[1] The Bible Fellowship Church statement on worship found in Biblical Principle of Living number 101 is given below: 

101-1.1 Worship is response to God, whereby, in love, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, praise, and service God's worth is declared.1 Worship is rooted in reverence for and awe of the Lord and deepens as knowledge of God increases.2 Worship is the privilege and responsibility of each individual, family, and congregation. For the believer, worship is a life style not limited by location or circumstance.

101-1.2 Worship is the ultimate goal of the church. The mission of the church is to declare God's glory and His salvation to all ethnic groups so that some from all the families of nations shall worship Him.3Corporate worship is the assembled church celebrating the glory of God and ascribing to Him praise and honor. Christ, the head of the church, meets with and strengthens His people, called out from the world by the Holy Spirit.4

101-1.3 God declares that He alone is to be worshiped 5 and tells how He is to be worshiped. For disobeying these instructions and substituting their own form of worship, 6 Israel was severely punished. We therefore seek to learn from the Bible what kinds of worship please the Lord.

101-1.4 Worship in the Old Testament was a celebration of the mighty acts of the Lord, the covenant God of Israel. Corporate worship was highlighted through prescribed ritual: a priesthood, a sacrificial system looking forward to Christ's atonement, 7 and particular times and places when and where worship should occur. 8 This ritual was not made valuable by its repetition. 9 Its value came through heartfelt, thoughtful response to God, uniting the worshipers. Ritual is unacceptable as true worship unless it comes from the heart.10

101-1.5 Worship in the New Testament is a celebration of the finished work of Christ, His victory over Satan, sin, and death through His own incarnation, death, and resurrection. Jesus claims for Himself authority over temple, Sabbath, sacrifice, and service. 11 The former place, priesthood, and ritual were set aside. 12 The Lord gives His blessing to a new liberty as believers observe a new day, the Lord's Day, 13 and a new ordinance, the Lord's Supper. 14

101-1.6 The descriptions of corporate worship in the New Testament reveal prayer, praise, confession, singing, giving, thanksgiving, teaching, and the ordinances. 15 The expression of these may be shaped by the cultural setting of a particular church but must be "orderly" and "decent". 16

101-1.7 The goal of corporate worship is not entertainment, but rather the glory of God. Worshipers are not to think of themselves as spectators, but rather as active participants in a celebration.

[2] Prior to being born again we are all incapable of a personal relationship with God and are, in fact, His enemies!  Ephesians 2:1-3.  Although we could ‘go through the motions’ of worship when we were still unbelievers, we could not truly worship Him.

[3] Scripture references for examples of the N.T. church meeting together are: Acts 2:42-47; 4:23f; 6:1-6.  Scripture references for N.T. instruction concerning what to do when the church meets together are: 1 Cor 14:26f; 1 Tim 2:1f; 4:13-14; 2 Tim 4:1-5; Heb 13:15-16.  These lists are not meant to be exhaustive.  In striving to design our corporate worship services according to the Scriptures it is valuable to ask the questions: What did the N.T. church do when they met together? and, What does the N.T. instruct us to do when we meet together?  We find the answer to those questions to include such things as, teaching, fellowship, caring for each other’s needs, the use of our spiritual gifts, prayer, praise of God, and the Lord’s Supper and baptism.

[4] Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.” 

[5] John Frame, in pages 29-35 of his book Worship in Spirit and Truth: A refreshing study of the principles and practice of biblical worship, explains the concept of worship in the broad and narrow sense.  This book is available in our church library if you would like to read it for more details.

[6] An extremely important principle when attempting to apply the Scriptures to life is this:  Everything that is essential to church-life (including worship) is found in the Scriptures.  Therefore, we cannot consider anything as essential which is not found in the Scriptures.  Keeping this principle in mind will help us immensely in thinking about and doing worship in a God honoring way.

[7] In John 4:23 Jesus says, “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.”  Language such as this, that the Father is seeking something, is extremely rare in the Bible.  God is seeking proper worshipers.  This shows the seriousness of the issue. 

          In Leviticus 10:1-3 we find this account. “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them.  And fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed them, and they died before the Lord.  Then Moses said to Aaron, ‘It is what the Lord spoke, saying, “By those who come near Me I will be treated as holy, and before all the people I will be honored.”’”  The severity of God’s punishment upon self-designed worship serves as a sobering reminder to us that worship is serious in God’s eyes, and that we are to follow His instructions in it rather than carelessly inventing our own ways of worship.

[8] John Frame, in pages 29-35 of his book Worship in Spirit and Truth: A refreshing study of the principles and practice of biblical worship, speaks about the sense of expectancy. 

            “Jesus promises a special blessing - indeed, his special pres­ence - upon his people when they are gathered in his name. (Matt. 18:2 compare John 14:13-14, 26; 16:23-26)…

            From the beginning of the New Testament church, believ­ers delighted in meeting together, and in those meetings they experienced unique blessings of the Spirit of God (Acts 1:6,14; 2:42-47; 4:23-31; 5:42; 13:2; 20:7-38; 1 Cor. 11:18-34; 14:1-40; 1 Peter 3:21).  They met for prayer, teaching, and sacrament.  They pronounced publicly in the meeting the judgments of church discipline (I Cor. 5:4-5).  The church received gifts for Christians in special need (I Cor. 16:1-2)…

            By the Spirit of God, supernatural events took place…it cannot be doubted that in the permanent aspects of New Testament meetings, as well as the temporary ex­traordinary aspects, God is present in a special way in the Chris­tian meeting.  When Christians worship as God commands them to, even an unbeliever will be driven to worship, recognizing that "God is really among you!" (I Cor. 14:25)…

          What does "draw near" mean in this context?  I have said that it is hard to define, but let me try to clarify the idea some­what.  When God draws near, he has special business with us.  As in Isaiah's case, he wants to remind us of his greatness and ho­liness.  He wants us to acknowledge that greatness in our praises.  He wants to convict us of sin, and he wants us to confess that sin and receive his forgiveness.  He wants us to hear his word and obey it.  He wants to hear our baptismal and membership vows, and to preside at the discipline of the church.  He wants to fel­lowship with us in the Lord's Supper.  He wants to receive our gifts.  He wants us to acknowledge our unity and love for one an­other as his body.  For such purposes, God draws near.  And from such fellowship with God in the name of Christ, we arise, em­powered by his Spirit, to do his bidding.

                When God draws near, we may be greatly blessed.  Good things happen.  It is also true, however, that God sometimes draws near in judgment (see Gen. 3:8-19; Joel 2:1 1; Mal. 3:1-5; Matt. 25:31-46; 2 Thess. 2:8).  Those who disobey his word, and who do, not pay him proper homage, are terrified when God approaches.  All of us have offended him; we can only be thankful and amazed that in Christ he has spared us.  Not all will be so spared.  Of course, the final judgment will not come until the end of history.  There­fore, in our worship today, God does not draw near to us in final judgment.  But he does reprove sin in the preaching of the word and in the discipline of the church.  And those reproofs are par­ticularly intense when God's people are meeting in his name.  Consider again 1 Corinthians 14:24-25, in which, as we have seen, an unbeliever visiting the Christian meeting is convinced of sin and worships God, "exclaiming, 'God is really among you!’” 

This book is available in our church library.

[9] There are verses which show that silence and listening to God are appropriate in the context of God meeting with His people.  Jeremiah 7:2, Nehemiah 8:1-8, and Psalm 65:1 are a sampling of such verses.

[10] We also recognize that God has ordained  ‘the foolishness of the message preached’ (1 Corinthians 1:21) for saving and building up His people, and refuse to allow it to be replaced by or substituted with other messages or activities

The following passage of Scripture makes it clear that God has chosen the preaching of the cross as that which is to be used by Him in power to save His people.  He has done this so that people’s faith would not rest on human wisdom or cleverness, but on the Spirit’s power.

1 Cor 1:18 For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, "I WILL DESTROY THE WISDOM OF THE WISE, AND THE CLEVERNESS OF THE CLEVER I WILL SET ASIDE." 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. 27 but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, 28 and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, 29 so that no man may boast before God.

2:1 And when I came to you, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, 4 and my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God.”

In light of the truth contained in the above passage, we deliberately choose to cast ourselves upon God, expecting and imploring Him to do that which He has gone on record as saying He will do – work in power by the Spirit in our hearts through the preached word.  We will be wary of trying to ‘shore up’ preaching with 21st century wisdom and cleverness.  We confess our powerlessness to change the hearts of men and women, and therefore, in desperate dependence upon God we cling to the ‘foolishness of the message preached’ and look with excited expectancy for His demonstration of power!

[11] Matthew 15:7-9 "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME. BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN."'

[12] Scriptural worship is whole-hearted worship: Intense emotion and an obedient will springing from the impact of truth upon the mind – that is the exciting picture of worship we see in the Bible, and that is what we earnestly desire God to produce in us! 

Psalm 2:11; 66:1-4; 86:8-10; 95:6; 96:9; 99:1f; Jer 26:2; John 4:22-23; Rom 12:1-2; 1 Cor 14:25; Rev 15:3-4.

[13] This statement is taken from point #4 of the worship philosophy of Bethlehem Baptist Church of Minneapolis, MN.  www.desiringgod.org

[14] Several times the Scriptures command us to sing a new song.  Psalm 149:1 says, “Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, And His praise in the congregation of the godly ones.”  Some of the other references to singing a new song are listed here.  Ps. 33:3; Ps. 96:1; Ps. 98:1; Ps. 144:9. 

[15] quoted from What is the Philosophy of Worship that Unites Us?, found at www.desiringgod.org. 

[16]“Psalm 63:4  “So I will bless You as long as I live; I will lift up my hands in Your name.”  Some other passages referring to raising hands are Psalm 28:2; 119:48; 134:2; Lamentations 2:19; 3:41. 

[17] 1 Corinthians 14:32-33 “and the spirits of prophets are subject to prophets;

for God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”

1 Corinthians 14:40 “But all things must be done properly and in an orderly manner.”

©Cedar Crest Bible Fellowship Church 

adopted by the CCBFC Board of Elders on 7/13/04