Liturgy In the Local Community

I believe the worship (liturgy) of God’s church must be driven by Scripture and historical wisdom. I believe some of our problems in evangelicalism today have been because we rejected history and thereby became Scripturally dubious as well. We cannot and should not invent liturgy. Neither should we explain it to death. We (that see the indispensability of liturgical worship and spiritual formation practices) must avoid both the trite liturgical exercises devoid of Scripture and historical integrity as well as high church liturgical "orthodoxy" that is too Constantinian to be workable for those of us who wish to engage a post Constantinian world. -David Fitch, "When Liturgy Goes Bad: Constantinian Liturgy in a Post-Constantinian World", on his blog Reclaiming the Mission

I am the "elements" guy at the church plant I am a part of in an upper middle class community that has been "under-churched."  Entering into a community like this in a missional way, one must take care to find a "balanced" liturgy.  What Fitch alludes to in this essay is the necessity of liturgy to both be an integral part of the community and to not water down the liturgy for the community or force an unwilling community into foreign liturgical structures.  

In such a post-Constantinian world, where power is seen with skeptical eyes and met with hard hearts, the question becomes how can a church be liturgical in a way that succeeds power to God.  This liturgy is not controlling but prophetic, not the Word of the Church but the vessel of the gospel, the Word of God.  This liturgy is local and ecumenical, in the sense that it is aware of the body of Chrst on both global and local levels.  The liturgy of the local church does not bring people under the power of Christendom but instead points them toward the power of God.
The essence of worship in a post-Constantinian community facilitates the ancient ways (what Fitch calls "historical wisdom") through the lens of local knowledge, existing traditions, and the truth of the Word.  Change is not "bad" in this scenario, but it should shy away from any claims to salvific or puritanical means.  Liturgy is not something to be thrust on a community.  It is something that must grow from within a community as it engages in the work of the kingdom and (i) the recovery of historical theology, (ii) the foundation of their own tradition, (iii) an ecumenical worldview, (iv) and the centrality of the Word to the worship service.  I will be tackling each of these issues in coming posts.