We believe that worship is warfare. Worship is the heartbeat of the church, pumping blood to every aspect of the body’s life. The liturgy of our worship services is structured to teach us the gospel each week as we gather as God’s people. You can remember this structure through 5 C’s: Call to Worship, Confession of Sin, Consecration, Communion, and Commission.
In the Call to Worship, the living God invites us into his presence. The initiative is on his side. We are not interlopers in the heavenly court. We have an invitation from the king, sealed with the blood of his Son. The opening prayer and song constitute this call to worship.
The exhortation each week is the on-ramp to Confession of sin. It’s short and sweet and meant to remind us of our duties before God, which then reminds us of our need to confess our sins. We kneel to confess out of humility and reverence toward God, and then we rise to receive the assurance that God has forgiven us.
Having confessed our sins, we move to Consecration: confessing the faith through the church’s creeds, the reading of the Scriptures, offering prayers of supplication and thanksgiving, singing of hymns, and ultimately the preaching of God’s word by which we are transformed and renewed and set apart for his service. We conclude the sermon each week by singing the Lord’s prayer and offering our tithes to God.
This brings us to Communion, where God invites us to dine at his table, to feast on the Lord Jesus Christ, present to us by faith through the bread and the wine. The Lord’s Supper is about fellowship with God and fellowship with each other.
Finally, after communion, we sing a closing doxological song, receive a final charge from the minister, and we are Commissioned out into the world as God’s holy and beloved people, empowered for his mission wherever he calls us.
This is the worship that conforms us to the image of Christ and brings his kingdom to earth, as it is in heaven.
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