Worship

Corporate worship at Community is just an hour on Sunday, but it means far more. Worship is the fuel by which we get the energy to live the Christian life. To fail to worship would certainly lead to a malnourished life. Worship is more than what happens in a building on Sunday morning. It is a lifestyle. What we do on Sundays is one aspect of a life that brings glory to God. Corporate worship flows out of and into individual worship. They intrinsically play off one another. We learn important lessons from both types of worship that lead us into a deeper relationship with God.

The Lesson of Individual Worship

The key lesson gained from individual worship is the idea that we must worship honestly. The danger as we move from individual worship into corporate worship is the idea that we have to fit the cultural climate of community worship. Expectations have to be met, styles have to be mimicked, and before long our worship can lose authenticity. Yet when worshiping alone, it is easier to worship as one’s self. There is no one to impress. There is no one watching. Individual worship tends to be void of self-awareness. It is an action in which we open our hearts honestly before God. We no longer have to protect ourselves, and so we are deeply aware of our situation, our sin, our need, and we are honest about it all before God. In individual worship, we worship as ourselves.

The Lesson of Community Worship

We must worship in a community if we ever desire to deepen our vision of God. Community worship expands our knowledge, ability, and experience. This is the place we are led in prayer, forcing us to pray for things we otherwise wouldn’t consider. This is the place we sing songs that we don’t choose, forcing melodies and words with which otherwise we would not associate. This is the place we are led in Bible study, opening up sections of Scripture we might not read and providing insights which we might never understand. This is the place that other worship styles may be introduced, showing us multiple ways of worship. Some are more expressive, others are more solemn. Some are more reflective, while others are more celebratory. All are vital to our spiritual development. Without community worship we forever would worship in the same style and worship the same attributes of God. By worshiping with other people, we are drawn into a deeper worship of God.

The difficulty and the challenge is to take the lessons learned from both types of worship and to incorporate one set into the other. In individual worship, we seek for the depth of vision that we experienced in corporate worship. In Psalm 63, the psalmist searches for God in the midst of his situation, and that search is nourished by the glimpse of God he receives in corporate worship at the Temple. In corporate worship, we seek for the depth of honesty that we experience in individual worship. By extending our worship of God as individuals, we extend our worship as a community. In community worship our experiences are tied together. The more one person grows this week, the more someone else will have an opportunity to grow today. The deeper one person goes in worship, the deeper someone else will be given a chance to go today. In community worship, everything that we do and are affects the experience that everyone else has. If you do something distracting, we are all distracted. If you check out, we all suffer. If you are passionately involved in what is going on, we all are benefited. Individual worship is integral to our community experience. Likewise, our community experience is integral to our individual experience. It teaches us how to better worship God. It provides the tools by which we grow.

Definitions and Descriptions

"Worship" literally defined means to "bow down." The English form of the word means to declare the worth of a person or a thing. We declare God’s worth by "bowing down."

Worship is both a subjective experience and an objective activity. But one of the more shocking omissions from the Bible is a full definition of how the church should worship. There is little doubt that worship is an important theme throughout the Bible. Early in the Old Testament, many rules and regulations were given to God’s people describing how and where they should worship. Time and time again the people failed to worship God, and they were punished. The prophets chastised the people for improper worship and hypocritical worship. Jesus is seen at worship services in the Temple in the New Testament. While he was sickened by many of the worship practices of the Pharisees, he never said we should stop worshiping, but instead told us to worship "in spirit and in truth." Romans 1 tells us that the chief sin of humanity is a failure to worship God for who he is.

Worship is a major theme and yet we lack a definition of how it is to be done. Lacking any definition, we still do many of the same things that people did before Christ came which are described in both the Old and New Testaments—we gather, we sing, we pray, we read Scripture, and someone teaches to challenge and encourage us. The only new elements that Christ brought to our worship are baptism and Communion.

Two Ordinances

The only two acts which Jesus instructed the church to carry out are baptism and communion. Both illustrate a key principle to worship. Worship may best be described as revelation and response. God reveals himself, and humanity responds to that revelation. Baptism is our response to the inner work of salvation that God reveals through his son. As an act of faith, and in order to publicly proclaim what God has done for us, we worship God through baptism. Communion is our remembrance of his death, burial, and resurrection. We respond to God by the eating of the bread and the drinking of the cup. Some traditions celebrate every day, some each week, but we do not keep a set schedule. We attempt to include communion in a meaningful addition to worship when possible. It is our belief that any person who has made a commitment to Christ is welcome to join us when communion is an aspect of our worship.

Music

It is no accident that music plays a vital role in our worship. From the earliest known history of faith music was an essential aspect, so much so that one of the longest books of the Bible is a book of songs. Music is an aspect of worship. Often we wrongly describe our services as being composed of music and then message. This is a misleading description; singing praises to God and listening to his word are equally worship. Yet this in no way diminishes the value of music to the spiritual life of the community.

The skill level of our musicians is a striking element of Community. Without shame we desire that every note played and every song sung will be done so with the highest manner of excellence and all to the glory of God. The focus on our worship, however, is not musical greatness. It is a meaningful response to God. Our band is not present to be on display; their desire is to lead us into the presence of God. Every person is invited to be a participant in worship to sing, to listen, to pray, and to glorify God in every action.

Our musical style is under constant review. We provide music that we believe to be culturally relevant and theologically accurate. Anyone who has a desire to become a member of the worship team is welcome to schedule an audition.

Teaching

The teaching time during worship is focused on one thing—hearing what God has to say. For this reason it does not matter which teaching pastor is doing the speaking; our focus remains the same, listening to God. We choose to use more than one speaker for a variety of reasons. Having one speaker could limit our view of God. It could lack variety. It could create an inability to learn from others. It could too closely tie a congregation’s spiritual life to one person. By using multiple speakers over the course of a year we are given a variety of experience, style, and emphasis. The congregation benefits from more meaningful lessons during worship and our teaching pastors benefit from not only hearing one another but also from extended time in study and preparation. We intentionally choose not to pre-announce who will be speaking because we believe it is not important. We do not participate in worship to hear from a certain person; we participate in worship to respond to God.

Prayer

Prayer is not a program at Community — it is a constant lifestyle. It is an essential element of our worship long before anyone gathers on Sunday. From planning to practicing, prayer is a constant activity of everyone involved, and especially with those charged to lead others in worship. Our teaching pastors prayerfully prepare their messages. Our musicians prayerfully plan their song selections. We encourage all that attend to prayerfully anticipate and prepare their hearts before worship. In worship we take time to pray for the needs of others, to invite God into our services, and to express our every need and desire to him. When someone leads us in prayer during services, our heads may be bowed and our eyes maybe closed, but our minds and hearts should be fully engaged.

Offering

In most of our services the opportunity to give support to the financial needs of the church is presented. The offering is a time for our members and regular attendees. It is not geared toward anyone who would not consider Community Bible Church his or her church home. Giving should be done in the most private and yet worshipful way. Giving records are extremely confidential and are only seen by the staff member making the weekly deposit. The pastors of Community do not seek out the specific giving history of any individuals.

Children, Worship, and Adult Themes

The Bible is not as tame as sometimes I would like to make it. If I were God I would have never have placed in Holy Writ verses that blatantly talk about sex, genitals, graphic descriptions of murder, etc. However, He allowed such discussions and we are left trying to deal with the Scripture that we have been given.

The struggle for worship leaders is living between two desires: 1) to preach the full counsel of God and; 2) to be sensitive to immature ears that might be present during worship. In an attempt to gratify both desires we have devised the following ministry philosophy.

First, we seek to be relevant to our audience therefore we chose to have children’s worship and adult worship. While there are negatives in splitting the family’s worship experience, we believe there are more positives. By having a service which targets children’s issues we can insure that children will have an opportunity to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ in a way that is fun and appropriate for their age level.

Second, we attempt to confront adult themes but to do so with great caution and sensitivity. The Bible is relevant toward every activity of life and God is attempting to transform the whole person therefore we will attempt to preach toward the whole person. This means confronting adult themes. However, we will not exploit these themes simply for entertainment purposes.

Third, we believe that if a child is old enough to understand the discussion of an adult topic during a teaching time, they are old enough to have already discussed that theme with their parents.

Finally, when torn between our desire to be sensitive and the truth of a Biblical topic or metaphor we will submit to the Bible. If the day’s passage has sexual language or graphic violence, we will not soften the Biblical language for the sake of innocent ears. The only exception may be during services without childcare such as Christmas Eve.

We do not take our responsibility lightly in preparing a worship experience that is meaningful, Scriptural, and in the end glorifying to God. While mistakes have and will be made, we trust that God will take our feeble attempts and use them for His purposes.

The toughest aspect of worship is simple — it’s not about you. Consider the following:

"People have the tendency to approach worship as consumers. The focus is on my experience, sitting back with arms folded and saying to those leading worship, Wow me. Do something to grab my attention, catch my interest. They assume worship is like watching a movie; it’s something I critique afterward. Can you imagine the Israelites, freshly delivered from slavery, before a mountain that trembles violently with the presence of God (Exodus 19), muttering: 'We’re leaving because we’re not singing the songs we like. Like that tambourine song, how come they don’t do that tambourine song anymore?' 'I don’t like it when Moses leads worship; Aaron’s better.' 'This is too formal — all that smoke and mystery. I like casual worship.' 'It was okay, except for Miriam’s dance — too wild, not enough reverence. And I don’t like the tambourine.' No, scripture doesn’t read like that. The people were filled with awe and wonder and trembling and hope and fear, because there in the middle of nowhere, before this bunch of ex-slaves, was God." (John Ortberg)

If worship is the supreme goal, our highest aspiration, then we should pursue and discover its treasure with all our attention. Satan will try to derail our pursuit. Therefore, it’s important to recognize some of the tools he will use against us. Note each of the following hindrances to worship:

• An Unsurrendered Heart (Matthew 16:24-25) — If our focus is not worship, naturally our thoughts will wander and drift to other issues.
• Unconfessed Sin (1 John 1:9) — Confession of personal sin cleanses our conscience and redirects our focus. By acknowledging our sin, our ability to worship is restored.
• Wrong Attitude (Philippians 2:5; 4:8) — Whatever the motive for a bad attitude, it hinders our ability to worship.
• Enemy Opposition (James 4:7) — Satan does not want us to worship.
• Fatigue (Psalm 23:2-3a) — If you can’t stay awake, you can’t worship. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do is getting a good night’s rest.
• Faithlessness (Mark 9:24) — Even though we might believe and trust in God, isolated pockets of disbelief and/or disobedience will interrupt our ability to worship.