Part 1

[Part 1 Part 2]

Our purpose as we gather for corporate worship is to paint a compelling picture of the glory of God in Christ. But there are principles that underpin this and practices we use to work towards it. This is a summary of the principles, practices and purposes that unite us in corporate worship in Glenabbey.

> Shaped by scripture … The bible is the foundation for all we do in Glenabbey. We are committed to the public reading of scripture as a regular part of our corporate worship. But, more deeply, we seek to determine the scriptural principles that govern what we do in our corporate worship, and to let them shape our values as we plan our corporate meetings.

> Engaged with culture… Although the truths of scripture are trans-cultural, they are expressed in a particular cultural context. We seek to engage with our cultural context, contextualising our message using appropriate cultural elements (such as contemporary music, movies, use of multi-media etc) while at the same time challenging culture where it runs counter to the values of the gospel. We also seek to build bonds across the various cultures that make up Glenabbey & its locality. As such, we are, at the same time, trans-cultural in the truths we communicate, contextualised where appropriate and counter-cultural where necessary, and cross-cultural in our appeal.

> Through the sacrifice of Jesus… it is simply beyond the ability of any worship leader to ‘bring people into God’s presence’. Only Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, is qualified to do so. Through his sacrifice, we can boldly come to the throne of grace. It is our job to point people to this truth, to remind them of all that Jesus has done for us to bring us to God.

> And the empowering of the Holy Spirit… We need to constantly remind ourselves that, without the Holy Spirit working through us, we will never produce any lasting spiritual fruit. We are to be guided by the Holy Spirit as we plan and as we lead. We are consciously to rely on him to do his multi-faceted work of inspiring, illuminating, comforting, strengthening and bringing truth to light and exalting Jesus Christ. Without him, we’re no more than a bunch of musicians playing through a set of songs.

> As a team… We value planning as a team. We who lead do so as leaders to whom authority has been delegated by the Elders; as such, we are accountable to them for what we do. Additionally, a team approach allows the gifting and skills of many to be included in our meetings, demonstrating in principle and practice the unity in diversity of the body of Christ.

> we use songs and other elements … Songs combine the intellectual truth with the emotional power of music. It’s this combination of the doctrine expressed in biblical truth and the response of devotion expressed through our songs that we are aiming for here. Music is not the end in itself; rather, it is a beautiful gift from God designed to enable us to express biblical truth in a way that stirs our heads and hearts, and to express affections appropriate to these truths. Also, we incorporate prayers and readings from the bible and other sources. We are keen to communicate the truths of the gospel in our particular cultural context and so we make use of culturally relevant art forms (such as movie clips or non-Christian performance songs) to communicate our message.

> To paint a compelling picture of the glory of God … this is the primary focus of what we do in corporate praise, because our worship is much more about God than it is about us. As we sing, pray and read, our goal is to paint a magnificant picture of God such that people can respond in amazement, adoration, awe and obedience. To switch metaphors a moment, we’re seeking to magnify God. We magnify God not as a microscope – which takes something very small and blows it out of all proportion – but as a telescope – which takes something that appears to us as small and lets us see it in something of its true grandeur. Our culture tends to be a microscope for the things that God has made, making the gifts the goal rather than the Giver (Romans 1:22-23). Our ultimate goal as we gather, therefore, is to redress this imbalance; to reorientate ourselves and those with us to the supreme worth, holiness and compelling beauty of God above all that he has made.

CS Lewis gave this advice to a young writer: “Instead of telling us a thing is ‘terrible’ describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was a ‘delight’, make us say ‘delightful’ when we’ve read the description.’ ” We take this advice to heart as we seek to describe God in a compelling manner.

[Next]