What does worship in a Reformed church look like?

We believe that “man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever,” and worship is at the heart of who we are as Christians. We place a very high priority on worship and so give careful thought to our liturgy.

The term “liturgy” has a bad reputation among evangelicals who associate the term with man-made traditions. But the word actually comes from the Greek word leitourgia, which is derived from two words, laos(people) and ergon (work). Therefore, liturgy is “the work of the people.” It is what God’s people do when they assemble to worship God as one body. With this definition, every church has a liturgy—a work of the people done in service to God. So the question is: How does God want us to worship him? It should be no surprise that he tells us in the Bible.

I Corinthians 14:40 tells us that “All things should be done decently and in order.” This is because “God is not a God of confusion but of peace” (I Corinthians 14:33). This teaches us that worship should not be chaotic. How do we provide maximum participation on the part of every worshiper (and not just of a worship leader or a worship team) and yet do so in an ordered, peaceful manner? The solution is in engaging in worship in a way that is truly corporate (performed by the church body as a whole and not simply by individuals). So we sing hymns corporately, we pray corporately, and we respond corporately.

The corporate nature of worship is important. We are not simply a group of individuals, worshiping God individually, who just happen to be in the same room at the same time. There is a place in life for private worship, but in corporate worship we worship God as one body and so we leave our individualism at home. Moreover, worship is not a means to evangelize. The church ought to evangelize, and evengelism may take place in the worship service, but the worship service should not be designed for unbelievers. Worship is a meeting between God and His covenant people.

Finally, since worship is a meeting between God and His people, our liturgy structured around a covenantal dialogue between God and the congregation. God speaks, the people respond. God speaks again, the people respond. We are preforming a show for God or for each other. Rather, in worship God is meeting us, feeding us with His presence and word, and comforting and admonishing us to fix our eyes on Jesus. We in turn hear his word with faith and respond to Him with confession, praises, and prayer.