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Brothers, we are looking at different ways to celebrate the Lord's Supper at Grace Church. We do it weekly. Lately we have been passing out the elements and taking them, one at a time, together. What other ways have you done it? What do you prefer? Do you prefer approaches that emphasize our communion with each other or our communion with Christ Himself? How do we keep both in tension?
I'd encourage our readers to consider attending The Northbrook Conference, October 13-14 at our church in Cedar Rapids. We'll be learning about "The Church: Temple of the Holy Spirit or Tower of Babel?" from Jim Hamilton. Should be a great time to learn to be a people for his glory!
Since we are Doxologue (which might be translated "discussions on glory"), I thought I'd link to my sermon last week which outlines the glory of God in the story of redemption. My attempt to remind myself and the church why God does all that he does.
A few helpful links on corporate prayer:
Bob Kauflin posts a corporate prayer of confession from WorshipGod06.
Jim Hamilton discusses corporate prayers, especially prayers of supplication.
David and Kevin, what sort of corporate prayers are incorporated into your congregational worship services?
Readers of Doxologue may want to check out "Covenant Song," recently published on Reformed Praise.
David, great post on private worship! Thank you for convicting and encouraging us all. I will reply.
I would encourage our readers to check out Al Mohler's three-part series on Authentic Worship (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3). It would be a great conversation starter for a small group or Sunday School class.
I'll be at the Sovereign Grace worship conference this week in Gaithersburg, MD. God has used these conferences and this group of churches mightily in my life to reform and expand my view of worship and worship music. I have found no other group that is so dedicated to a God-Centered, Cross-Centered, and Word-Centered view of worship AND is dedicated to a passionate expression of worship through music using a wide variety of styles of music in the contemporary orb. In the same service that they might preach a fifty minute expositional sermon on Ephesians 1 and the glorious truth of election, they will have a fifty minute time of intense and God honoring singing, prayer, sharing, and reading.
We are having a special service this Sunday, one in which all of the singing will be done without accompaniment (a capella). We do not believe that this is the only acceptable method of singing to the Lord in worship as some do. Instead, I use servcies like this as a way to remind all of us that the music is not the main thing in worship songs, it is the lyrics and the truth about the Lord conveyed in those lyrics. I do all that I can each week to help people focus on the lyrics instead of just going along for the ride with the songs. Below is the explanation I gave our church in a church-wide email:
Brethren,
As I mentioned during the announcements on Sunday morning, our music will be a little different this Sunday during Gathered Worship. The only music we make will be with our voices, the instruments that we carry with us wherever we go. To help us prepare I have put together a page on our website with audio files you can click on to practice and learn parts.
http://www.redeemerbiblechurch.com/acapella/
The hymns:
#101 Come, Thou Almighty King
#100 Holy, Holy, Holy
#55...
Brothers, I thought it would be humbling for us and helpful to our brothers and sisters in Christ if we shared our experience with the practice and priority of private worship. At Redeemer we use the term private worship, which I think is very helpful, but you may know it as "quiet times" or "devotions."
Private worship is the act of setting aside our preoccupation with our daily responsibilities to put our focus on the Lord. When I teach on worship I often mention the various ways worship should manifest itself in our lives – in public or gathered worship, in family worship (whoever we live with), in private worship, and in all-of-life worship. When one is missing the others will suffer as well. I have found that most of the time when someone has endless complaints about public worship along the lines of "our public worship just isn't doing anything for me, isn't helping me connect with God" that they have a non-existent private worship life. How can we expect to have intimate times of God on Sundays if we never seek Him during the week? Pardon the frankness, but it's like a husband...
Brothers, I feel compelled to share a couple of things about our mid-week prayer meeting that I hope will benefit any who read our blog. First, I wanted to explain the format of prayer meeting so people can get a sense of what we do on Wednesdays. We pick up a congregational prayer sheet as we come in and begin by singing for about 15 minutes. We then move through the prayer sheet which includes praises, petitions for the sick and injured, and various kinds of special requests, sharing new items and asking for updates as we go along. We then break into men/women and get assigned several requests from the sheet and from there split into groups of 2 or 3. In our smallest groups we share additional personal needs and requests as well as how we are doing spiritually. It is a wonderful time of small group and one on one admonishment and encouragement. I feel that it's one of the best times our church has to "stimulate one another to love and good deeds." (Heb 10:24)
On the first Wednesday of the month we pray through either the Lord's Prayer or...
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