It’s New Year’s time and people are excited. I’M EXCITED! “Out with the old, in with the new” really means something (I hope!) in 2021.

One thing I like to ask around this time of year is, “What’s new?”

That sounds like a casual question, but it doesn’t need to be. What is the difference between “old” and “new” in spiritual matters, for instance? God is said to be unchanging and eternally the same, yet we also hear of God “making all things new.” It’s a paradox. God is both “old and new.”

Church is old and new at the same time, too. You can see the old and new together is our virtual worship. We have the new experience of livestream services. Perhaps you access this via our brand new website or a new-fangled Smart TV. Within this “new” worship, we’re observing new rules for receiving online communion. It’s new, new, new.

But none of it comes out of nowhere! These are merely new means to accomplish the old goal of being Christ’s Church. They’re rooted in the Bible. Yes, whether you thumb through an old King James Version or the latest Bible app, you’ll find that Scripture is the source of the traditions that undergird new practices at Galilee.

Pastor Jason has had to get used to the new feeling of preaching to an empty sanctuary, but a full congregation.

Tradition, well-understood, is the connection of Scripture and the practices of the Church. The Bible is central to who we are and what we do. Hearing the Bible read is how we hear God’s voice, a quiet, personal voice calling to our moral conscience. It’s how we begin to grow, experience grace, and change. We hope we become more like Christ.

Our church uses Scripture in the form of liturgy, which literally means “the work of the people.” What work? Worship work. Liturgy is the software that powers our services: spoken Scripture centers us as worship begins; we pause and proclaim God’s Word again with responsive liturgical readings; our prayer time is saturated with liturgical verses and themes, as are our acts of thanksgiving, and our sacraments of Communion and Baptism.

Liturgy embodies the worship patterns which formed our faith. The Apostle Paul compared believers to the runners of a race, and tradition to the baton passed between those runners (1 Corinthians 11:2). With our liverstream liturgical worship, we hand faith off to a virtual congregation watching in many states and countries. But more: all believers are sent into the world to live our faith in ways that demonstrate Christ’s love to others. In this way, we worship with our lives. Liturgy becomes more than a hour of tradition, it becomes a living faith you hand on to others. 

2020 was a big year for “new” and “old.” Between Chapel and Galilee, your church has delivered 117 worship services this year—including livestream and special in-person worship when it was deemed safe. That’s a lot of liturgy!

Recently, Pastor Geitra has accepted a new (there’s that word again) focus in her work area: Worship Excellence. If you have noticed anything new in the last few months about how worship happens, credit Geitra and let her know your thoughts, please.

All of your pastors devote careful attention and invest time in order to deliver traditional worship with new emphasis and excellence, because this is our faith. We want to pass it on.