Although the snow has trumped it, we had great plans for an Ash Wednesday service tonight at our church, complete with ashes on the forehead and everything. This is mostly unprecedented, at least in recent history, at our church. We decided, however, that it fits with our theory of trying to use tangible traditions in our worship gatherings. Our thinking is that worship is wonderful through the spoken word and the music, but the tangible expressions of worship that have existed in the church for a couple thousand years might just be a good addition, as well.

In particular, we take a break from our usually-separate children and adult worship times once a month to worship together and share communion - perhaps one of the most tangible worship practices (breaking bread, crushing grapes, chewing bread, drinking juice) as well as baptisms when they happen (another very physical, tangible worship practice). For kids who can't read, can't see the screen, or can't understand complex worship metaphors, this is a very good learning tool.

The problem, of course, is that as we start to tap the historic Church liturgy for tangible expressions of worship like this, we get into genuflex, veneration and lots of other Roman Catholic practices which seem "iffy" at best. And in a free church holiness tradition, do these things, or the liturgical calendar, have any place at all? Are we betraying our forefathers who saw idolatry in liturgical worship structure and practices? Having grown up in a more traditional denomination (though not much more), I'm interested in hearing your opinions on these sorts of practices in corporate worship within our "free church" tradition....