STATEMENT OF WORSHIP I. OBJECTIVES
1. The church gathers for worship, with focus on Christ alone. Our services seek to lift up the Lord, not make ourselves feel good. We continually seek God's guidance on how to proceed. We ask that worshipers pray for each service and commit to ongoing prayer, thought, and discussion on how to enact true worship.
While personal, daily worship is vital to Godly living, corporate worship is equally important, adding a deeper dimension that provides special strength and encouragement.
2. The core of worship is the celebration of Christ. We worship God in a variety of ways--including song, prayer, edification of one another, and contemplation of the Word--but all activities focus on Christ and His work. He is the mediator who makes worship possible. His Word is the vehicle for our communion with Him. His presence determines whether or not worship takes place.
3. Worship requires participation. We partake of the service and enter into each activity. We don't simply sit and observe. The worship team plans and prepares to the best of its ability, but the important activity is the congregational worship itself.
Think of the difference between planning a menu and actually sitting down and eating the meal. Planning is important--it's a time to determine the elements of the meal and what each item will do for us--but during the meal itself we quit analyzing and fully enter in, enjoying the nourishment and fellowship. The same is true of worship. We enjoy worship as we enjoy a good banquet, drawing nourishment from God's Spirit and encouragement from fellow believers.
Yet we don't worship for what we can get--that would be spiritual gluttony. Our focus remains Christ Himself.
4. Our music should encompass psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. A psalm is specifically a song out of the Book of Psalms and more generally a song based on any scripture. A hymn is a song with man-written lyrics, though obviously a good hymn draws on biblical truth. A spiritual song is impromptu, spontaneous singing.
The Psalms are our bread and butter. We should never tire of singing the eternal truths of scripture. Yet the Psalmist himself encourages us to sing a new song, and that's why every generation should create its own array of hymns, its own expressions of the unchanging Gospel. We are creative beings, made in God's image, and we naturally create new songs of joy and thanksgiving unto Him.
II. METHODS
1. We draw on a rich heritage. Christians have been worshipping God for 2,000 years and Jews for thousands of years longer. We draw on the wisdom and rich creativity of those who went before, examining all we do in the light of scripture and sifting proven methods of worship from pitfalls.
For example, we are prudent to use the church calendar to help us remember Christ's life and work. A proper celebration of Advent, Christmas, Easter, Ascension, and Pentecost can enrich our lives and and help us teach our children the basics of Christian faith. Yet we must avoid letting annual celebrations turn into empty ritual, as can easily happen.
We draw on the great hymns of the faith as well, yet we must not assume that because a hymn is popular its lyrics or music are fitting for true worship.
2. We must communicate with people today. The forms of worship inevitably change with changes in culture. We know that missionaries who have tried to import Western culture into foreign fields have generally failed; the Gospel itself is what works, not the forms that particular cultures have built up around it. We must not confuse the 12th- or 15th- or 19th-century Church with Christianity itself.
So we must speak, sing, and worship in forms that can be understood by new Christians, by those who did not grow up in the church. They should see that we are different and set-apart people, yet they should not feel like they just landed in an alien culture that has no relevance to them.
3. Our medium must be worthy of our message. The point above must be tempered with a strong caution--worship by its very nature also must transcend culture. Cultures such as ours--whose art, music, and philosophy are marred by violence, absurdity, and selfish pleasure--often contain no form that can communicate the high and majestic message of God. So our music and speech at times must be almost entirely different from that of our culture. We must rely on God's Spirit to know how to communicate effectively with those around us without stooping to the level of their art forms.
4. Worship services must be both free and orderly. Biblical worship involves the freedom of a lively faith as well as the order that characterizes our Creator-God. Order without freedom becomes unthinking ritual; freedom without order becomes chaos.
A Spirit-led service does not have to be impromptu. The Spirit can and should lead in the planning stages just as He leads during the service itself. We want to avoid a haphazard array of scripture and song that doesn't lead us anywhere. We choose music very carefully to help us respond to and meditate on the Word we have heard.
Generally worship moves through four stages:
we enter into God's presence;
we hear God speak;
we respond with thanksgiving;
we leave to serve others in His power and love.
We begin with praise music to help prepare our hearts for God's presence. Then we share with one another so that God can speak through individual members and we can all take part in building up the Body. Then we hear God's eternal Word spoken and unfolded. Then we respond to what we've heard, first through singing and then through prayer. Then we are dismissed to be salt and light in our culture.
5. There is no universal form of worship that can please everyone. The worship team welcomes your suggestions, because the worship service "belongs" to all of us and should be led by God's Spirit as He moves through all of us. The worship team wants to facilitate worship for everyone, not make it more difficult.
We must understand, however, that our fellowship includes a wide range of tastes and backgrounds. And beyond those individual tastes, we wrestle with the many variables described above: how to draw on our rich heritage, how to communicate with people of the 1990s, how to find the most appropriate medium to carry God's message, and, above all, how to please God Himself.
Obviously we will never find the perfect song or message or drama that meets every criteria and pleases everyone's taste, but that's part of what the Body of Christ is all about--learning to get along and edify one another in spite of our differences. We ask that you lay aside criticism and enter into worship wholeheartedly, then later reflect on how the service could be made better or more worshipful. Then bring us your reflections--we need to hear them.
If you have questions or comments about our church, please write to Richard McClintock, one of our elders, at rmcclintock@hsc.edu.
Faith Bible Fellowship - 207 N. Bridge Street - P.O. Box 917 - Farmville, VA 23901 - (434) 392-3702
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