The Big Story: Redemptive Worship

I recently finished reading The Stories We Tell, by Mike Cosper, which is a fascinating discussion of literature, TV, and movies. In it, Cosper says that "the Big Story of the Bible--creation, fall, redemption, and consummation--is so pervasive, so all-encompassing of our world, that we can't help but echo it (or movements within it) when we're telling other stories." He provides a diverse media diet and approaches the shows and films with an eye toward the Big Story.

Services of worship tell a story as well. Whether the content of the service is heavily outlined with headings or done with a higher emphasis on continuity and smooth transition, our corporate worship is a story we tell, enact, and embody every time we gather. 

The concept of story is central to the third of the four broad characteristics of biblical worship we discussed in my Sunday School class. (Read more about #1 scriptural and #2 triune here.)

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3. Redemptive

"Worship should celebrate and enact the redeeming work of God in the life of his people."

Here are reasons for ensuring that God’s redemption story is present throughout our worship service every week:

• We assume there are people sitting in our worship service on any given Sunday morning who have never heard the gospel. 
• Believers need to remember the story of the gospel and be strengthened by it in the corporate gathering each week. 
• Liturgical practice is formative, ingraining thoughts and attitudes in us in ways we do not understand.

How does a worship service reflect the dynamics of Creation-Fall-Redemption-Consumption? 
What does this look like practically at Trinity?

I'll unpack this in the next post.