Every Christian church follows a liturgy—an order of worship—on the Lord’s Day. Liturgy is simply the “service of the people,” and it is a thoroughly Biblical concept. In Romans 12:1, for example, we are exhorted, as a response to God’s mercy, to present our whole selves to the Lord in worship. This is our “reasonable service.” The word translated “service” (or “worship”) is the Greek word latreia, from which we get our word “liturgy." Again – every church has a liturgy; it’s not whether, but which. Knowing this, we have sought to develop a God-glorifying liturgy, following a self-consciously Biblical pattern of worship that is God-centered, Gospel-shaped, and rooted in Church history.

Worship is storytelling. Our approach to worship enables us to retell the Story of God both as Creator of the cosmos and as Redeemer of his Church every week.

God the Creator called things that are not as though they were, and those things confess His name night and day; and He consecrated them by the power of His Word, and they commune with Him; and He commissioned them to perform special tasks and duties for His glory.

God the Redeemer calls sinners to draw near to His throne of grace, and they confess their sins to Him and their faith in Him; and He consecrates them by the washing of water with the Word, and they commune together with Him at His table by sharing the bread and the cup; and He commissions them to be salt and light to the world.

Our liturgy consists of FIVE MOVEMENTS:

CALL: God gathers His people – God calls and gathers His people for worship (Ps. 95:6, 100:4). Our worship is a response to God’s summons. He takes the initiative, drawing us near through His Word (Jn. 6:44). We come only because He first invites us (Mt. 11:28, 1 Jn. 4:19). We ascend into His Presence, scaling the heights of the heavenly “Mount Zion” to worship Him with angels and saints-gone-by (Heb. 12:22-23), but we do so only because He has been gracious to call us in the first place (2 Tim. 1:9).

CONFESSION: God forgives His people – When we come into the Presence of our holy God we are made aware of our sinfulness (Is. 6:1-5, Lk. 5:8). Confession means to give God glory by acknowledging sin and God’s right to punish it. Though our salvation is secure in Christ, sin does disrupt the closeness of our fellowship with Him, and so we confess our sins (Prov. 28:13, Mt. 6:12). As we confess them, our Lord assures us of His forgiveness, over and over again (Ps. 32:5, 1 Jn. 1:9). We then stand to our feet with uplifted hearts, and respond by confessing our faith in the words of an ancient creed, declaring our allegiance to our Triune God (Rom. 10:9, Phil. 2:11, 1 Tim. 6:12, Heb. 10:23, 1 Jn. 4:15).

CONSECRATION: God equips His people – After confessing “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 1:3), thereby declaring our allegiance to our King, we receive His counsel as He speaks to us through His Word (primarily through the sermon). In this way, He consecrates us (sets us apart), equipping us for service in His Kingdom (2 Tim. 3:16-17, Heb. 13:20-21).

COMMUNION: God nourishes His people – Before we are sent back out into the world, Christ feeds us, nourishing our souls (Mt. 26:26-29, Jn. 6:53-58). In the Lord’s Supper, we remember His death (“Christ has died”), presently commune with Him, because He is alive (“Christ is risen”), and anticipate the day when our salvation will be made complete at His return, and we feast with Him (and one another) around His table at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (“Christ will come again”).

COMMISSION: God sends His people – After our souls are strengthened and nourished through the Supper, we are sent back into the battle, to be about our Father’s business (Mt. 28:18-20). We receive a benediction (blessing) from God through His Word (Lev. 9:22, Lk. 24:50), and then proceed to descend from the heavenly heights, into the world on mission.

Our liturgy is shaped by FIVE PRINCIPLES:

The SCRIPTURAL principle

Our worship is Scripture-saturated because only God’s Word can regulate what goes on in the worship service. We do what we do in our services because there is Biblical precedent to include a call to worship (1 Chr. 16:8-34, Ps. 95:6, Ps. 100:4, Ps. 113:1-3, Ps.118:1, Heb. 10:19-25); a confession of sin (Ps. 32:5, Prov. 28:13, 1 Jn. 1:9, Mt. 6:12); a time of Word-based consecration, with the public reading of Scripture (1 Tim. 4:13), preaching (2 Tim. 4:2), singing (Col. 3:16), and prayer (Col. 4:2); communion (1 Cor. 11:17, 23-26), and a commission, with the pronouncement of a benediction (Lk. 24:50).

The COMMUNAL principle

Since this worship is corporate (or communal), we do not come to passively observe worship being done for us, with the professionals performing up front. Corporate worship - as the word implies - is an activity in which we as a people present ourselves before the Lord, and come together to worship Him collectively. Our responsive readings, corporate prayers, and creedal confessions lend themselves well to this principle.

The DIALOGICAL principle

We believe that when we gather on Sundays, we meet with God to hear from Him and for Him to hear from us. What goes on is something of a divine dialogue, and a thoughtful liturgy will be structured to reflect the back-and-forth nature of that encounter.

The CORPORAL principle

God did not give us bodies merely so we could walk our brains to church. True worship, in other words, involves more than our intellects; it involves our bodies (Rom. 12:1). Worship should be corporal (relating to the body), because posture communicates. We might stand when someone important enters a room, to honour them. We might kneel as a sign of humility and reverence. We typically sit down to eat a meal. It’s why we stand to welcome our Triune God at the beginning of the service, or when His Word is read (Neh. 8:5). It’s why kneeling makes sense during our time of confession of sin, as we are “brought low” before God (Ezra 9:5). It’s why we sit down to partake of the Lord’s Supper. We are embodied souls, not brains on sticks. As in all of life, therefore, so also in the context of corporate worship - what we do with our bodies matters.

The GOSPEL principle

By this we mean that the worship service itself proclaims the Gospel. In other words, the whole service dramatizes the Story of Redemption. This requires a particular structure to the various elements that in their logical progression teach who God is, who we are, and how Christ makes our meeting possible. God calls us by His grace; we confess our sinfulness in light of His holiness; we are consecrated by His Word unto service in His Kingdom; we commune with Him at His Table; we are commissioned to be about His business in the world around us—something we could never do in our own strength, but only with new hearts and wills given to us in the Gospel. Why is all this important? Because the way a service is structured will inform the way we are structured. A God-centred and Gospel-focused service will produce people who are the same (2 Cor. 3:18).