Journey of Worship

Posts Tagged ‘communion’

As we move through February, we continue the “Be People of Prayer” series. This past Sunday, Valentine’s Day, we took a little different approach to the topic of prayer. Focusing on passages in 1 Peter 3:1-7 and Matthew 18:19-20, we took a look at the value of husband’s and wives praying together and how the relationship between the two can impact the effectiveness and vitality of the prayer life in a home.

The service as a whole was a great time together of remembering and celebrating Jesus. We sang, prayed, heard Scripture, and did communion together. Click through for more details… Read the rest of this entry »

We’re into our Christmas series for 2009 called “Catch the Christmas Spirit.” This year, we are focusing on helping people remember and capture the true meaning and spirit of this time of year. As soon as Halloween is over, we are thrust into the season of red, green, and sales.

The rush to get the right stuff for the right people is all that many people know and experience at this time of year. But, when we settle for that, we settle for a cheap substitute of what this time of the year is really about.

In Isaiah 9:1-7, God promised an amazing gift for the people. If we can catch the true Christmas spirit, our holiday celebration will not be the same, and neither will we. Click for service flow. Read the rest of this entry »

We began a new mini-series this week called “Generous Living.” Each November we take some time to focus on stewardship and missions. Our desire is not to “encourage” people to simply give more money to the church or to missions work, but to help them consider and grow in the joy of generosity in how they spend their time, what they invest in, how they respond to people in need, and what they do with financial resources.

It’s not an easy topic always, or one that people want to be reminded of, but it is one that I think is at the core of what it means to be a Christ-follower in any time period. We’ll be spending time in the book of Matthew and 2 Corinthians as we seek to grow and excel in the grace of giving. Read the rest of this entry »

Mathematically, one is a cardinal whole number. In computer programming, one combined with zeroes become a binary code. Relationally, the 1970’s band Three Dog Night wants you to believe that one is the loneliest number. It can also be a very selfish number of we are only looking out for “numero uno.”

Biblically, the number “one” is pregnant with meaning. The Scripture teaches that God is one. One captures the heart of Jesus’ prayer for the church (John 17). The apostle Paul urges believers to guard the unity of the church in Ephesians 4:3. The Spirit’s emphasis on “oneness” inspires Paul to rehearse all the other “ones” that should matter to us: there is only one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

We are unpacking the concept of “One” laid out in Ephesians 4:4-6 over the next weeks. This week we dived into the triune nature of God, one of the core distinctives of Christianity – that God is one yet three. Our desire wasn’t to explain the concept away or to answer all the questions, but to help people grasp the mystery, be okay with it, and to realize that there is more to God than we often think. And that’s one of the awesome things about God that makes me glad He’s in control.

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We began a new three week mini-series this week. The Bible has much to say about prayer and the God we pray to. Unfortunately, we develop these boxes in life that we put prayer in, and ultimately put God in too. When we put God in a box, we forget how powerful and awesome He is, and how much He desires for us to trust Him with amazing and wonderful things. As a result, we pray these anemic and pitiful prayers and miss out on seeing God do some amazing things.

Beyond the Lord’s Prayer, the New Testament is full of great prayer examples of how we (as Christ-followers) can be praying for God’s will on earth and for our fellow Christ-followers. Join us as we expand our vision and discover what’s outside the box.

For the first week, we looked at the prayer Paul prayed for the church in Ephesians 3:14-21 and were reminded of the power of the love of God at work in His people.

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We continued through the book of 1 Peter this week. Many Christians live today as if the world were our final destination. We pour our life resources and energy into things that will barely last 50 years, let alone eternity. We frequently cave in to the old sinful desires. We struggle to remain faithful in the midst of great suffering. We’ve lost sight  of the glorious inheritance waiting for us.

God calls us to live as “strangers” in this world, spiritual sojourners that are just passing through. As children of the living God, our focus should be on eternity as we point people to the living Christ who paid it all for us. Our priorities and lifestyle should undergo a radical transformation.

In 1 Peter, Peter unpacks what this transformed life looks like and how it should interact with this world. In 1 Peter 4:7-11, Peter tells us that time is short, and God is counting on the church to step up and be all that He calls it to be. The end of all things is near, so we need to understand how to live with the end in sight. Read the rest of this entry »

We continued our series this week taking us through the book of 1 Peter. Many Christians live today as if the world were our final destination. We pour our life resources and energy into things that will barely last 50 years, let alone eternity. We frequently cave in to the old sinful desires. We struggle to remain faithful in the midst of great suffering. We’ve lost sight  of the glorious inheritance waiting for us.

God calls us to live as “strangers” in this world, spiritual sojourners that are just passing through. As children of the living God, our focus should be on eternity as we point people to the living Christ who paid it all for us. Our priorities and lifestyle should undergo a radical transformation. Read the rest of this entry »

When someone is in their final days, those who are close to the person often lean and listen hard to their final words. As Jesus hung on the cross, the Scriptures record Him saying seven final phrases that those who were gathered near Him listened to and recorded. What do they mean for us today, and why should we still listen to them?

This was our third week in the “Final Words” series. We focused on the phrase found in John 19:28 when Jesus says that He is thirsty after the battle that He has just fought with sin. It is a declaration of victory and true triumph, as opposed to the earthly praise the people showered upon Christ as He entered Jerusalem the week before. Read the rest of this entry »

For: The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt

As I continue to learn about worship history in my online class, the focus recently has been symbolic actions that have been a part of worship expression. The two most obvious things that fall into this category, and that are widely accepted as sacrements across Church lines, are baptism and communion (or the Eucharist).

To me, symbolic actions are a huge way of expressing truth, worship history, and our connection and engagement with Christ. Read the rest of this entry »