WHAT TO EXPECT in a worship service on Sunday morning.
Worshiping together is what God calls us to do. As members of God’s family, we are called [commanded] by Him to gather together on a regular basis, at least weekly, to learn together, to praise God and pray, to confess our sins together, and to strengthen and support one another. Our Sunday services include singing, prayers of adoration, confession and intercession, scripture and a Bible-centered sermon opening our minds to a better understanding of God’s Word. We follow a similar order each week, beginning with greetings and announcements, followed by hymns and songs of praise, then, often a time of confession and assurance of forgiveness. We regularly recite together what we believe in one of the historic confessions of the Church, such as the Apostles Creed. An large portion of our service is given over to our Pastor or Teaching Elder. We listen expectantly to see how God will speak to us through our pastor’s teaching on the scripture of the day.
We describe our musical style as blended. Our worship music is led by song leaders, Praise Team, Chancel Choir, and instrumentalists. We enjoy a wide variety of musical styles in each service. Our Director of Music and Worship carefully selects what is good both musically and theologically from an eclectic blend of the great traditional hymns and the best of contemporary music. We utilize piano, organ, guitar, drums, trumpet, flute and other instruments on various occasions. Both services are similar, not separated by musical style.
Our Theology of Worship. Worship is vital to the life and work of God’s people. In the gospel of John, we learn that God the Father is seeking people to worship Him in spirit and in truth. At Neelsville we earnestly desire to join together as a congregation to give God the worship which he desires.
Our worship is gospel-centered and biblically faithful.
It is gospel-centered because in each service we re-tell the gospel story of God’s glory, our brokenness and need for redemption, God’s grace demonstrated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and how God calls us to respond.
It is biblically faithful because we seek to saturate the entire service in Scripture: the call to worship, the prayers of adoration and confession, the assurance of pardon, the words to the songs and hymns, and always the pastor’s careful exposition of the bible text.
What does all this mean for people in the congregation?
We hope that you will regularly recognize
Ø Jesus is present and the Spirit is moving. What joy that brings!
Ø Meaning is gained by being an active, expectant participant, not a passive audience member
Ø Worship from the heart moves you to sing and pray with deep conviction
Ø Encountering the truth of the gospel should both convict and uplift you
Ø You are free to worship in a way that reflects what the Lord is doing in your heart
Ø We are a family of worshipers with a multiplicity of cultures, preferences and personalities who recognize that various styles and elements of worship reach the diverse members in different ways. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is love, joy and peace. Where Satan is, there is division and grumbling.
Here are some other ways one can speak about worship . . .
Ø It is an experience in which you are overwhelmed by the nearness of God and respond in praise and awe. Something happens that we can't explain fully, something that transports us into the presence of God and fills us with reverence and joy.
Ø It is a heart response to the living God that leads to godly action.
Ø It is an inner and outer homage to God as a token of awe and surrender; a total lifestyle in allegiance to God.
Ø It begins with an all-encompassing life commitment . . . offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God; this is your spiritual act of worship. Romans 12: 1
Ø It draws us into communion with God . . . a time when your personal, intimate relationship with Christ becomes the most fully alive.
Ø It is a choice, a personal decision. True worship is internal. It is hindered or helped by our surroundings only to the extent that we allow. Worship chooses to take whatever is around us in a service and focus on God through it. We can worship . . . by purposely directing our thoughts toward who God is and what He has done.
Scripture teaches that our life in heaven will be an eternity of singing, praise and worship before the throne of God. May we be more devoted in this life to learning how to worship!