Philosophy of Corporate Worship

To worship God is to ascribe to Him the honor and praise due Him because He is worthy, and delightfully so. In the broadest sense, worship is the category under which we order everything in our lives as we present our whole selves to God to the praise of His glory (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Cor. 10:31; Heb. 13:15-16). In a more narrow sense, “worship" describes times set apart for personal, family, and communal devotion to God (Matt. 6:6; Heb. 10:24-25).

From the beginning, Christians have gathered regularly on Sunday, the Lord’s Day, for corporate worship (1 Cor. 14:24-40), to devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching, prayer, the sacraments, and fellowship (Acts 2:42-44). These gatherings flowed into the homes of believers, where worship continued on a daily basis (Acts 2:46-47). From this pattern, we recognize the significant relationship between gathered worship on Sunday and personal worship throughout the rest of the week. Christians need both to mature in their love for God. And though our aim is only to provide guidance for our corporate worship at Covenant, we want to emphasize that such worship will be severely weakened if we neglect to root ourselves in the beauty and grace of God “in secret” throughout the rest of the week.

The three main words we use to summarize corporate worship at Covenant are biblical, liturgical, and traditional.

 

  • Biblical indicates our commitment to the Bible as the only infallible rule of faith and practice. Thus, we strive to derive the principles of our corporate worship from God’s Word and to nourish His people on that same Word.
  • Liturgical refers to the pattern of our worship services. We structure our worship according to the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, within an environment of order and peace.
  • Traditional describes our desire to receive the wisdom of Christians who have come before us. More specifically, we are rooted in the Reformed tradition, though not in any single replication of that tradition.
choir
choir

Guiding Values

Biblical

Our aim in public worship is to glorify and enjoy God in accordance with His written Word. In keeping with the Reformed tradition, we seek to worship God in ways that He has commanded in the Bible. Thus, in our corporate worship, we will read the Bible (1 Tim. 4:13), preach the Bible (Rom. 10:14,17), pray the Bible (Matt. 21:13), and sing the Bible (Ps. 98:1; Neh. 12:27; Matt. 26:30; Col. 3:16). The Triune God who has revealed Himself in His Word is both the subject and object of our worship (Ps. 22:22; Ps. 100).

Each week, our liturgy seeks to rehearse the narrative arc of the Bible’s central gospel story: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration. Our preaching will be expository, with sermons more likely to be based on the systematic study of a book of the Bible rather than organized topically. Our pastors seek to proclaim the whole counsel of God, and our members are called to sit under the authority and instruction of the preached Word, trusting that God’s Spirit will apply it to our hearts as he builds us to maturity in Christ. Similarly, our musical selections will strive for conformity to biblical theology. As the Bible institutes the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper, we will baptize infants and new believers and will celebrate the Lord’s Supper together weekly.

Participatory

We gather as a congregation, not as an audience, so each week’s liturgy will provide opportunities for active participation in the form of readings, prayers, creeds, and singing. While this does not exclude musical offerings from choirs, ensembles, or soloists, our first priority will be to create opportunities for active congregational singing (Ps. 111:1, 149:1). Neither the sermon nor the offering are interruptions to worship; rather, we actively attend to the preaching of His Word, and we respond to God’s gracious provision by giving back a portion of what He has entrusted to us.

Dialogical

When God reveals Himself in the Bible, the response is worship (Ex. 3; Acts 9; Isa. 6; Rev. 4). Our liturgy seeks to reflect this pattern by creating a dialogue in which God speaks and His people respond. In keeping with the order and simplicity of ancient Christian patterns, worship begins with God’s call, to which His people respond with grateful praise. Encountering God in His holiness, we respond to His gracious condescension by acknowledging His righteousness, confessing our lack of righteousness, and receiving the assurance of His pardon for those who look to Christ. His Word read and preached, as well as the hymns we sing, trace the narrative arc of God’s work in creation, our rebellion in the fall, God’s gracious redemption in Christ, and the joyous promise of restoration in which He will make all things new. Just as God speaks the first word in summoning us to Himself, God speaks the last word through the benediction, His blessing over His people as He sends us out to love and serve others in His name.

Ancient & New

We believe that the Church is one body from all times and places, and we seek to be rooted in the richness and liturgy of the ancient Church, historic hymnody, and the Reformed tradition. The Bible also exhorts us to newness (Eph. 4:22-24; Matt. 9:17; Ps. 96) in the power of the Holy Spirit (Rom. 8:14; John 16:13). We will strive for our worship to exist in the tension of an ancient faith paired with a future hope (1 Jn. 3:2; Heb. 2:8-9). Our prayers and readings will draw on Scripture, historic creeds and confessions, and more modern sources. We will seek to sing the best of historic and contemporary hymnody, and our congregational hymns will come primarily from the Trinity Hymnal.

Intellectual, Emotional, & Physical

Because God has made us body and soul (Gen. 2:7) and calls us to love him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Matt. 22:37), worship should engage our entire being (1 Cor. 14:15). As the Psalms demonstrate, we come before God with the full range of emotional expression. We stand, sit, kneel, raise our hands and voices, eat and drink together, and worship engages our hearts, minds, and bodies.

Edifying & Evangelistic

In our worship, we first and foremost strive to ascribe all glory and honor to God; our chief end is to glorify Him. And in God’s economy, when we gather together to proclaim the riches of His grace, we also edify one another and bear witness to the world. We gather for the sake of building up God’s people (Heb. 10:24-25) and welcome unbelievers into our community (I Cor. 14:23-25), so we will strive to speak in terms that all can clearly understand. Liturgical and musical selections will aim for clarity and will be explained or translated when difficult. Excellence is an attribute of God (Gen. 1:31, Ps. 8:1), and the Psalms urge us to play skillfully (Ps. 33:3); consequently, we will offer our best to the Lord, incorporating the gifts of musicians in our own body and in the community.

Contextual

God has placed our church in a particular time and place, and we will seek to curate a culture of worship that serves our church community and our city. Where the Bible offers freedom in worship, we will seek to use that freedom to serve one another in love (Phil. 2:3; Gal. 5:13). Within our context, we will seek to steward the tradition and heritage of our particular congregation in Nashville, Tennessee, as we look to the Spirit to guide us into the future.