You may be wondering what style of worship we offer; is it contemporary, traditional, blended, avant garde, stuffy? Many professing Christians prefer one style or another. We believe that the question is not what style do we prefer, but what does God prefer? Worship is the “work of the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ to the glory of God the Father.” (Worship According to Scripture, H. O. Old) We worship God because He created us to worship Him. Our worship gives glory to Him. In worship He is glorified when we hear again of His grace toward us in the gospel and when we express our gratitude to Him in praise and thanksgiving.
A great danger in worship, however, is that it easily becomes self-centered and not God-centered. Of course, while there are many dimensions of worship that must be adapted to the culture of the worshippers, eg. we use English in our services, these dimensions are fewer than we imagine. In the Scriptures, God gives many guidelines regarding true worship and warnings regarding novelty. Our worship is guided by two key principles.
First, worship must be according to Scripture. When Jesus remarked once that God was seeking worshippers who would worship Him in Spirit and Truth, he draws an clear distinction against both a style of worship that is exhuberant and energetic, but not bounded by Scripture, and formalistic style of worship which is carefully scripted by chapter and verse but lacks the gracious presence of the Holy Spirit. Neither of these is worship according to Scripture. We are not rigorist with respect to a rigid liturgy. As our forefathers before us, we believe that God has told us how he wants us to worship Him. What we are to believe concerning worship “is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture; unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit, or traditions of men.” (Westminster Confession of Faith, I.VI)
Second worship is covenantal. Worship is not all about me or all about you. Worship is about God and us. Worship is the work of a Triune God — the work of the Spirit in the Body of Christ ( the Church ) to the glory of God the Father. We believe that Christian Worship is a renewal of covenant vows between Christians and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Consequently, our worship contains lots of congregational participation. Click here to see a sample order of service.
Our worship would be considered by most today as traditional. We use hymnbooks and sing with piano accompaniment. We confess our sins with a corporate prayer of confession and hear the assurance of our pardon from the Scripture. We profess our faith by reciting together one of the historic confessions of the Christian church such as the Apostle’s Creed, the Nicene Creed, or the Westminster Confession. Preaching is from the Bible, passage by passage, covering whole books of the Bible over a period of time. We corporately recite the Lord’s Prayer. On the fourth Lord’s Day of every month we have the Lord’s Supper. At the end of each service we receive the Benediction and enjoy some informal fellowship. On communion Lord’s Days we also have a fellowship meal after the service.
Because our worship seeks to glorify God through proclaiming His grace to us in the gospel and by expressing our gratitude to Him in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, our worship contains lots of congregational participation — it is a gracious and thankful conversation between God and His people.
Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church 