Conversations With Leaders: Aaron Damiani On The Benefits of Liturgy
An Anglican on why you don’t have to be Anglican to appreciate liturgy
Hello friends, I'm excited to introduce a new feature to my newsletter: Conversations with Leaders. This brings short interviews with leading pastors, thinkers, and authors on topics relevant to the church and the culture. For paid subscribers, you'll see two bonus questions. I'd love your feedback!
Today our conversation is with Aaron Damiani. Aaron Damiani (MA, Biblical Exegesis) serves as the lead pastor of Immanuel Anglican Church in Chicago and is the author of The Good of Giving Up: Discovering the Freedom of Lent and Earth Filled with Heaven: Finding Life in Liturgy, Sacraments and other Ancient Practices of the Church. Aaron writes and speaks regularly about spiritual formation, leadership, and recovering the gifts of the ancient church for today’s challenges. Aaron and his wife Laura live with their four kids in Chicago’s Irving Park neighborhood.
Why should Christians, regardless of denominational background, care about ancient church practices?
The gifts of the ancient church are like an inheritance from your spiritual ancestors, a treasure chest waiting to be discovered, appreciated and put to good use. Practices like the church calendar, the historic creeds, biblical liturgy and the sacraments don’t belong to one denomination or one era in history. Christians around the world and throughout time have found them to be powerful, stabilizing means of communing with Christ. And they actually highlight the best parts of being an Evangelical: a high view of Scripture, Christ-centered worship and missional living. If you’re longing for more depth, substance, and connection with the global and historic church, these practices are worthy of your attention.
Why is there fear and/or suspicion in the evangelical world over sacramental practices?
With its emphasis on saving souls and the hope of Heaven, Evangelical Christianity has sometimes neglected the body and the material world in its vision for discipleship. So using our bodies to participate in worship can feel awkward and possibly idolatrous. Yet from the beginning, Christian worship and discipleship has been participatory and active, involving not just our souls and ideas but also our bodies. Because of the incarnation of Jesus, we affirm that “matter matters” not just to the Creator but also to his redeemed creatures. A redeemed soul will one day have a resurrected body. We can celebrate that now by using them to worship Christ.
Another reason we hold sacramental practices in suspicion is the threat of dead religion and legalism. Again, there’s a legitimate point here. Sometimes sacramental practices have become an end in themselves, and have hidden Christ’s glory rather than revealing it. Yet can the same be said of “low-church” worship services and practices? Anything good can become corrupted. Apart from the presence of God, all our worship is dead. Legalism can corrode even the most grace-filled churches. There’s a Christ-centered way to hold together reverence and joy, freedom and structure, action and rest.
Which ancient church practices are most neglected in the evangelical church today?
Until recently, Christians had a custom of reading, singing and praying Scripture publicly, from both the Old and New Testaments, the Gospel readings having a special prominence. Yet in many Evangelical churches today, the sermon about the Scripture edges out the reading of Scripture itself.
Another ancient practice that has fallen by the wayside is the circulation of old prayers and creeds (like the Apostle’s Creed or Nicene Creed) in our prayer and worship life. Creeds and old prayers are a great ballast in the ship of our souls and churches. The stormier our life gets, the stiffer the cultural winds blow, the more we need their weight and wisdom.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to One Little Word to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.