In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism…. Everybody worships! The only choice we get is what to worship. – David Foster Wallace
We all live for something. We believe we were made to live for and worship God. And here is the thing about Christian worship and Christianity in general—It is not so much about what we do, but about what God does. When we meet on Sundays, God meets, serves and reaffirms his love to us. And that is why we come!
We believe that at the center of worship is a relationship. As such, our worship services are interactive and dynamic. They put us in a holy dialogue with God shaped around the pattern of the gospel. That pattern has five stages (see below):
God calls us to meet him:
God takes the initiative and calls us to worship him. Thus worship begins with God where we are summoned Mount Zion to gather with the angels and glorified saints in the worship of the Lord (Hebrews 12:18-24).
We praise God through song and ask him for help:
We respond to God’s call by worshipping him as a community. Because we are sinners, we acknowledge that we can only approach God because of Jesus. Realizing that none of us are inclined to worship, we ask for God to be with us by his Spirit and give us the power to respond to him.
Our response is often through music. Music holds the capacity to bring God’s truth to us, while allowing us the opportunity to express ourselves to God at the same time—a distinctively powerful form of communication.
We confess our sins:
Because of grace, we can be radically honest with God about our moral faults. As we recognize the ways we’ve failed to love God, others and ourselves faithfully, we confess our sins both individually (in silent prayer) and corporately (praying together the printed prayer of confession in unison), recognizing how our sins affect both our personal relationship with God and also our relationships with others and ourselves.
God offers us good news and assures us that we are forgiven:
Our authenticity before God about our sins is followed by an unfathomable promise and glorious declaration of pardon: in Christ our sins are forgiven and by the Holy Spirit we are being renewed. The declaration of this truth through Scripture is one of the most beautiful and powerful moments in our worship service. This word of pardon isn’t simply for us to hear; it is for us to believe, receive form God, and rest our lives upon.
We sing with joy and thanksgiving:
Having been assured that our sins are forgiven, we revel in God’s great mercy.
We hear God speak and reflect on his character:
The reads a passage from Holy Scripture. The Bible consists of various books containing various genres, all telling the single story about God’s redeeming love for the world. These books constitute God’s word – his powerful, authoritative self-expression and revelation.
The Pastor or Elder will finish each reading of Holy Scripture by reminding us that the Bible is no ordinary book and demands our careful attention with the words: “This is the Word of the Lord”). God's people then respond with gratitude: “Thanks be to God!” Doing so acknowledges that our only hope for understanding God, ourselves, and the world is for God to reveal himself.
We respond in a song of praise and thanksgiving:
We offer up a sacrifice of praise which is the fruit of our lips (Hebrews 13:15).
We commit our concerns:
The Pastor or Elder will then pray expectantly for things, we exercise our belief that God cares about our needs and is powerful enough to help. Thus we make intercessory prayer—humbly asking God for things—a part of worship. In general, one person leads in prayer, but together we ask God to move in our community, our city, and our world.
We commit our resources to his Mission:
We give our material possessions as an act of faith and a symbol of lives that are dedicated to God. This offering is a response of gratitude for the invaluable gift we’ve been given in Christ.
God brings us Good News:
One of the most important points in our service is when a minister, especially trained and gifted by God, opens God’s Word and proclaims what it says and the way it reveals the grace of Jesus Christ and what implications it carries for us and our world. We believe that when we receive the message, the gospel, we encounter God and are changed.
We sing with joy and thanksgiving:
We respond to the ministry of God's Word with thanksgiving and praise.
We confess our Trinitarian faith and sing to God:
As we prepare to participate in a Trinitarian meal at the Lord's Table, we confess our Trinitarian faith with either the Apostles' or Nicene Creed and then sing the Gloria Patri. This is more than a rehearsal of the truths to which we subscribe; this is a pledge of allegiance to our Lord and Savior; a renewal of our covenant vows. By confessing and singing these glorious truths we follow the pattern of many generations of Christians from all over the world who have lived and died in the Lord.
As we prepare to come to The Table of the Lord we respond with an ancient dialogue between the minister and the congregation. This dialogue contains the sursum corda: "Lift up your hearts!" These words reminds us that during communion we really do ascend into heaven, however mysteriously, and receive in a spiritual way the body and blood of our risen Lord through faith which is the hand and mouth of our souls. We then join with the angles and sing the Sanctus (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:1-5:14).
We Give Thanks: and when he had given thanks…
Before Jesus distributed the bread and the wine to his disciples, he gave thanks (Luke 22:17, Luke 22:19; Mark 12:23). The church throughout history has done the same.
God invites us to a meal:
The signature feast of Christians has many names: the Love Feast, the Freedom Meal, the Breaking of Bread, the Lord’s Supper, Communion (from “sharing”), the Eucharist (from “thank you”), and the Mass (from “Go, you are sent out”). This celebratory holy meal has always been a common, shared, joyous meal for those who have been baptized and professed their faith in Jesus. We look back to Christ's once-for-all sacrificial death and look forward to his return. When we celebrate the Lord's Supper we commune with the risen Lord Jesus who by the grace of the Holy Spirit seals to us the forgiveness of our sins and feeds us truly with himself. Indeed, Jesus promises to be present with us in this spiritual meal, “feeding” our souls with himself. Here we also commune with one another as the body of Christ as we participating together in the reconciling grace of God.
We invite all who follow Jesus to partake of the Lord’s Supper – Baptized Christians who have placed their faith in Jesus, are at peace with God and others, and seek strength to live more faithfully for Christ. If you are not yet a Christian, or if you are a Christian who is not prepared to share in this meal, we warn you of God's judgment, encourage you to abstain with humble or prayerful observation in the hopes that you may consider your relationship with Jesus and with his church.
God sends us out in His power
Our worship service concludes with a “benediction,” where God places his blessing and very name upon his people (Numbers 6:24-26). As God has placed his name upon us in baptism he does so once again in blessing as he sends us out blessed and empowered to live for him. God promises that he will go with us as we take the grace we’ve just experienced and extend it to our city and world. This is a blessing, not a prayer, so we encourage you to receive it with your heads up and your eyes open, looking at the pastor. Just as we began with God’s gracious summons and call to worship, so we end with God's gracious blessing and promise to be with us and empower us for his mission.