Ministry to the Lord: Discovering Leiturgia

Late one Thursday night Matt and I found ourselves in an empty room leading a meeting of worship and intercession. The night started with the news that we had no singers and we had no replacements. Two other people came out to participate and later another couple. But none could stay very long. It was near Christmas and shopping needed to be done. The few who came left during the first hour, and we had another hour to go.

It some ways the night reminded me of a church planting venture I was a part of fifteen years ago; except for a major difference. In the church planting venture we worked and labored to find people, to recruit people, and to gather people. Our goal was to worship and speak to people about God. But on that Thursday night Matt and I had a different goal. We were there to minister to the Lord. We were there to worship and speak to God about people. And we weren’t disappointed when the room was empty because God was there. As a pastor I was trained to be dissatisfied if only a few people showed up. But since then I have been set free. I discovered leiturgia.

Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were some prophets and teachers..... As they served the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Separate Barnabas and Saul for me, for the work to which I have called them." Then, when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away. Acts 13:1-3

Leiturgia is a Greek word which is often translated as serve or worship. It is the word from which we derive the term liturgy. It is ministry to the Lord; service that includes the concepts of fasting, prayer, and worship. It is ministry directed to God, offering sacrifices that are a fragrant offering, pleasing to him.

Ministry to the Lord is a neglected concept in evangelical Christianity. Ministry (and service) is more often a term used to describe what individuals or groups do for other people. But leiturgia is service that is directed to God rather than other human beings. It is the act of priests who are set apart to “stand before the Lord, to serve him, to minister to him, and burn incense” (2 Chronicles 29:11). The ministry of the priests is described in great detail in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The priests operated day and night in the temple, providing a setting in which worshippers could come in and bring their sacrifices before the Lord. They did not have an hour to an hour and half worship service largely consisting of instruction. Instead they kept the fire of worship burning on the altar 24/7. They kept the lamps aflame before the Lord night and day. Though they certainly ministered to people; most of their ministry was God directed. These passages which describe the priestly ministry are often skipped during sermon series and personal readings simply because the ministry of the priesthood seems foreign to us.

But the priesthood is open to all believers (1 Peter 2:5) through the priesthood sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We no longer offer the blood of bulls but we are to offer our bodies as living and holy sacrifices (Romans 12:1). We are to continually offer sacrifices of praise and worship (Hebrews 13:5). We are to pray without ceasing, cry out for justice day and night, meeting in the temple everyday (and all the more as you see the day draw near). What does it mean to be in the midst of a people and pray for them? Intercession is about being a priest. It’s about being a living signpost. It’s not just praying with your hands clasped, but with hands wide open. It’s about being different. Praying for a people means BEING different, set apart. It means loving purity, justice, and righteousness and hating wickedness and sin. A priest’s aim is to invite God in to initiate change. Priests ask God in to crush the darkness and let the light blaze forth. The key to their effectiveness is not cell groups, seeker services, power presentations, mass malings, or any other church growth technique. The key to a priest's effectiveness is that they worship and they ask. They request, cry out, call out, intercede, bless, make appeals, and plead all in the midst of worship.

In the mid nineteenth century James Gilmore of Mongolia wrote:
My Creed leads me to think that prayer is efficacious, and surely a day’s asking God to overrule all events for good is not lost. Still there is a great feeling that when a man is praying he is doing nothing, and this feeling makes us give undue importance to work, sometimes even to the hurrying over or even to the neglect of prayer.
Do not we rest in our day too much on the arm of flesh? Cannot the same wonders be done now as of old? Do not the eyes Of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth still to show Himself strong on behalf of those who put their trust in Him? Oh that God would give me more practical faith in Him! Where is now the Lord God of Elijah? He is waiting for Elijah to call on Him.

If anything, our reliance on the arm of flesh has only increased since the mid-nineteenth century. The Church emphasizes ministry to people. Of course this is important and a crucial aspect of the mission of the Church. We are called to heal the sick, search for the lost, gather strays, feed the hungry, etc. Yet we’ve lost something. The goal of the Church has become a mission to attract people. It has become a mission to increase numbers of attendees at Sunday worship. But where is the mission to attract God to our meetings? Where is the mission to be attractive to God, like a bride to the groom? Where are the meetings everyday in the temple; the praying without ceasing; the crying out day and night; and the continual sacrifices of praise? Ministry to the Lord is not just an inward focus to the neglect of outward focus. On the contrary it is zealous for mission. It seeks for the empowering of the Spirit so that that words and deeds go forth not in the wisdom but in the power of God. It asks for an outpouring of wisdom and revelation so that the Church might know Jesus better. It longs for justice in the nations. It prays the scriptures and reflects God’s heart for the broken, needy, and lost.

Jesus came into the temple. Zeal for his Father’s house consumed him. He saw those selling in the temple and overturned their tables. Animals brayed, flew, and ran away. Coins scattered across the ground. People shouted and swore. Jesus refused to let anyone market ministry in the temple. Is the church of today, like the disciples of Jesus, following after Jesus in the midst of this scene? Or has the subtle influence of Wall Street so shaped the church that she now stands on the other side of the tables. Several years ago Jesus began to overturn the tables in my life and I discovered that much of what we call ministry is really not. Rather than walking with Jesus through the tumble of the house of prayer I was working in a global marketing organization called the church. The church is selling ministry in the attempt to get more people to attend their meetings. Signs of it are everywhere.

Jesus is calling a people to re-discover what it means to be a house a prayer. He is urging them to understand an ancient but neglected dynamic- that of ongoing leiturgia- worship&prayer ministry. He is not calling out just a few specially anointed individuals who are called priests. But he is calling out the whole priesthood of believers urging them, “Come away my Beloved.” He is raising up intercessors who will call out on behalf of the sick, the poor, the lost, and the needy. He is searching for prayer warriors who will ask him for the nations. He is calling forth the Night Watch- those who will stand before the Lord until the sun rises.

Listen. He is calling you. He loves to meet with you. He is waiting on you to be like Elijah.