When words are said
With the head
But not the heart,
Liturgy's dead!

Liturgy
Is religious
Choreography,
Scripted words
That can be parroted
Without deep feeling
Of their real meaning!

Prayer’s not just words
That you share
With God.
It’s letting your heart
Deeply care
About
What He cares about.

If a church is full
Of salvation testimonies
It doesn't rely
On sermons and ceremonies.

Something's not right
When sitting through
A religious rite
Doesn't make people
Want to live right.

Following Jesus
Should be a symphony
Of ongoing epiphany,
Continually basking
In His presence.

When life that was full
Of heart-connection
With the living Jesus
Began to fade away,
Church fabricated liturgy
As a substitute.

Most church services are scripted and choreographed so well that they have no need for Jesus. They run well enough without Him. Liturgy is so locked in tradition that it allows no interruption or redirection by the living, ever-present Jesus.

Liturgy is a methodological attempt to maintain the truths that Christianity had before it morphed from a movement to a monument. Religious formulas aren’t necessary when the living Jesus is allowed to freely flow out of the heart as rivers of living water.

A priest or minister who performs a religious rite is called a “celebrant,” even when his face looks somber and noncelebratory. When a church “celebrates the liturgy,” one thing that seems to be missing is heart-felt celebration. Since churches use liturgy, why don’t basketball fans read words together in unison?

A technician knows how to put knowledge to work in practical ways. Modern Christianity desperately needs Spirit-led technicians, not just liturgy celebrants.

If soldiers can lay down their feelings, desires, and opinions to follow orders, surely Christians can in order to follow and obey the living Jesus. Until Jesus replaces self as the supreme power inside of us, we’ll be in bondage to our opinions, feelings, and desires.

The Pope before Frances, Pope Benedict XVI, seems to agree with me on this subject. He said: ““What happened after the Council was totally different: in the place of liturgy as the fruit of development came fabricated liturgy. We left the living process of growth and development to enter the realm of fabrication. There was no longer a desire to continue developing and maturing, as the centuries passed and so this was replaced—as if it were a technical production—with a construction, a banal on-the-spot product.”