All churches have a "worship service", but why?  Why does Redeemer's worship look the way it does?

Here are some thoughts on what we call our "Philosophy of Worship" at Redeemer.

Worship is what we were created for.  Everyone worships something.  Christian worship (deriving from “worth-ship”) means declaring the infinite worth and the gracious redeeming work of God.  It is glorifying God for who He is and what He has done.  That is what is taking place in heaven right now and it is what the Church will do for all of eternity.  For this reason, worship is at the center of all that we do.  It is what everything else in the life of the church revolves around.  We study the Bible so that we can know who God is in all of His wonder and the exceeding greatness of all that His redemption entails and worship Him for it.  And we do this as a community being continually shaped by the Gospel. 

Worship gives us a place to express the whole range of human emotions – from great joy, to mourning, sorrow over sin, and thankfulness to the God who redeems.  God doesn’t expect us to check our emotions at the door.  But worship is also primarily a formative experience where God actually shapes our hearts and desires to conform us into the image of His Son.

Our Worship will be God-Centered

Worship is about God and His glory.  Worship must always be God-centered.  He is the main actor, the main event.  We worship because God is worthy of worship, it is what we were created for (Psalm 19, 148), and because it gives us a foretaste of heavenly worship.  (Rev. 4-5).  In corporate worship, heaven and earth united.

 

The Structure of Worship

The word “liturgy” may make some people feel uncomfortable.  It may conjure up ideas of lifeless formality or words without meaning.  But the word - “liturgy” – simply means the “work of the people” and refers to an “order of worship”.  EVERY church and EVERY worship service has a “liturgy”.  Some more basic, some more detailed.

 

There is not just one biblical order for worship.  But the question we must always ask is: “Why do we do what we do what we do in worship?  Why do we do it when we do it?  What structures our service and what does the flow communicate?”

 

At Redeemer, worship is ordered around the Gospel.

 

Gospel-Centered Worship

What does it mean to order worship around the gospel?  It means that weekly corporate worship is a “drama of redemption”.  It is the truths of the Gospel lived out before us week by week.  Worship is a drama which has actors, a set, and a story or plot line.

The plot line revolves around a key theological term – “covenant”.  God’s covenant promise runs through the whole Bible – “I will be your God and you will be my people.”

Worship is a weekly covenant renewal ceremony where God assures us of His love, forgiveness, and presence as we trust in His provision of Jesus Christ for us.  So in worship, God is seen to be the great Giver.  In worship, we receive gifts from God.

God is the main actor who enters into conversation with His people.  Worship is dialogical, which means it is a conversation between God and His people.  God, the main actor, initiates this conversation just as He initiates grace in the Gospel of salvation.  In worship, God speaks and we respond.

In the Call to Worship, the Sovereign Lord summons His people into His presence to worship Him.

In the Invocation, God’s people ask for God’s presence and Holy Spirit to help us worship.

After God tells us who He is, His people hear or sing of God’s worth or holiness.  We then respond by telling God who we are in confession of our sins.

God then assures those who repent of their sins of His pardon and forgiveness.  In turn, God’s people respond to His grace with gratitude.

God tells of His provision and we respond by bringing our needs to Him.

God gives His Word and we respond to that Word.

 

Our Worship will be Word-Centered

God’s Word will fill our worship.  The “means” God uses to communicate His redemption to us, to give us His grace are His Word, the sacraments, and prayer.  Preaching is not just words about God, but God speaking to us!  The sacraments – baptism and Lord’s Supper – are a “visible word” through which God communicates the Gospel in symbols.  The sacraments communicate to all our senses.

 

Preaching is the means God uses to bring life to dead bones and to grow us.  Preaching is how God proclaims the Gospel bringing people to faith, repentance, and new life.

The sacraments confirm the Gospel and nurture our faith.  The Lord’s Supper is how God feeds His people with Jesus.  In the Lord’s Supper, Christ is actually present to our faith.  We “taste and see that the Lord is good.”  The Lord’s Supper is one of the primary means God has given for our spiritual growth and so we will celebrate it every week.

The Lord’s Supper symbolizes not only communion with God, but with each other.  It reminds us that we are a body.  Christianity is not a private affair, but takes place in community. 

In worship, God re-orients our hearts through His Word.  We are reminded week by week of what is true reality as God speaks to us authoritatively.  Therefore, our worship will be saturated with God’s Word through Scripture readings, prayers, and songs.

 

Worship is a Community Event

In worship, God REALLY is present.  He REALLY meets with His people.  And not only adults.  The church is a community of all ages.  God wants to meet with our children.  So our goal is to have our children involved in worship as early as possible.  Sure, there will be much that they do not fully understand.  But worship is not just a place to gather information.  It is a place for transformation and covenant renewal and there is much that even children can understand and participate in.  God speaks to His people, renews His covenant, calls us to confession, assures us of His grace.  Our children need this!

 

Our Worship will be Intelligible

We will have a formal liturgy and we will use creeds.  Our preaching will be deep, theological, and expository.  Yet, it should not be unnecessarily difficult for people to understand what is taking place in our worship services.  Children, new Christians, and those exploring Christianity should be able to understand what we are doing.

Much will be foreign and new.  But we need to communicate what we do and why.

This does not mean that we will dumb things down, but simply strive to make them accessible.  Throughout the Bible, the worship of God’s people is supposed to take outsiders into consideration.  In 1 Corinthians 14, Paul commands that outsiders be able to understand what we are saying.

 

Worship is an Evangelistic Event

Worship is one of the main evangelistic opportunities of the church.  The technical term for this is doxological evangelism – proclaiming the truth of the gospel through worship.

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples! For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; he is to be feared above all gods.”  (Psalm 96:3-4 ESV)

In worship, God’s people declare in the midst of the nations God’s glory, His holiness, and His grace, calling everyone to repentance, faith, and worship.

Worship is at the center of the life of Redeemer.  We believe that God really shows up in a way He does not elsewhere.  THIS is the place God has said He will meet with His people.  This is where God communicates His grace to us.  Worship is where God gives us what we need most . . . Himself.  In worship we receive Jesus as He gives Himself to us in His Word and the sacraments.  God communicates to us and we respond in songs and prayers of adoration, confession, and praise.  Worship pumps the Gospel through the church body week after week, so that we are empowered to love and serve our neighbors and our city.