Why Worship the Way We Do?
Does God care “how” we worship him? Modern church culture has spent the last fifty years telling us that God is only concerned “that” we worship him and the “how” is irrelevant. We believe Scripture, as well as church history, teaches otherwise. Certainly, there are cultural considerations that display the beauty of the diverse body of Christ across all nations and languages but the standard, motivation, and goal of our worship will and must affect our form.
Exodus 25 gives us helpful guardrails using Israel’s worship of God and the Tabernacle. First, our worship must come from gratitude to God for his grace or it is empty (Ex. 25:2). Second, the goal of our worship must be communion with the living God (Ex. 25:8). And thirdly, our worship should be ordered according to God’s instruction (Ex. 25:40). The standard, motivation, and goal of our worship is on display throughout the law, into the teachings of Jesus, and the letters of Paul which are all the words of God (2 Tim. 3:16).
It should not need to be said, but it does, that because God is holy our worship of him should be reverent and set apart from anything else we do. It is for this reason we seek to strike that tone in our services at King’s from the very first prayer. We always open our services with a trinitarian prayer of adoration. Our hope is that from the very first “Our Father,” people recognize the seriousness of what is about to take place.
We sing in our services because it is the testimony of the whole of Scripture that God’s people are a singing people. From the song of Moses after crossing the Red Sea (Ex. 15) to the Psalms to Jesus and the disciples singing after eating the Passover to the epistolary commands to sing to each other (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16) to the new songs sung by the redeemed in Revelation (Rev. 5, 14), there is no way you can read the Bible and not come away with how important it is for God’s people to sing. Because of this we put great emphasis at King’s on “strong congregational singing” believing that the voices of the people are the most important instrument when we gather.
When we open our services with a call to worship, center our service on the preaching of God’s Word and close our services with a benediction from God’s Word, we are saying that Scripture guides everything we do. We hold a core belief that when we gather, we are not doing anything new but standing on the shoulders of saints who have gone before us. Our use of historic creeds, confessions, and catechisms connect us with the church at all times and in all places. We address their use as well as weekly communion in other essays. We close our services with the congregation joining hands and singing The Doxology which ties everything together and shows our commitment to each other until the next Lord’s Day.
For a discussion among the Pastors on this same topic check out Why Worship the Way We Do in the podcast archives.
Exodus 25 gives us helpful guardrails using Israel’s worship of God and the Tabernacle. First, our worship must come from gratitude to God for his grace or it is empty (Ex. 25:2). Second, the goal of our worship must be communion with the living God (Ex. 25:8). And thirdly, our worship should be ordered according to God’s instruction (Ex. 25:40). The standard, motivation, and goal of our worship is on display throughout the law, into the teachings of Jesus, and the letters of Paul which are all the words of God (2 Tim. 3:16).
It should not need to be said, but it does, that because God is holy our worship of him should be reverent and set apart from anything else we do. It is for this reason we seek to strike that tone in our services at King’s from the very first prayer. We always open our services with a trinitarian prayer of adoration. Our hope is that from the very first “Our Father,” people recognize the seriousness of what is about to take place.
We sing in our services because it is the testimony of the whole of Scripture that God’s people are a singing people. From the song of Moses after crossing the Red Sea (Ex. 15) to the Psalms to Jesus and the disciples singing after eating the Passover to the epistolary commands to sing to each other (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16) to the new songs sung by the redeemed in Revelation (Rev. 5, 14), there is no way you can read the Bible and not come away with how important it is for God’s people to sing. Because of this we put great emphasis at King’s on “strong congregational singing” believing that the voices of the people are the most important instrument when we gather.
When we open our services with a call to worship, center our service on the preaching of God’s Word and close our services with a benediction from God’s Word, we are saying that Scripture guides everything we do. We hold a core belief that when we gather, we are not doing anything new but standing on the shoulders of saints who have gone before us. Our use of historic creeds, confessions, and catechisms connect us with the church at all times and in all places. We address their use as well as weekly communion in other essays. We close our services with the congregation joining hands and singing The Doxology which ties everything together and shows our commitment to each other until the next Lord’s Day.
For a discussion among the Pastors on this same topic check out Why Worship the Way We Do in the podcast archives.
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