Core Values: Relevant Worship

LFC Core Values: Passionate, Relevant Authentic Worship

Would it surprise you to know that there are almost no references in the New Testament about how to conduct a worship service? Almost nothing is said about how to run one, what to include in it, whether to sing or chant or be silent, whether to have a sermon or a Bible reading, or whether Communion is central or happens before or after, or whether choirs should sing or not, or …

Get the picture!

And yet the Worship service is so central to church life now. So much so that if a person says “I go to church” most people translate that to mean that a person joins in the weekly worship service. This seems to imply that the only important thing about being a Christian in a Church community is whether a person participates in the Sunday Worship! And yet the New Testament strongly contrasts by its relative silence.

But the New Testament does talk about worship…

In Romans 12:1-3

¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is true worship. ² Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

There it is: the true way to honour God is by living differently to the way the world lives. This is the kind of response that shows God that he is truly loved. Worship is a 24/7 thing.

So what about Sunday worship? That is where we spend some quality time with God hearing again his call to live entirely in his Grace and forgiveness. To hear the stories of why we are here and what God will do through us if we live by his Spirit and not in our own strength. The Sunday worship energises and focuses our real worship-life itself.

Our core value at LFC says

We seek to express our love for God in passionate, relevant and authentic worship.

Does our core value mean worship on a Sunday or worship 24/7? What do you think?

Graeme H.