Savoring God in Public Worship -- By: Travis Tamerius

Journal: Reformation and Revival
Volume: RAR 11:4 (Fall 2002)
Article: Savoring God in Public Worship
Author: Travis Tamerius


Savoring God in Public Worship

Travis Tamerius

In order to assist newcomers to our church, I prepared an overview of our Lord’s Day Service. Depending on one’s background there will be various aspects of our worship that seem strange to some evangelicals. We frequently recite the Apostles’ Creed, formally confess our sins together and practice communion each week. Such decisions, as well as various others, raise questions. In order to help visitors to our church we have prepared a brochure that sets forth our vision of worship, priorities of worship, and order of worship.

Our Vision Of Worship

When we gather each Lord’s Day in congregational worship we are responding to an ancient invitation from the Holy Scriptures: “Come, taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8). At Christ Our King Church we believe that God is the soul’s greatest good and that savoring him is our greatest pleasure (Psalm 16:11). These very basic beliefs drive what it is we are doing when we come together on Sunday mornings. As we worship together each Lord’s Day, God comes near to us; we come near to him. We gather together out of a hunger and thirst for God. He comes near to feed and satisfy us.

When we come together each week to worship God, we are not escaping from the real world. We are entering the real world.

In worship we are “doing the world as it was meant to be done.” We are becoming truly human in the way that God intended us to be. Central to becoming truly human is recognizing our dependence upon God. Our most basic posture before God is one of need. We need forgiveness, we need direction, we need beauty, we need food and we need strength to carry on. Even more, we need him. The good news we hear each week is that God is wildly extravagant about giving to us. He loves to provide us with gifts—assurances of his grace, words of instruction, the food and drink of heaven, his blessing upon our work. More importantly, he loves to give us himself. In the weekly rhythm of worship, we are renewing our relationship with God. He gives of his love to us; we return our love to him.

Our Priorities In Worship

This vision of worship shapes our priorities in worship. In the Lord’s Day Service we seek to be God-centered, biblically faithful, thoughtfully catholic, congregationally involved and counter-cultural.

God-centeredness

This should go without saying, we know. After all, this is a church, right? What else would be our focus? However, in the murky world of today, such a claim needs to be in bold print front an...

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