The Work of the Word in Worship
How does the Bible shape the worship of the Lord? This article considers how God's Word informs and reforms our worship.
How does the Bible shape the worship of the Lord? This article considers how God's Word informs and reforms our worship.
Many people tend to mistakenly think that worship is an expression we activate whenever we want to express our feelings. But, as this article explains, biblical worship is not about how we feel. Rather it is about what we know to be true about God and what he has promised in his Word.
Is it proper to worship and pray to the Holy Spirit? The article provides a biblical answer to the question.
Is it appropriate to lift your hands during worship? This article offers ten considerations on the matter, advocating for the lifting of hands in worship.
Is it possible to still glorify God in worship when you find little appeal in it? This article responds by saying that it is possible, and urges the struggling worshipper to continue to worship, with the wish and prayer that God would rekindle a thirst for worship.
Because God seeks to be worshipped on his own terms, worship should have God as the only audience, it cannot be a form of entertainment and it must have an eternal impact.
How do you draw near to God in a way that you can discover his wonders? This article addresses this question, explaining that true worship is drawing near to God in a mind renewed by the truth of God. It offers some pointers on how to prepare for worship.
Real worship is costly. It will cost personal and corporate worship preparation. It will cost churches tendencies toward a people-pleasing style of leadership. This article (a letter) reflects such a struggle and search for real worship.
Real, authentic biblical worship is at its core a celebration of the living, dying, and rising of Christ. This article reflects upon models for evangelism through worship.
This article focuses on celebration in worship and in particular what can be learned from Africans in this respect.
This article reviews the book Participating in Worship: History, Theory, and Practice by Craig Erickson, which argues that worship needs to become more participatory through the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit.
This article reflects on the church's worship as an echo of the praise of the heavenly chorus and celebration of Christ's completed and continuing work for us.
How does a worship leader prepare to lead the congregation in worship on Sundays? This article focuses on the personal preparation of the worship leader.
This article is a short reflection on worship as an activity of the people of God that must be approached with utmost seriousness and care.
Many congregations make use of children's bulletins to help bridge the generation gap in worship. Making use of pictures and quizzes, such bulletins involve the children in the service and answer some of the questions children ask about worship and general church life. This article gives some suggestions on how to use such a bulletin to enhance the participation of children in the worship service.
This article discusses the use of handbells as musical instrument in worship.
Gratitude for a church's heritage and reflection on its significance can add depth to its worship. This article wants to be a help in preparation of a Reformation Day liturgy.
A frequently debated question on public worship is, Which are more appropriate in the worship service—free prayers or set prayers? This article reflects on the place of spontaneous and formal prayers in worship.
Do you preach doxologically? This article shows how preaching itself needs to be an act of worship.
The order of worship is something whose meaning and significance can be lost on worshippers. By focusing on the meaning of the salutation at the beginning of a worship service, the author shows that understanding the meaning of this can keep worshipers humble and grateful for God’s grace.
Is there a link between worship and ethics in Romans 12? Too often the main inspiration for Paul's thinking behind this text is ignored. The biblical-theological background to Paul's argument and the wider context of Romans must be taken into consideration. Peterson argues that the first two verses of Romans 12 proclaim a reversal of the downward spiral depicted in Romans 1.
Public worship is a means of grace. How can you benefit from public worship? This article lists three things.
This is a study of the main ethical points found in the decision of the Jerusalem council in Acts 15:4-29. It proposes that the council members attitudes of mutual trust, honoring God and his Word, and responding with some concession toward the others form important parts of the ethical teaching. The situation of the council is described in terms of the historical background and the flow of the narrative.
How do you deal with distractions of the mind during worship? This article looks at three such types and how you can remedy them.
What is the role of congregational praise in worship? This article is a short survey of some of the biblical evidence.
Worship that aims at God’s glory will be characterized by solemnity, simplicity, and orderliness. This article explains what this all means.
The call for liturgical renewal, that worship be more user-friendly, exuberant, and ritualistic is a man-centred call. This article shows why this call is not biblical, defending the Reformed character of worship.
To worship God is to enter God’s presence in order to have fellowship with him. This article explains the character of this worship and its nature.
This article reflects on music in worship, and says that it must be structurally sound. The text and the tune need to be well-matched. The article provides a host of useful questions to ask in evaluating the merits of a song for worship, and they revolve around three standards: the insight, perfection, and inexhaustibility of the song.
Reformed worship has been accused of being a one-man show. This article shows that such an accusation cannot stand. From the beginning the Reformers understood that all members participate in public worship.
The second commandment is related to how God’s people must worship him. This article looks at the reasons why God forbids the use of images. It looks at the explanation of this commandment from Lord’s Day 35, showing that it points to a regulative principle of worship.
Psalm singing and the regulative principle of worship cannot be separated. This article calls for singing psalms in worship, giving both the historical and biblical grounds for such a call.
The act and content of worship are important to God. Knowing this should shape the way congregational worship is conducted. From Psalm 96:9 this article shows that worship must be covenantal, holy, and fearful.
This article looks at the place of preaching, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper in public worship.
Reformed worship cannot be judged by whether is it traditional or contemporary. In its nature it is covenantal. The nature of covenant worship is found in its union between God and his people, centred on God’s Word. In this article the focus is on preaching in worship.
What is worship? It is essentially the glorifying of God by responding to his revelation of himself.
This article considers what happens when worship appeals to the senses of man: a return the Old Testament forms of worship.
The goal of this volume is to present the worldview characteristic of different periods of Western thought. In Chapter 1 Frame explores the ancient Greek worldview and evaluates it in the light of the gospel.
This article provides a brief discussion on the lack of scriptural justification for an altar call in public worship.
Why do we worship the way we do? This is the question this booklet seeks to answer. It looks at corporate worship from a Presbyterian practice. It examines the principles of worship, preparing for worship, and the elements of liturgy: salutation, prayer, singing, offering, place of sacraments, and the benediction.
In this chapter John Frame argues for a limited use of Christian Contemporary Music (CCM) or Contemporary Worship Music (CWM) in the worship of the church. Frame seeks to define CWM and wants to place it in the context of its relationship to the broader phenomenon of Contemporary Worship (CW).
Chapter 1 is a short history of early Christian worship. It explains what should be understood by “worship.” The sources for our understanding of early worship are introduced: the New Testament text, Jewish evidence, church orders, and other writings like those of the apologists.
We find the first song in the Old Testament in Exodus 15. Its focus and purpose is the magnification of God and his work. This chapter considers the theology and message of this Song of Moses as Moses led the people of the Lord God in worship. This song is again sung in Revelation 15 by those who conquered the Beast.
God is worthy of the daily worship of families. There is no direct, explicit commandment in Scripture about family worship, but the Bible certainly implies that God is to be worshipped in our homes. The author discusses this view with a number of scriptural examples and exhortations.
What do people do when they gather for worship? What does it mean that worshippers gather as the people of God? Chapter 1 considers the fact that God is gathering a people for himself throughout history and that they meet for worship and to receive God’s blessing.
In this chapter Wenham first gives a brief overview of the history of the use of the Psalms in congregational worship. He also discusses the specific impact of setting the words of the Psalms to music. Wenham further notes a secondary use of the Psalms, as a resource for private meditation and devotion. He suggests that the book of Psalms is a deliberately organized anthology designed for memorization.
A place of worship between the fall and the exodus is called an altar. Chapter 2 gives an overview of how these altars functioned as places of God’s presence. Longman reflects on the altar law of Exodus 20: 24-26, the significance of the altars of Noah and the patriarchs (Genesis 12), and God’s special presence at these altars.
What is worship? This article gives an overview of worship from the Garden to the New Jerusalem. It argues that the theology of worship cannot be separated from the practice of worship.
The article deals with the subject of worship. Believers should find themselves able to worship God as he has revealed himself to us, as triune God. There are a number of different ways in which this happens in a worship service, which the article outlines.
The heart of Christian meditation is the enjoyment of the presence of God combined with the joy experienced in praising the Lord. Meditation is therefore an act of worship, an act of seeking communion with the living God.
Worship is a response given to God based on who he is as revealed in the Scriptures and through his deeds. This article shows how God ordered worship in the Old and New Testaments.
There are mainly three questions facing the church about worship: In what sense are the Scriptures authoritative for Christian worship? What regulations are proper for Christian worship? What discipline is proper in connection with worship? The Puritans answered these questions by pointing to the essence of worship.
Chapter 1 is an exposition of Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 21, Q&A 54. The authors seek to understand from the Catechism what the relationship between the church and the world is in worship. Should the aim of the church be to make worship accessible to the world? Should worship be one occasion where the church displays her otherworldliness?
Christians are increasingly divided over how they ought to worship God. There is significant confusion about the nature, purpose, and practice of worship. Questions that arise are, What do we expect from worship? Can we discern between good and bad worship? Is there such a thing as bad worship? How would we recognize it? The burden of the Introduction in this book is to demonstrate that how worship inevitably follows from our theological convictions.
In chapter 1, John Frame wants to give an answer to the question, “What is worship?" He emphasizes that it should be God-centred, gospel-centred, and it is worship of the triune God. He also explores how in worship attention should be given to the relationship with our fellow believers and society as a whole. Frame also explains his understanding of worship in a narrow and broader meaning.
In worship musicians and preachers share in the ministry of the Word. Purposes of church music include proclamation of the Bible, and the edification and encouragement of the saints. The ultimate goal of all of this is to give glory to God.
This book is a challenge to worship leaders to discover how the gospel reshapes every dimension and element of worship. The author makes the bold statement that the gospel is the story of worship. In Chapter 1 he starts to tell that story at Genesis 2 in the Garden of Eden. Worship is rooted in the eternal love of God.