Without these, finding the right balance of continuity and change is difficult. Furthermore it is complicated to find the right balance of music and silence, individual and group prayer, frontal control and the creation of personal space. All of these elements must be contained within a reasonable time frame. One of the reasons why many people prefer to recite the liturgy as it appears in a prayerbook is that while we lose a certain freshness in doing that, we also have an easier time maintaining quality control. In order for this new liturgy to find its way into worship, we need to do a good job of training service leaders about how it should be handled.
Liturgists lose control of their work the moment it is published or shared.
This has advantages and drawbacks. The wonderful result is that liturgy takes on a life of its own. One drawback is that it can be used in ways that the author occasionally finds deeply objectionable. It is often fortunate that liturgy works this way, however, because the liturgist often does not see the full range of possibility in the work that service leaders do. Ultimately liturgy may be the most democratic of the literary genres in Judaism.