Worship at Metro East (1)
April 23, 2008
The Seven Pillars is a tool that Metro East uses to help keep us faithful to those things that are most important to our identity as the Body of Christ. The first of the Seven Pillars is worship. The statement reads:
Honor God with biblical and excellent worship that engages both mind and affections
The church’s highest priority is worship. While evangelism and missions are limited to our time in this fallen world, worship will reach into eternity ( I Peter 2:9ff; Ephesians 1:12). The Westminster Shorter Catechism rightly points out: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
The word worship comes from the old English word “worthscipe” which expressed the idea of attributing worth to something or someone. When we worship God we acknowledge that He is intrinsically valuable. In other words, we worship God for the simple fact that He is worthy.
Worship is the privilege and glad duty of every Christian. We worship God by seeking His glory alone in everything we do (Rom 12:1; I Cor 10:31). It is an offering not merely of words but of our very lives to God. William Temple offers this excellent definition:
Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.
In addition to the individual element, worship is also to be understood in strongly corporate terms (Col 3:16-17). We are to proclaim the greatness and glory of God to one another. Worship “is the covenant community engaging with God, gathering with his people to seek the face of God, to glorify and enjoy Him, to hear His Word, to revel in the glory of union and communion with Him, to respond to His Word, to render praise back to Him, to give unto Him the glory due His name”[1]
[1] Duncan, J.L. (editor) Give Praise to God (Phillipsburg: P&R) p. 63.
Honor God with biblical and excellent worship that engages both mind and affections
The church’s highest priority is worship. While evangelism and missions are limited to our time in this fallen world, worship will reach into eternity ( I Peter 2:9ff; Ephesians 1:12). The Westminster Shorter Catechism rightly points out: “The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.”
The word worship comes from the old English word “worthscipe” which expressed the idea of attributing worth to something or someone. When we worship God we acknowledge that He is intrinsically valuable. In other words, we worship God for the simple fact that He is worthy.
Worship is the privilege and glad duty of every Christian. We worship God by seeking His glory alone in everything we do (Rom 12:1; I Cor 10:31). It is an offering not merely of words but of our very lives to God. William Temple offers this excellent definition:
Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of will to His purpose – and all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.
In addition to the individual element, worship is also to be understood in strongly corporate terms (Col 3:16-17). We are to proclaim the greatness and glory of God to one another. Worship “is the covenant community engaging with God, gathering with his people to seek the face of God, to glorify and enjoy Him, to hear His Word, to revel in the glory of union and communion with Him, to respond to His Word, to render praise back to Him, to give unto Him the glory due His name”[1]
[1] Duncan, J.L. (editor) Give Praise to God (Phillipsburg: P&R) p. 63.
