Liturgical Church and Easter

The Wesleyan Church wouldn't be considered, by any stretch of the imagination, a liturgical church.  While there might be some Wesleyan pastors that would follow a lectionary, most would largely ignore any church calendar events outside of Easter and Christmas.

I would say that largely, I don't do a lot with the Christian calendar, but I do see value in it.  For one thing, it keeps us connected to historic Christianity.  I think many churches and denominations have done themselves a disservice by distancing themselves from the liturgical church year.  However, rather than always following the liturgical church year, I would tend to "check in" from time to time.  For instance, this year, in addition to our Maundy Thursday communion that has been a tradition at Waite Park, we did a Good Friday Tenebrae service for the first time.  It was absolutely amazing!  Evangelicals will often ignore things like Good Friday, preferring to move on to the more celebratory Easter Celebration.  But without the crucifixion, there is no resurrection.  So I believe it's a good thing to soak in the pain of the crucifixion.  That's the value of historic Christianity.

But I don't follow the liturgical year all the time. The reason is that I believe that the core of Christianity is not the liturgy.  I believe that Christ sets us free from all that and the core of the everyday Christian life is learning how to live in the reality of the Kingdom of God that came in Jesus Christ.  What does it mean to trust Christ?  What does it mean for him to be Lord in every area of life?  Each Sunday is a valuable time to give instructions from Scripture and to process it together as a church.  My goal isn't to become good at church, but to be able to live out faith in Christ.

So it's always a matter of looking to Christ and moving forward with him.  Liturgy can be helpful in that as long as it doesn't become that focus.  I think that's both the tension to hold and value of it.