Liturgical Baptists

I have spoken to a couple of friends about this topic. Now I am very intrigued, I would like to see a liturgical Baptist church started. Why? Because churches have become self-help resource centers. A church lives and dies based upon a pastoral staff's ability to recruit and give a sales pitch. The liturgy is based upon the Gospel and is God-centered not man-centered. Now don't get me wrong, I'm still holding to distinctive Baptist theology. However, the Baptist style of worship is becoming bankrupt and is not about God.

What are some differences between a liturgical service and a typical Baptist service. A liturgical service would have the Lord's Supper every week, recite a creed, responsive readings, perhaps incense, group prayers/confession, and would not have any musical solos.

Most Baptists claim to be non-creedal people, yet all the creeds are is a summary of what the Scriptures teach. I would suggest that if one cannot affirm the early church creeds (specifically the Nicene creed) then one is not a Christian. Creeds allow new believers to discern between heresy and biblical teaching. They are a confession of the community of believers beliefs. I don't know how creeds are any different from the sinner's prayer that all Baptists are supposed to pray before they get saved. Speaking of which...

Another reason to recite creeds during church service is to allow people to determine if they will side with the community of believers or not. We are saved through belief in Christ, not praying the sinner's prayer. Most people say, I was saved when I did X - usually X is praying a prayer. Hence putting the focus upon the individual who prayed. Yet, what if we recite a creed every Sunday and one of the lines in the creed mentions belief in Christ who died for our sins. If all the people confess this aloud and really believe it and mean it when they say it but haven't prayed the sinner's prayer are these people saved? I would suggest that they are saved. This is one more method to allow people to profess their belief in Christ. Altar calls are not the only method of having a non-believer to become a believer.

I also think that a liturgical service puts a greater emphasis on the community of believers than the preacher. There is a set order of service and people come to Church with a reverent attitude, rather than an attitude of looking to be entertained.

I'll post more on this later.