NYNO worship must be spiritually dynamic. By this I mean that something has to happen when we meet together – there must be an interaction or engagement with God, or better still we have to receive from God.

Here is a little theory. If we are arguing for kinds of music or style of worship, we may have missed the point.

If we were receiving from God when we met together, while we might prefer certain styles of worship and dislike others, our engagement with God would trump all other priorities. Surely?

And so while we may not like a certain form of worship, if we’re not receiving from God, changing the form, altering the music, is not going to make us happy. It might keep us content for a while, but it’s not what we need.

So, NYNO needs to work on identifying the constituent elements of a service, of a meeting of God’s people. For each part, we need to ask how God relates to us, and how we should seek to relate to him. Week in and out we need to be meeting with God together and realising this.

And hopefully, by doing this, those who come to us and stay with us will know they are an indispensable part of God’s people and that when we meet we are helped – however that may be – to continue to be the people God has called us to be.

As a little preliminary plan, things about which I hope to eventually collect a few thoughts:

• A basic reading and thoughts about classic forms and elements of liturgy.
  • The Word.
  • The Sacraments.
  • Confession/Absolution.
  • Prayer: public and private.
  • Corporate singing.
• Some thoughts on Scripture’s direct references to public meetings and worship.
• Westminster Directory.
• Maybe a little Robert Webber.
• The contemporary worship service.
• Stockethill’s ‘Giving God his proper place’.
• All in all, a Trinitarian theology within which worship finds its place.