I came to faith as a teenager and had very few church experiences up to that point. My earliest formation as a Christ follower took place within Open Bible church settings, where I found deep community and meaningful spiritual experiences that I continue to value. At the same time, as in many modern evangelical churches, there was limited exposure to the ancient liturgies and historic practices of the wider Church.<\/p>\n\n\n
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These traditional cornerstones that were foundational to ecclesial life for millennia had been almost eliminated in the churches I attended. It seemed to me that these practices were at best met with ignorance and at worst with grave suspicion. The predictable result was that any real understanding and appreciation for ancient liturgical practices was absent from the first two decades of my church life. I rarely thought about things like Ash Wednesday services, the Book of Common Prayer, and Advent, and if I did, it was with a healthy side dish of uninformed judgment. I viewed Lent the same way I viewed lentils: it was a cold and exotic experience that was both frightening to prepare and painful to consume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I viewed Lent the same way I viewed lentils: it was a cold and exotic experience that was both frightening to prepare and painful to consume.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n This was my context as a few of our church staff began asking whether we could introduce some of these ancient practices into our church worship experience. As you might imagine given my church background, it took me a while to warm up to the idea. I began a process of asking questions, listening, and learning, even reaching out to an Anglican priest friend to hear his take on the value of these long-held traditions. Through all this, Christ in His goodness and patience has allowed us now to incorporate many of these practices into our regular church experience. As a result, I am happy to report that we are experiencing wonderful depth and meaning in our gatherings as we\u2019ve adopted and applied some of these long-proven elements of discipleship.<\/p>\n\n\n Our time of worship now always includes the public reading of a Psalm (a practice we have adopted from the Book of Common Prayer) to bring us back to the ancient hymn book of Israel. We have a fresh understanding of what it is to give up something physical in order to gain something spiritual as we fast in the forty days of Lent. Christmas time and the lighting of Advent candles help us celebrate Christ\u2019s first arrival while reminding us to await His second arrival. And Ash Wednesday, with its outward sign of repentance and mortality, leads us to humble ourselves before God, understanding how desperately we need His saving grace. Finally, the celebration of life on Easter Sunday has far greater meaning now because it is preceded by the sobriety of the death we remember on Good Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is not to say that incorporating these elements has always been smooth. We\u2019ve learned to introduce them slowly and with great attention to the \u201cwhy\u201d behind the \u201cwhat.\u201d Along the way, we\u2019ve had our share of growth opportunities and mishaps. One example happened early on in our journey, when we tried to introduce some ancient call and response types of prayers. The practice led several people to worry that we had become a completely different kind of church. We haven\u2019t yet reintroduced those prayers in our services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We have found that moving slowly and consistently, explaining the meaning of the practices, and laughing at ourselves through our failed attempts have been the key ingredients to discovering the power of these ancient gifts.<\/mark><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n Another example took place during last year\u2019s Ash Wednesday service. During this type of service, ash is used to mark the sign of a cross on each believer\u2019s forehead. This marking symbolizes our own mortality and repentance, as we take up our cross and turn from our sins. Well, our beloved worship leader wanted to add scent to the ashes to create a fuller sensory experience. To do so, he incorporated essential oils, including cinnamon, into the ashes. Little did any of us know that undiluted cinnamon oil burns on the skin. Talk about your full sensory experience. All of us in the service sat wondering what it reveals about our spiritual condition if the ash cross on our forehead feels like it’s on fire. There was a great sigh of relief when our executive pastor let people know what had happened, and a mad dash to the bathrooms ensued as people quickly washed away the painful marker. The next Sunday I formally apologized for turning their Ash Wednesday into a Rash Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In these moments and more, we have found that moving slowly and consistently, explaining the meaning of the practices, and laughing at ourselves through our failed attempts have been the key ingredients to discovering the power of these ancient gifts. Just as Isaac reopened the ancient wells of his father to discover pure water, we too can rediscover the meaning of these ancient practices in our churches and experience their fresh water again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Aaron Sutherland<\/strong> is the founding pastor of Cove Church in Eugene, Oregon, and the Director of Multiplication for Pacific Region Open Bible. Along with his wife, Paula, he finds great joy in watching God reveal the new stories being written into the lives of people from every corner of the world.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Isaac dug out again the wells that were dug during the lifetime of his father Abraham. The Philistines had closed them up after Abraham\u2019s death. Isaac gave them the same names his father had given them. Isaac\u2019s servants dug wells in the valley and found a well there with fresh water. (Genesis 26:18-19 CEB). I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":85,"featured_media":23878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[401],"class_list":["post-23877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-articles","tag-mar-apr26"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/openbiblemessage.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/purple-candles-lit-advent-PE-1024x649.jpg\")
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