R.C. Sproul writes:

God said to David’s Lord, “Sit at My right hand till I make Your enemies Your footstool” (Mark 12:36). When we study the biblical narratives of the life and work of Jesus, as well as the apostolic commentaries on those narratives, we discover moments of supreme importance in terms of redemptive history. These include His birth, His death on the cross, His resurrection, the Day of Pentecost, and His return. However, there is an element in the work of Christ that we almost completely overlook. It is the session of Jesus.

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Jason Helopoulos writes:

I was visiting a church once and heard an exchange between a pastor and one of his congregants that has stayed with me ever since. A woman asked the pastor before the service, “Is the video this morning going to make me laugh or cry? It always does one or the other.” The pastor was quick to respond that he thought this one would make her cry. Apparently, immediately following the sermon in their worship services, this church showed a video every week. It set the tone for the closing song and the end of the service. It wasn’t shown for mere entertainment, but was used to press home the truth the pastor had just preached from the Scriptures. Now, I want to be clear. This man was and is a brother in Christ and this particular church loved the Lord. It was my honour to worship with them. They were seeking to serve God, were obviously delighting in Him, and were desiring to give Him praise. Furthermore, I have no doubt that the pastor’s heart was in the right place as he sought to show a video each week to his congregation. I am not doubting his love for God or his people, though I do doubt the wisdom of his approach.

Over the years, different people have given me their rationale for using weekly videos in corporate worship. Usually, the argument is that it appeals to people and can help them understand the teaching of the passage in a way other than simply listening. I have little doubt that this is true. We can all agree that we are corporeal beings and naturally gravitate towards what we can see. Videos are appealing and can readily set before our eyes the truth that we may have just heard from the Scriptures. In fact, it may even lend itself well to this. But it is also a vehicle for emotionalism, moralism, sentimentalism, and sheer irreverence. However, more importantly, God has given His church something else to fulfill this longing…

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10 AM Worship

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3 PM Worship

Aaron Denlinger writes:

“We go to church to worship God, and that’s done by giving, not getting.”

Statements to this effect, made regarding the corporate worship of God’s people, abound in Christian literature and Christian conversations. They sound rather convincing. Scripture, after all, assures us that “it is more blessed to give than to receive.” And the etymology of our English word “worship”—apparently from an Old English term meaning “to ascribe worth”—lends itself, perhaps, to a view of worship as an act of giving something to God.

In reality such statements—contrary, I’m sure, to the intentions of those who make them—reveal misunderstandings about why we as Christians gather for corporate worship and who is actually present when we do so. Indeed, such statements—taken at face value—could be argued to constitute a wholesale reversal of gains made at the time of the Reformation in our understanding of what worship actually is.

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10 AM Worship

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3 PM Worship