God has won a decisive victory over the powers of evil and will eventually set up his kingdom forever. Consider what is happening in our world today with the militant terrorists who wish to cast Israel into the sea and scale the wall of the Western world and bring it to ruin. What is more...Read More
Seeker-oriented contemporary churches argue that worship does not need to present the whole gospel. The purpose of worship, they say, is to get people in the door. Then, after they have gained a hearing, they present the gospel in small-group settings. This argument may be good marketing, but it fails to understand the biblical purpose...Read More
One does not need to become liturgical to become more biblical in worship. Remembrance of God’s actions in history to save the world can be effectively done in a spontaneous way as well. When planning worship ask, “Does the service connect creation with God’s involvement in the history of Israel, with his incarnation, death, resurrection,...Read More
God’s vision for the world is remembered and anticipated in worship. Worship is all about how God, [who] with his own two hands—the incarnate Word and the Holy Spirit—has rescued the world. . . . The centerpiece of his saving action is the incarnation, death, and resurrection, where sin and death have been defeated and...Read More
Holy living . . . is to be a direct outcome of worship and an anticipation of life in God’s eschatological domain. . . . The ethical life of the church is an eschatological witness to the world of how people should be living and how the world will be under the reign of God....Read More
The purpose of the Genesis account of creation is doxology (right praise); it calls us to a posture of praise. Doxology is our response to God’s story. . . . Doxology is the way to momentarily experience the eternal kingdom of God’s perfection over all creation. -Robert E. Webber, Ancient-Future Worship: Proclaiming and Enacting God’s...Read More
Pentecost Sunday ends the extraordinary season that began on the first Sunday of Advent. In approximately six months the church has been carried through all the saving events of God—his incarnation, manifestation to the world, life, death, resurrection, and ascension as well as the coming of the Holy Spirit. All these crucial events form faith...Read More
