On Sunday, I shared about the perspective that comes from our time gathered with God’s people.  There is something that happens when we are with other Christians that is qualitatively different than our time by ourselves.  We need the church.

During the sermon, I mentioned two of our gatherings at Exodus.  I thought it would be good to remind us about what we are trying to accomplish whena we are in these two.  This post taken from our Next Steps material will look at Gathered Worship.

Created Worshippers

We were created as worshippers.  Because we were made that way, we will worship something.  We will ascribe worth to something.  We are not neutral in regards to worship.  We are worshipping something all the time.  Either we worship the One for whom we are made – namely God…or we spend our lives worshipping lesser pleasures…pleasures that will never yield the kind of joy and delight for which our hearts were created.

The problem is not that we were made worshipping.  The problem is that sin has caused us to worship something other than the One who is infinitely valuable.  We have decided to leave the One for whom we are made to find for ourselves false gods that will never satisfy (Jeremiah 2:9-11).

So, we were made to worship God alone, but sin has caused us to worship something other than Him…false gods – idols.  And because of sin, our hearts are on the look out for anything and everything to replace Him as Supreme…Our hearts are idol factories.

Gathered Worship

At Exodus Church, we will practice and proclaim the reality that God alone is supremely valuable.  We will practice this through lives that ascribe worth to Him — how we spend our time, talent and treasure.  We will practice this in the choices we make, how we raise our families and the time we devote to Him.  We will practice this when we are gathered through music, the preaching of God’s Word and the taking of communion.

Our gathered worship will be:

• Historically informed – Everything we do as part of gathered worship will reflect a rooting in and conviction of sound, biblical truth.  In other words, we will seek to use music that has been used by the communion of the saints for years as well as new songs God is giving to His people.  Our sermons will seek to be deeply rooted in the truths of God’s Word so that we can understand what the Bible says and how it connects with our world today.

• Christ centered – Because we are seeking to communicate the supremacy of Jesus, our songs will lead us to confess ways that we do not live in light of this reality, repent of our sinful idolatry and return to Jesus – the One for whom we are made.  Our goal during our weekend gathering will be to display Jesus as our Redeemer who delivers us from bondage to worship Him and serve Him in the world.

• Enjoyable – We will seek to make our worship environments enjoyable — not by changing the message we are seeking to communicate, but by seeking to explain the message more clearly.  Our atmosphere will be intentionally casual and comfortable, welcoming and warm, engaging and challenging.