worship

Damascus Road Structure of Corporate Worship

The corporate worship of a Sunday morning is a small part of how we as followers of the Way and Children of God ought to worship.  In some aspects Sunday morning is very much like a billboard for the not-yet-believer.  With the constantly on-the-go mentality of our culture the Sabbath morning is like a sign driven by at 60 miles an hour.

Knowing this, we have tried to be very intentional with the content and design of that billboard.  The structure and layout of this service that Jesus Christ has called us to may seem different than others one has previously experienced.  This is, again, an intentional action done to make it stand out.  It is very concerning how little the people of this city, region, state and country understand the Gospel.  So, at the core of everything we do is Jesus Christ and His Gospel.  Who He is, how He lived and what He has done for us. 

Our service consists of three parts.  We start with a time of reflection where we read scripture that tells of Christ, speaks to our fallen nature and how Jesus is our Redeemer.  This includes ‘secular' music or music that was not written specifically to be spiritual in nature.[1]  Often this music tells of our need for Jesus quite poignantly.  All of our music is played in a style more familiar to the culture around us rather than the culture of the church.  We believe that any genre of music can be redeemed for Christ.   We of course are careful not to include offensive lyrics.  We want to create an atmosphere where belief is not a pre-requisite to acceptance in our church.  After the music, we close in prayer.

Next, we preach the Word of God in expository style, straight from the Bible and verse by verse.  We believe that the Word God gave us is the best means of learning who He is and what He wants to tell us about who we are and who we are called to be.  We believe that we alone do not posses any authority, all power and authority is secured in Christ.  Therefore, all of our preaching comes from the Bible and the Holy Spirit.  Where the first part of our service points to our need for Christ the second tells of Christ, who He is, how He lived, what He did and why.  Again, after the sermon we close in prayer. 

Thirdly, we respond.  Our response to what Jesus has initiated is our worship.  In our individual lives this should be ever present with intentionality.  Often, as far too many Christians understand it, worship is the songs we sing on Sunday morning while we clap along.  If this were true it would be the same as believing that to love is merely saying "I love you."  Granted, it is one very small way of communicating love but saying it is not loving in and of itself.  If the heart is not present in the deed then words spoken or sung are useless and empty.  In our time of worship scripture is read, we take communion and give our first fruits through tithes and offerings.  We sing together and pray together.  We lower the lights to create a more intimate environment.

Ultimately the hour and a half that we have on Sunday morning is a brief amount of time to communicate to our congregation.  We trust in Christ and the power of His Gospel and the Holy Spirit and that all we can do is proclaim His name and He will do the rest.  In designing our service with intention and with the Gospel as our center and borrowing from the culture musical style and songs we believe that our ‘billboard' will stand out and communicate what is most important: Jesus Christ is Lord.  He died and rose again, becoming sin on the cross to redeem, to justify and to remove our guilt and to free us who believe, granting eternal life with God.

[1]The term secular is asinine as everything we do speaks to the nature of our spirituality, even if unintentionally.

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