It is a paradigm shift to think and then to practice all of worship as a prayer in which we actually lift God’s own story up to him as a prayer. I don’t doubt that some congregations pray their songs. . . . For many of these congregations worship is described as singing. I have pointed out, however, that the ancient church saw all of worship, from beginning to end, as the lifting up to God his own story in praise and thanksgiving. This is the shift that requires a new or, rather, old way of worshiping. In worship we do God’s story as the prayer of God and his church for the whole world.
-Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s Narrative (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2008), 165.