Worship
Covenant Renewal
How should God’s covenant with man affect the way we worship?
Christians have forgotten a great deal over the years (and centuries). It is now thought "un-Protestant" to have a "high liturgy." Confessions of faith and written prayers are labelled as "Roman Catholic." The Reformers, however, were quite aggressive in restoring congregational involvement in the liturgy. At the time of the Reformation, worship had become a spectator sport — an act performed by the priest, in another language, no less. One of the key ways the Reformers restored congregational involvement was through unison prayer and confession, as well as congregational singing. (We ought to remember this when we delegate the task of singing to special vocalists and choirs.) And written prayers were composed by many of the leading Reformers as part of their program of reform.
Because we have largely lost a vision of the purpose of worship, liturgy has been cut adrift in the modern Church. There are all sorts of questionable assumptions regarding worship — that it ought to be "seeker-sensitive," for one. The worship service, however, was not originally a primary place of what we call "evangelism." Although unbelievers were sometimes present, as Paul alludes to in 1 Corinthians 14, the worship service was a covenantal event which centered upon the breaking of bread, in which only believers could participate.
In an age when worship is geared toward entertaining believer and unbeliever alike, and in provoking emotions that feel warm and fuzzy, we need to reexamine the biblical purpose of corporate worship. If the way we worship speaks volumes regarding our view of God, there is disturbing evidence that our view of God has fallen on hard times indeed.
Family Integrated Worship
Family integration means that we are not an age-segrated, program driven church. Rather than separate families for the intimate functions of fellowship and worship, we fellowship and worship together as families. Children and infants worship with the big people, just like it has been done throughout history, except for the modern era.
We gather each Lord's Day for corporate worship, but worship does not begin and end on Sundays. Rather, Christian worship occupies the central activity of every Christian at all times. We, as Christians, are called to worship God in everything we do. You may have heard of lifestyle evangelism, we're into lifestyle worship. Worship is about who we are in Christ.
Westminster Confession
Chapter XXI — Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath-day.
- The light of nature showeth that there is a God, who hath lordship and sovereignty over all; is good, and doeth good unto all; and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served with all the hearth, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation or any other way not prescribed in the holy Scripture.
- Religious worship is to be given to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; and to him alone: not to angels, saints, or any other creature: and since the Fall, not without a Mediator; nor in the mediation of any other but of Christ alone.
A Defense of Reformed Liturgy, by Michael Horton
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