God’s Story, Our Communal Response – FBC Worship Order

Over the past year, the way the church worships has been affected drastically by a new norm. The church has tried to facilitate the church’s response to God’s gathering through a variety of ways, but what’s key is that we worship TOGETHER.

We are glad that the evolution of technology can help us connect together in worship. It is essential that the church’s participation in worship as a community be expressed in some way – and in FBC, we will be doing this through Zoom. Through Zoom we will be able to respond together to what God is speaking to us both visually and audibly. We will also be able to encourage each other to respond because we can see the presence of our family members.

Did you know that our pattern of worship is modelled after something established more than 2 millenniums ago? Together, let us remember meaningfully and renew our worship of the One who deserves it all. We believe our services mean so much more than a ritualistic action or something that is done out of obligation. We pray that this article reminds us of how to posture ourselves as we worship our God and our King.  As God has revealed our need to come on His terms, our hope is that the church will respond TOGETHER in worshipping Him with renewed thankfulness and love. So that how we worship will truly reflect Who we worship.

Gathering

The movements in our worship are like movements in a song or part in a movie. They all work together as different ‘chapters’ in the telling of our gospel story. The first movement begins by what we call the GATHERING. The first thing we must always remember is that worship is about who God is. His story begins with Him revealing Himself as our heavenly Father who loves us – inviting and gathering His children into His presence. Worship is a relationship with God, and it begins with God revealing Himself and inviting us into worship. The order of our church service actually reflects that relationship and posture.

The story begins by us remembering it is God who invited us, gathered us and gave us the ability to worship. The table below summarizes our posture/dialogue during Gathering, followed by brief explanations so we understand.

The first thing you’ll notice is that our posture often reflects the reverse. In times of revelation we should posture ourselves to listen and receive. In times of response we posture ourselves to give, sing, shout, and respond in many other ways to God. In times of the communal dialoguewe respond with intentional love and action towards each other as God commands. 

As with any invitation by someone we love, we prepare ourselves to worship. This is done firstly by greeting and encouraging each other to remember our God, who calls and gathers us, and also by spending a time of reflection in silence to tune our senses and hearts to God during the Pre-Service Preparation. After that, we prepare ourselves to hear and respond to God by singing a Song of Preparation. Then we receive God’s invitation through the Call to Worship and Greeting and respond by raising our Song of Praise and Adoration in awe of Who He is, what He has done, and because of His gracious invitation to us to worship. It is important to remember that this invitation is equally extended to those who are new among us or may feel foreign to our worship setting. God invites us all, and it is right that we make each other feel welcome to worship God.

After hearing about our God who is worthy of praise and adoration in song, we continue to respond through the Responsorial Psalm. Depending on the setting of the service, we may read this response together or even sing it. What better way to respond to Him than through the very responses that are from His Word!

And as we see who God is, we also realize – like Isaiah did – that we are not worthy of Who he is. We acknowledge or confess that need to come to Him on His terms, and that is through Jesus Christ His Son. We express this in song together through our Song of Confession – confessing our sins, lamenting our struggles and our need for Him to save and help us, and repenting and committing to walk in His ways. We confess to God and also to each other – reminding each other not only of our need for God, but also assuring each other of His work of salvation and pardon in our lives.

And out of a deep sense of gratitude for God’s invitation, revelation, and assurance of love that we raise our voices in a Song of Thanksgiving. As worshippers, our central response is thankfulness because there is nothing we can give to God that He doesn’t already have. That is why the Eucharist (thanksgiving) used to be the entire service itself. We are gathered because it reflects our thankfulness to God’s story, His gospel of love.

Before we proceed to ponder about the next movement of the WORD, take some time to reflect on your worship communally and personally with the questions below.

Communally
1. Do we remember that worship is God’s invitation? 

2. Is our praise and adoration in response to who God is or how we feel? 

3. Do we worship God on our terms or His terms?

4. Do we respond to Him out of gratitude and thanksgiving for the privilege to worship?
Personally
How much does God’s invitation matter to you?

How is your life a praise and adoration that reveals God’s story to the world? 

How does worshipping on God’s terms look like?

How can you respond in greater thankfulness in your life of worship each day?

WORD

The next movement in our worship centers on the revelation of Christ the living Word. Through the work of the Spirit, God has been faithfully speaking to us through the revelation of scriptures expounded to us for generations. The church has devoted herself to the apostles’ teachings knowing that the centrality of Jesus in our worship is of utmost importance. The movement of the WORD in our services happens like this.

WORDPosture/Dialogue
Prayer of Illumination
Scripture Reading
Sermon

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness (2 Timothy 3:16). Since the beginning, all revelation became effectual for us through the work of the Holy Spirit who reveals to us all truth. During the Prayer of Illumination, we posture ourselves – humbly asking the Holy Spirit to aid us in understanding the Truth of Jesus Christ once more by illuminating His Word to us. The Holy Spirit continues to help us to receive God’s revelations into our hearts by giving us the ears to hear what the Word says.

As Asians, our culture instils in us the value of listening when our fathers speak – though possibly in a negative sense. Worship, on the other hand, invites us to listen to our Father speaking to us out of love – and He reveals the extent of His love through Jesus Christ His Son. Scripture Reading becomes for us the spoken voice of God. It is the very love letter spoken to remind us of who He has revealed Himself to be. That is why the reader ends with the proclamation “this is the Word of the Lord” and we rightly enthusiastically respond with “thanks be to God!”

We thank God for His faithfulness in affording us leaders who – by the power of the Spirit – expound, teach, exhort, and encourage us through the Word. God has never failed to raise up people who diligently serve to ensure that the Word is not just made clear to us, but also people who encourage us to respond as the Word tells us to. The Sermon is not meant to be a talk that we glean useful information from, neither is it a motivational speech, nor is it something we get to choose whether we want or need to hear. Instead, the sermon is vitally God’s appropriate word for all of us to respond to despite our diverse backgrounds. 

Communally
Do we rely on the Holy Spirit to reveal to us all truth?   

When we hear the word of God, do we receive it as the spoken voice of God? 

Do we enthusiastically listen to the spoken voice of God? 

What is God’s purpose for giving the Sermon to us? 
Personally
Who/What have you relied on to reveal the truth to you?

God is lovingly speaking to you how does that make you think, feel or act?

How excited are you to listen to God’s Word/voice?

Is the purpose of God’s Word being fulfilled in my life?

TABLE

We thank God for His faithfulness in affording us leaders who – by the power of the Spirit – expound, teach, exhort, and encourage us through the Word. God has never failed to raise up people who diligently serve to ensure that the Word is not just made clear to us, but also people who encourage us to respond as the Word tells us to. The Sermon is not meant to be a talk that we glean useful information from, neither is it a motivational speech, nor is it something we get to choose whether we want or need to hear. Instead, the sermon is vitally God’s appropriate word for all of us to respond to despite our diverse backgrounds. 

Now every revelation of God demands a response. We are to choose for ourselves and also help each other choose God as our response. Choosing any other response would be idolatry – as it goes against the revelation of God. The Lord’s Table has been how the church chooses to respond to the Word for thousands of years. This is because for us, Christ exemplified the best response to the love of God. This for us was the climax of worship because we are not seated far away in the story, but we are invited in and given grace to respond.

For the longest time, the Table was situated in the center of the church’s worship. It represented for us Christ as the response to God’s love – we were lost in darkness, unable to respond to God’s love; yet Christ became for us what we could not be. The perfect response to everything God has done was and is found in Christ Himself. In the same sense, the Table response becomes the best response we can give – a thanksgiving for Christ and a willing response to respond as Christ would. This was a shared response together to love God and love each other as God requires us to.

For the longest time, the Table was situated in the center of the church’s worship. It represented for us Christ as the response to God’s love – we were lost in darkness, unable to respond to God’s love; yet Christ became for us what we could not be. The perfect response to everything God has done was and is found in Christ Himself. In the same sense, the Table response becomes the best response we can give – a thanksgiving for Christ and a willing response to respond as Christ would. This was a shared response together to love God and love each other as God requires us to.

Our church’s practice of Biblical responses to the Word can be illustrated as:

TABLEPosture/Dialogue
Holy Communion
Response Song
Passing of Peace
Offering

By remembering Christ’s response, through the Holy Communion, the response of Christ becomes for us our response to God. Therefore, our posture should reflect Christ’s posture – loving God and loving others as ourselves. This is a powerful representation of worship’s true response. Through Holy Communion, we encourage each other to respond as a community just as Christ would. Because Christ makes the way – we hold each other accountable and encourage each other to keep our faith and respond in faith no matter how difficult things get. We remember that we have the love of the Father, the presence of Christ, the power of the Holy Spirit and the family of God as we journey in the now. The Holy Communion itself is so much more than written in this paragraph. But to keep this article short, we hope to cover this in a separate article. 

After we have centred our response through Christ, the Response Song encapsulates our response to the Word. We make our commitment to follow Christ and to keep each other accountable to that response. The song is also a corporate dialogue – a prayer to God, telling Him our desire and our need for the Holy Spirit to help us actualize these responses. We can do all things through the strength that Christ provides through the work of the Spirit.

Next is the Passing of Peace, an act of response in sharing and celebrating the communal gift of peace we receive through God’s work in worship. As we have now received the revelation of His love and the assurance of His Word and our ability to respond to Him, we extend that peace to each other, encouraging each other that the Lord’s peace is with them. We welcome those who have now heard the gospel of peace shared and invite them to receive God’s unending peace and open arms to join in and receive the fullness of peace through Jesus Christ.

Lastly, offering is an intentional and prepared response through the giving of our material possessions. It is an outward manifestation of our inward responses. Offering or tithes or any form of giving must stem from a realization that all we have been given as God’s revelation of love to us. So our responses in giving should not be out of obligation, duty, or burden. It is out of gratitude, cheerfulness and willful willingness because Christ has given His all for us. If we give cheerfully as God has provided, surely this response captures not just our inward responses but helps us to put our commitments and responses into action.

Communally
1. Is the Holy Communion a response through Christ or just a memorial? 

2. Are we responding together when we sing the response song? 

3. Do we realize that we are not just greeting each other but passing God’s peace to others? 

4. Are we giving because He gave or because of something else? 
Personally
How are you reflecting Christ’s posture at the Table? 

Can I choose not to respond together with others? Is the response just for specific people? 

How are you a bearer of God’s peace? 

How have you prepared yourself as a giver in your response to God?

SENDING

The story of God reveals the Father’s love for us, the Son’s sacrificial work through Jesus Christ, and finally also tells of the Spirit’s empowerment of His church to fulfil God’s mission of bringing worship back to Him. After His people are gathered and nourished, they are then sent as ambassadors to gather and reconcile others to Him. The sending reminds us to fulfil this commandment and our calling even as we anticipate His return and the completion of His kingdom here on earth.

The sending reminds, blesses, and sends us out with the help and strength of the Holy Spirit into the world. Through the lives we live and the vocation He’s called us to, we bring the good news to our family, the fellowship of the saints, and the communities that surround us. 

SENDINGPosture/Dialogue
Prayers of the People
Announcements
Benediction

One of the fundamental distinction of our Baptist tradition is the belief in the priesthood of all believers. One distinct role of priests is that they offer up prayers on behalf of the people, nations, leaders and even those that persecute the church. There is a sense that the church, as the people of God, is created to be able to intercede on behalf of the world, since the world cannot pray for itself when it doesn’t know God. The Prayers of the People is the intercession of the church – not just for the people in the community who are suffering, ill, struggling or have needs, but also plays the powerful priestly role of praying for the world at large, offering up the world to God and pleading for His mercies and grace. Through this, the church is imitating Christ in His intercessory work for His people. 

In the same manner, contrary to our common experience, Announcements are not merely “church advertisements” but actually communicate God’s call to discipleship, fellowship and mission to us. It gives the body of Christ opportunities to be involved and participate together to fulfil God’s mission for His church and be the sent one to the world. Announcements celebrate the life of the body of Christ as well as reminds us of opportunities for ministry in the community. This is the life of the church. It is through this portion of the worship service that we are also reminded of the season and times that our worship is centred as part of the Church Calendar. If we are to fully posture ourselves for the announcements, we will realize that this is God’s call into a deeper Christ-like community, offering us God’s invitation into life as one body of Christ and calling us to serve each other and the world as Christ served us.

Before we proceed from God’s presence, it is assuring to know that we leave with the blessing and promise of His presence going before us and that He is with us as He sends us out to do His work, God’s mission. We leave with utmost confidence that God loves us, He is with us and for us. The Benediction is pronounced so that the church proceeds from being blessed to be a blessing.

In the presence of monarchy, nobody leaves until the king gives his permission and blessing. Similarly, the Benediction serves as our formal dismissal – not from the presence of God, but with the presence of God into the service for His kingdom.

In the presence of monarchy, nobody leaves until the king gives his permission and blessing. Similarly, the Benediction serves as our formal dismissal – not from the presence of God, but with the presence of God into the service for His kingdom.

Communally
Are we fulfilling God’s call to be priests? 

Are announcements an important part of worship? 

Have announcements been simply informative for us? 

Are we waiting for God’s blessing and sending to be able to go out to do God’s mission? 
Personally
When you pray do you believe God listens? 

Are you actively seeking opportunities to participate in a deeper Christ-like community?

How have you responded to deepen your relationship with God’s community and to serve others?

How much does God’s dismissal mean to you? 

Leave a Reply