharing communion, and learning about Scripture are valuable to help us worship God. And, these practices are just easier to do when we gather for corporate worship, which also has the added benefit of encouraging us to build relationships with fellow disciples (fellowship). So, worship cannot and should not be limited to a worship service, but a worship service is an important practice for doing worship and training disciples for lives of worship.

Corporate Worship and Faith Formation

What event happens at your congregation most regularly with the largest attendance? The weekly worship service (or services), right?

This makes corporate worship the single most important faith formation event that a congregation does. Period.

Of course, this claim assumes that a worship service is faith formation. Is it though? Well, the singing, praying, listening, partaking, and learning we do in a worship service nurtures a relationship of trust with God and shapes the way we see God, ourselves, and the world. So, yes, it does appear that worship fits our definition of a faith formation experience.

Worship and the First Commandment

This brings us to the question of the purpose versus the effect of worship. The purpose of worship is to obey the first commandment, to show God our love. Worship points to God, not to us. However, the effect—and the design—of a worship service is to form our faith. Worshipping God strengthens our faith and prepares us to go out and spread God’s kingdom* in the world.

What Does This Mean?

In short, a worship service is your primary (and often only) means to provide faith formation for your congregation. So, don’t screw it up. If you are going to do it, you need to do it right (not perfect, since that’s impossible). By “right,” I am not talking about the style of music, liturgy (or not), lectionary (or not), or preaching (though I do have very clear opinions on those topics). What I mean is that worship should be engaging.

An Example from Church History

A vastly oversimplified example of what not to do:

A very long time ago, the Bible was only available in Greek. That’s great if you spoke Greek (in the eastern Roman Empire), but not so much if you didn’t (in the western Roman Empire). So, a guy named Jerome decided to translate the Bible into Latin, the language of the common people. This became known as the Vulgate (Vulgate relates to our word vulgar = common). Now, the common people could not only understand the worship service in their native Latin but also the reading of the Bible! However, the language “froze” in worship and Scripture, so that even when the common people no longer spoke or understood Latin, the church still used Latin. A change that was intended to make worship accessible became a way that made worship inaccessible.

This process has happened multiple times in church history, so it’s not limited to the Roman Catholic Church.

Effective Worship = Engaging Worship

For worship to be effective, both to help disciples worship God and form faith, people need to understand what’s going on and be able to engage with it—to participate in it. Some of this has to do with the willingness of people to put in the work, but it is mostly the responsibility of worship leaders (faith formation leaders) to make the service engaging.

How? A good start is to go through each part of the service and ask:

1. Do older children, youth, and newcomers feel welcome?
2. Can they easily understand what they are saying or hearing?
3. Are you able to keep their attention throughout the service?
4. Are there ways for them to actively participate in the service?

Target: The Young and Visitors

You might wonder why I suggest targeting older children, youth, and newcomers. First, there is a good chance that older children, youth, and newcomers all come to a worship service with a similar lack of understanding about what is going on. Second, they might have the same level of investment in the way things have always been (i.e., little to none). And, if you don’t attract and keep the young and visitors, your church will die.

Finally, if you can make your worship service engaging for the young and visitors, it will likely be engaging for your established, adult members, too. But please, please, please don’t “dumb down” your service for the kids! Not only will this turn off adults, but kids really don’t like being talked down to. If you want more suggestions on how to think about worship in this way, I happen to have a blog post specifically on Engaging Worship!

God’s blessings on your faith-forming work!

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

* I use the term “spread God’s kingdom in the world” to describe the external aspect of the mission of God’s church deliberately. Different people from different theological traditions interpret that phrase in different ways. For some, the focus of spreading the kingdom is to tell other people about Jesus. For others, the focus is on serving others, alleviating suffering, and advocating for justice. Use your own interpretation and go do it!

Order Faith Formation Resources

Order now for the 2024-2025 program year! Narrative Lectionary, Revised Common Lectionary, Classic Sunday School, and more. The fall and winter quarters for all products (with the temporary exception of our NEW mini lessons for the NL and RCL for which only the fall quarters) are available for immediate download.

Are you still looking for resources for the summer: VBS, family/intergenerational events, or Sunday school? Check out our Learning Together series, a set of five-lesson units on a variety of topics. You can read outside reviews on both our newest Created to Care and Do Justice units! Our faith formation resources are easy-to-use, theologically sound, and inclusive.

Introducing our newest Learning Together unit: Created to Care! Wonder at God’s creation and learn about what we can do to protect and heal it in these five lessons, intended for children and intergenerational groups, family or churchwide events, or Vacation Bible School. This curriculum is published in collaboration with BibleWorm, a weekly Narrative Lectionary podcast, to accompany their summer series on Creation Care.

At Spirit & Truth Publishing, we might just have exactly what you are looking for:

• Resources for the Narrative Lectionary (2024-2025): Products for all ages (with NEW mini lessons, if you only have a short time for elementary faith formation).
• Classic Sunday School Curriculum: Key Bible stories for PK-2nd and 3rd-6th, also great for your Christian elementary school!
• Learning Together: Five-lesson, topical units for VBS, Sunday school, children, and intergenerational classes.
• Cross+Generational Confirmation
• Resources for the Revised Common Lectionary (2024-2025): Intergenerational classroom, mini lessons for children.
• Worship and Liturgy Education

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