Worship at First P.C.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . And the Word became flesh and lived among us . . .

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

Jesus Christ, as he is attested for us in Holy Scripture, is the one Word of God which we have to hear and which we have to trust and obey in life and in death.

Presbyterian worship centers on the reading, proclaiming, and hearing of the Word of God. By that we mean that our worship intends to be a time when we are encountered by God's Word made flesh in Jesus Christ.

No, we don't expect to look somewhere in the sanctuary and find Jesus sitting there, praying the prayers we pray, singing the hymns we sing, and clapping when the children's choir finishes singing. We expect that through the faithful reading of scripture, the thoughtful reflection on scripture, and the disciplined listening to scripture, something of who Jesus is and what discipleship requires of us will be borne to us by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Why? Because we believe that Jesus is the clearest revelation of God available to us. If we wish to know something about who God is, we need look no further than the life and ministry of Jesus.

Why else? Because we believe that the life and ministry of Jesus are the clearest revelation of true humanity, human life freed of the distorting power of sin. His words and works demonstrate a life lived in faithful response to God, the life for which humanity was created and the life for which it is destined.

These convictions compel us to order our worship service in specific ways.

We begin with a time of preparation for hearing the word of God. We do that with songs of praise, confession of sin, and acts of reconciliation.

We turn our attention to scripture, reading from both the Old and New Testaments. When we have read the scripture texts for the day, we hear a sermon that reflects upon those texts. From time to time, we rely on other forms of interpretation of scripture, but this time is always grounded in scripture.

Following the sermon, we respond to the activity of God's Word in our lives by confessing our faith, offering ourselves and our resources in thankfulness for God's grace, praying for the world and ourselves, and singing of God's goodness and love.

All of which prepares us to follow God's Word into the world, to discover where God's Word is already at work, and to join God's Word in declaring how much God loves this creation of God's making.

Our style of worship is often described as "traditional." It is also appropriate to describe it as "ordered" because we follow an order of worship rather than engaging in "free form" worship. It is our belief that the Holy Spirit of God works in the world to bring order in chaotic moments and to help us, in our limited nature, understand who God is and what God requires of us.

We also believe that how we worship God shapes us for how we serve God. An ordered liturgy is intended to help that happen by clearing away distractions in order to prepare us for the encounter with Jesus that brings us to worship in the first place.

If you would like to read more about the Presbyterian tradition and our approach to worship, please visit our denomination's website by following this link: http://gamc.pcusa.org/ministries/theologyandworship/worship/ .