What Unites Us in Worship
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Highlights
- God-Centeredness. We put a high priority onthe vertical focus of our Sunday morning service. The ultimate aimis to experience God in such a way that he is glorified in ouraffections. ⤴️
- Expecting the powerful presence of God. Wedo not just direct ourselves toward him. We earnestly seek hisdrawing near according to the promise of James 4:8. We believe thatin worship God draws near to us in power, and makes himself knownand felt for our good and for the salvation of unbelievers in themidst. ⤴️
- Bible-based and Bible-saturated. The contentof our singing and praying and welcoming and preaching and poetryshould always conform to the truth of Scripture. But more thanthat, the content of God’s Word should be woven through all we doin worship and will be the ground of all our appeal toauthority. ⤴️
- Head and heart. The elements of our worshipservice should aim at kindling and carrying deep, strong, realemotions toward God, especially joy, but should not manipulatepeople’s emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking aboutspiritual things based on shareable evidences outsideourselves. ⤴️
- Earnestness and intensity. We will try toavoid being trite, flippant, superficial, or frivolous, but insteadwill aim to set an example of reverence and passion and wonder andbroken-hearted joy. ⤴️
- Authentic communication. We utterly renounceall sham, deceit, hypocrisy, pretense, affectation, and posturing.We do not pursue the atmosphere of artistic or oratoricalperformance, but the atmosphere of a radically personal encounterwith God and truth. ⤴️
- The manifestation of God and the commongood. We expect and hope and pray (according to 1 Cor.12:7) that our focus on the manifesting of God is good for peopleand that a spirit of love for each other is not incompatible with,but necessary to, authentic worship. ⤴️
- Undistracting excellence. We will try tosing and play and pray and preach in such a way that people’sattention will not be diverted from the substance by shoddyministry nor by excessive finesse, elegance, or refinement.Natural, undistracting excellence will let the truth and beauty ofGod shine through. We will invest in equipment good enough to beundistracting in transmitting heartfelt truth. ⤴️
- The mingling of historic and contemporarymusic. No church or service can be all things to allpeople. But we do not value stylistic narrowness. We believe thereare affections owing to God that different tunes and differenttexts and different genres may awaken better than others. We willstrive to be who we are without exalting our own tastes as thestandard of excellence or power. We will see God’s guidance in eachworship setting to be both indigenous and stretching. ⤴️