The Spirit of Spontaneity

What is it about?

How should we think about spontaneity in corporate worship? And what role does the Holy Spirit play in our thinking about it and in our ability to welcome it in faithful ways? In this essay, W. David O. Taylor, associate professor of Theology and Culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, proposes two ideas. The first is that the Spirit plays an active role by speaking and working in the worship of the church—in, through and beyond our orders of worship. The second idea is that the Spirit generates “unscripted” moments in worship through forms, rituals and structures, not despite them. The Spirit also cultivates a responsive disposition in worshipers which enables them to respond to these moments in Spirit-attuned ways. When we welcome spontaneity in worship, we affirm that the Spirit of God cannot be “contained” by our orders of worship. For the Spirit is neither a silent actor nor a muted spectator in the worship of the church but rather is always speaking and working as the active agent of true worship. We affirm also that it pleases the Spirit to work through creaturely things. In the church’s worship, the Spirit speaks through carefully honed sermons, ancient patterns of prayer, Christ-prescribed sacraments, and the diverse literary structures of the Bible. The twin goal of spontaneous worship, in the end, is the edification of the church and, by the Spirit’s power, making us partakers of Christ’s own worship to the Father’s glory.

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