Local community is often seen as synonymous with the local church, and the local church is often seen as synonymous with "that church over there on the hill."  For liturgy to truly be meaningful in a local community I think pastors, lay persons, and congregations need to begin to think of the local church as all the churches in a local community.  In other words, the local church is the grouping of the handful (maybe dozens) of churches that are down the road from each other, down the block from each other, or even next door to each other.  The church plant I attend meets inside of another church---talk about the proximity of churches in a locality.  When the local church is thought of as the collective of churches in a community, then liturgy is seen in a fresher, and I would add truer, light.

Liturgy is "the public work," and the local church presents itself to the community through its worship, both inside the church and outside the church in the local community.  The local church is present at the deli when a member of First Baptist Church is buying some lunch meat the same way the local church is present in the community when a parishioner of St. Peter's Roman Catholic Church is talking to someone at the local Post Office.  The local church is present in the local community seven days a week.

This re-orientation from the local church as a single church to a collective of churches points the Christians of the local community towards each other in conversation and dialogue.  As the Body of Christ doing the public work through worship, discipleship, stewardship, and fellowship we are all working to see the Kingdom of God come to the shared local community.  We might work in different ways, we might not agree with each others theology, we might not approve of each others techniques (or lack there of), but we must see that we are working together.  We must see each other as an ecumenical movement of the Kingdom in a particular place.  And we must see the collective that is the local church in the local community as being the presence of Christ, through the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace and mercy of the Father. 

The community my church, The Plant is centered in, Allendale, NJ, has a public Stations of the Cross each year that all the churches in the local community participate in on Good Friday.  The pilgrims of Christ go throughout the town to different stations and participate in public worship.  This is a perfect example of  how the liturgy can and should function in the local community: the local church getting together, worshiping together as the public work, and presenting themselves as the presence of Christ inside the local community.

Please read the three previous posts in this series:

Liturgy In the Local Community

Liturgy In the Local Community: The Recovery of Historical Theology

Liturgy In the Local Community:  The Foundation of Your Tradition