THE NEXT ADVENTISM
The Future of Adventist Liturgy A PASTORAL PERSPECTIVE BY URIEL HERINIRINA
A few months ago, Suzane walked into our worship service aſter not setting foot in a church for almost a decade. Seemingly uncertain, she sat near the back of the sanctuary, watching the liturgy unfold from a distance. However, during the Litany of Tanksgiving, a responsive communal prayer, she suddenly joined the congregation in their responses: “We give you thanks, O Lord. Hear our prayer. For the deep night, when our bodies and souls driſt into rest and quietly mend, we give you thanks, O Lord. For the people we love with ease, and for those who chafe and challenge us, we give you thanks, O Lord. For our enemies, who teach us to bless and forgive, we give you thanks, O Lord.” Te next day, I would get a note from her saying that the
structure of our worship had “unlocked” something deep within her—something that finally enabled her to let go of what had, for a long time, held her back. Like most worshipers, she had come that morning with minimal expectations, carrying the myriad of things we all carry with us into worship, but this simple liturgical act spelled a newness into her life. Hers is, of course, a dramatic example. Yet, it speaks to the
power of good liturgy, which has the potential to mediate divine realities in ways that reach down into the deep of the human spirit. Pastors recognize the eminence of worship as a sacred space. It’s where the divine promise of presence and transcendence is most readily encountered in a society that seems to be spiritually thinning. Within that space, liturgy—the carefully curated chorale of faith materials—plays an invaluable role in scripting these transformative encounters. As the church navigates its evolutionary shiſt and seeks
renewed meaning, it is not surprising that the question of liturgy, the content and form of our worship, has come into focus.
14 AD VENTIS T T OD A Y
Baggage From the Past It is hard to imagine the future of Adventist liturgy when its present remains abstract. Although recognizant of its inescapability, Adventism struggles to grant liturgical activity real theological weight. For many, the very word “liturgy” still carries suspicion. It evokes images of archaic formalism—a set of rituals sourced out of a past culture—rather than divine revelation, as though these could ever be neatly separated. “Principles of Worship and Liturgy,” an article by Andrews
University professor emeritus Fernando Canale, gives clear expression to this Adventist ambivalence.1 On one hand, Canale concedes that worship must take some kind of ordering and that liturgical forms ought to “appeal to worshipers to surrender their lives to Christ.”2 On the other hand, he describes liturgy as something secondary to the real inner act of worship and rooted in history and culture, a realm where “God does not intervene.”3 Te result is a confusing tension in which liturgy is granted functional importance but denied intrinsic theological agency. In true Adventist form, Canale warns against uncritically
adopting liturgical forms and provides biblical principles for evaluating liturgical action, but these function more as constraints than as a constructive vision of what a distinctly Adventist-shaped liturgy might look like. A liturgical gap has emerged within Adventism, leaving many congregations either modeling their worship on other traditions or defaulting to a functional minimalism that fails to recognize the depth that liturgical activity adds to the life of worship. Adventist churches need a more robust engagement with
liturgy. While we must take seriously concerns about formalism and empty ritual, the greater risk may lie in neglecting the formative and pastoral role liturgy plays in shaping the life of faith. I am increasingly convinced that the future of Adventism will, in many ways, depend on a renewed attention to the how of our worship.
Imagining the Future What, then, might the future of Adventist liturgy look like? Liturgy cannot be imagined apart from the world in which the
church is embedded. It is, at its core, a dialogue between faith and culture. What follows are three pastoral suggestions for shaping liturgical practices that remain theologically faithful while fully attentive to their cultural setting. 1. Te future of Adventist liturgy will be “sublimely useless.” Polish theologian Sławomir Jeziorski is surely right when he
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