Worship is…Word Centered

Dear Worshippers,

We spent the last two weeks thinking about how worship is not synonymous with music. Now I would like to take a journey through what worship is. As I said, you may be surprised that none of the things the Elders are considering as core values of our worship are necessarily music-oriented. Actually none of them deal with elements at all, but rather deal with the essentials of worship. They are more the why than the what of worship, if you will.

Consistent with the history and heartbeat of our church, the first value that surfaced was that Worship is Word centered. Probably the most defensible of all the values, it sits right at the top of the list because of the centrality of the Scripture in the life of faith in general and certainly in the gatherings of the people of God in particular. There are any number of Scriptures that speak to each of these realities, but the ones we are recommending for inclusive in the philosophical document are these:

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

2 Timothy 3:16-17

The law of the LORD is perfect,
reviving the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
making wise the simple. Verse 7 from Psalm 19:7-14

I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love,
and I meditate on your decrees. Verse 48 from Psalm 119

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. Isaiah 55:10-11

Clearly the Word must have a central place in our individual lives and accordingly our corporate gatherings. How do we express that? We read the Word. We preach the Word. We sing the Word. We pray the Word. We honor the Word. [Everything that we do in the service must be in line with the Word.]

As is the case with this, so it is with all the values. The intent of the corporate gathering is that it is a collective demonstration of what we desire to be expressed in each of our lives individually. Living the Call when we are dispersed should certainly be illustrated by Living the Call Together when we gather. And we do that through His power which is ushered in through our knowledge of Him according to His Word.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. 2 Peter 1:3-4

May our individual lives of worship be Word centered, so that when we join together in our corporate worship it will be Word centered as well.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott