The biblical sequence of [Gathering], Word, Table, and [Sending] provides a structure in which the struggle between order and freedom can take place authentically. . . . Order without freedom may become mere unthinking ritual. On the other hand, freedom without order may become equally unthinking and even chaotic. But the order and style of worship . . . which I believe is biblical, is one that reenacts the Gospel story. The freedom I urge is that of a lively faith, an active and engaging commitment to what is being done, a freedom to be spontaneous within the context of order.
-Robert Webber, Worship Is a Verb: Celebrating God’s Mighty Deeds of Salvation, Second Edition (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Pub., 1996), 135-136.