This Guide to Worship is for helping the individual Christian understand what we are doing in worship, why we are doing it, and be able to fully participate in it.
Call to Worship
The Call to Worship is the intentional gathering of individual Christians at the start of the service. It is the time we intentionally see ourselves as one body coming to worship God.
Psalm 95:6
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
Psalm 95:6
Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
Singing
Scripture calls us to sing praise to God as one voice when worshipping Him. In the words of a song we pray, give thanks, and have our hearts prepared to hear His Word preached. Whether or not we are musical, every one of us is called to praise God in song.
Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Colossians 3:16
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.
Confession & Assurance of Pardon
Confession is admitting to God and ourselves that we fell short of His standard this past week. We are sinners, born into sin and unable to manage it on our own. It leaves us feeling separated from Him. But God, deeply desiring to bring us back into fellowship with Him, made a way for us. In confession, we give our sin to Jesus on the cross and take hold again of His righteousness, that is, a right standing before God. Confession and the promise of pardon that follows it position us to be restored.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Preaching
Preaching is the central act of the service. God speaks through His Word in Scripture and the sermon is how His people hear it. The Word is read, explained, reflected on and applied to our lives.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
2 Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
Response
After hearing God's Word preached, we are called to respond to it. We are not passive listeners and His Word calls for an answer. We can respond by singing, praying, or taking the Lord's Supper, also called Communion.
James 1:22
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
James 1:22
But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
Sending
Worship doesn't end when the service does. We leave blessed and sent out to carry God's presence and Word into the world.
Matthew 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
Matthew 28:19-20
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.