The Assembly's Amen
One of the most blood-pumping, north-star rising, concrete-foundation pouring principles of our Lord’s Day liturgy is that we worship as an assembly. This is corporate worship. Corporate derives from corpus, the word for “body.” It’s a full-body workout, every member called to be present and participate.
One of the most sin-ruining, culture-challenging, generational-perpetuating problems is that we hate being joiners, we resist doing things together, we default to self over group. Even as the Bible uses the word “member” about an individual, that implies connection, even responsibility to some others. How do we encourage that?
Our liturgy aims to promote the assembly’s activity and the assembly’s agreement. This is one reason why it’s hard, because it cuts against our natural desires to hold back and to keep distance.
Time will tell what the next generation adds or removes from the liturgy. They are developing tastes, even prejudices, and my guess is that they’ll look for even more ways to get everyone involved.
We have some. Many still seem to think that they’re only really worshipping when they sing. But we do look for ways to encourage active agreement, beyond the call and response at the beginning.
We’ve recently started encouraging one another by saying “Amen” when we’re finished singing Cantus songs. Many of these are Psalms, so inspired lyrics, and the corporate Amen is the assembly’s agreement. That’s what Amen means: yes, so let it be. We don’t do it at the end of other songs, though we could. Cantus songs are a little more formal, most are also written with multiple parts for harmony, and it seems especially appropriate to end all together again with Amen.
There are biblical examples, as when concluding a liturgical prayer:
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,
from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
Praise the LORD!
(Psalm 106:48 bibrefpsalms106 bibrefpsalms106v48 ESV)
(See also amens from the assembly affirming a legal/moral curse in Deuteronomy 27:14–26 bibrefdeuteronomy27 bibrefdeuteronomy27v14 bibrefdeuteronomy27v15 bibrefdeuteronomy27v16 bibrefdeuteronomy27v17 bibrefdeuteronomy27v18 bibrefdeuteronomy27v19 bibrefdeuteronomy27v20 bibrefdeuteronomy27v21 bibrefdeuteronomy27v22 bibrefdeuteronomy27v23 bibrefdeuteronomy27v24 bibrefdeuteronomy27v25 bibrefdeuteronomy27v26; joining in a song of praise in 1 Chronicles 16:36 bibref1chronicles16 bibref1chronicles16v36; binding themselves to an oath in Nehemiah 5:13 bibrefnehemiah5 bibrefnehemiah5v13; honoring the Word of God in Nehemiah 8:6 bibrefnehemiah8 bibrefnehemiah8v6; and the implication of participatory agreement 1 Corinthians 14:16 bibref1corinthians14 bibref1corinthians14v16)
So we have some examples and, again, it is strategic for promoting the activity and agreement of the assembly.
Are you participating? Are you pursuing unity with your brothers? Can we get an amen?