What Is the Thinking Behind the Way We Worship?

 

Every church has a liturgy (order of worship).  The question is, what is the reason that a church worships in a certain style?  We believe that there must be something more than preference behind the answer to that question. 

We all worship someone or something.  But are we worshiping the right One in the right way.  At FOLC, we recognize that all of life is worship to God (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:31).    The Scripture reveals the majestic triune God who alone is worthy of our worship.  To Him belongs glory and honor and power (Rev. 4:11).  When we gather on Sunday as a congregation to worship, we want all that we do to be pleasing to Him.  To gather as His people under the authority of His word and give Him the praise that is due Him is our solemn calling and joyous privilege.  With this lofty reality in mind, we hold to number of values when it comes to corporate worship.
 

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Why We Worship the Way We Do
 
Glory to God
Worship is ultimately for Him and to Him.  He is the reason and the focus of all that we do at every service.



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Edifying to God’s People
Corporate worship also serves to build up the body of Christ.  Believers should be equipped, comforted, corrected, and exhorted.



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Understandable
Often during a service, new words or concepts may be introduced.  The aim is to make the service intelligible to both Christians and non-Christians.



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Biblical
The whole service informs God’s people, so everything−the prayers, the songs, the preaching−must be biblical.  We like the summary:  In worship we read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, sing the Bible, and see the Bible in the sacraments.



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Making Use of the Normal Means of Grace

God can work in many ways, but He has committed to being near to us and transforming us through certain “means of grace.”  He communes with us through prayer, through the word, and through the sacraments of the Lord’s Supper and Baptism.  Our services emphasize these ordinary means whereby God promises to give us more grace.

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Expositional Preaching
One of the most important aspects of the worship service is the preaching of God’s word.  We believe this is best accomplished through careful, Spirit-filled exposition of Scripture.  Normally, this means we work systematically through a book of the Bible, verse by verse.  No matter the approach (verse by verse, topical, thematic, etc.), every sermon should flow from Scripture and proclaim the Gospel of Christ’s saving death and resurrection.  Preaching sermons whose main points come from the main points of the text makes God’s agenda rule the church, not the preacher’s.

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Thoughtful

Every church has a liturgy.  Our service involves four parts:  praise, renewal, proclamation, and response.  We see this pattern in the covenant renewal ceremonies of Scripture and in various divine encounters.  In Isaiah 6, for example, Isaiah comes before God and praises Him; then He confesses his sin and seeks renewal; God then speaks his word to Isaiah; and Isaiah then responds with commitment to God.  This is also a Gospel pattern:  Approach God in awe, confess our sin, hear the good news, respond in faith and obedience.



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Historical
The Church has been thinking about how to worship the true and living God for centuries.  We want to learn from our spiritual ancestors and build on their right practices.  To that end, we regularly employ creeds, collects, and responsive readings that have been common in church history.



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Both Old and New
We believe there are new songs to be sung to Jesus.  We also believe that there is a great heritage of church music that we should continue to embrace.  You will find that our services employ music form different genres and different centuries.  Songs may be fast, loud, slow, or soft.  We use a variety of instruments, everything from the piano and guitars to the organ.  In all this, the most important sound is that of the congregation singing.  We do not choose songs merely from preference, we choose songs that reflect biblical and theological truth.

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Prayerful
Our services will include many prayers.  Often you find a prayer of confession because we realize that we still sin and need Gospel mercy every week.  We usually have a longer congregational prayer where we will pray for the needs of our church family and other important world events.  We always pray and ask God to illumine His word and write His truth upon our hearts.  The house of God  must be a house of prayer because the fountain of everything we need is the Lord God Himself.