Hospitality Team Meeting

The hospitality team focuses on the welcoming atmosphere and life of the church. Our next hospitality team meeting will focus on personal responsibility when it comes to hospitality.

Corporate Worship: Images of the Church

THE FAMILY OF GOD THE FATHER

The church is known as the family of faith (Gal. 6:9-10), the household of God (1 Tim. 3:14-15), and sons [and daughters - ‘sons,’ like ‘men’ is inclusive language in some contexts] (Gal. 4:4-6, Eph. 1:4-6, Rom. 8:12-17). As such, we have many benefits as part of God’s family. The Westminster Confession of Faith has a great section outlining these benefits (WCF 12.1): “All those that are justified, God vouchsafeth [to give or grant something graciously], in and for His only Son Jesus Christ, to make partakers of the grace of adoption: by which they are taken into the number, and enjoy the liberties and privileges of the children of God; have His name put upon them, receive the Spirit of adoption; have access to the throne of grace with boldness; are enabled to cry, Abba, Father; are pitied, protected, provided for, and chastened by Him as by a Father; yet never cast off, but sealed to the day of redemption, and inherit the promises, as heirs of everlasting salvation.” These few sentences are packed with promises made by God to his children which we can take hold of in the midst of life’s struggles. To take one example, think about the idea of having “access to the throne of grace with boldness.” Jews in the Old Testament didn’t have this bold access. They were barred from the Holy of Holies but for once a year and had to approach with caution. Through Christ, however, access has been opened to us as He sits at the right hand of God interceding on our behalf. We can therefore approach with joy and confidence because our Mediator is present for us.

Corporate Worship: Why do we come to church?

Why do we come to church?

While we have all kinds of experiences at church (for example, fellowship with other believers, singing), the main focus of our corporate worship should focus on our coming together to glorify God and to enjoy him. Everything else that we do on Sunday mornings is contingent upon this truth. Ee do this through our song, prayer, preaching, etc., but we have to see them as ways in which we glorify God and enjoy him, not just ourselves. To put it another way, what would fellowship mean apart from Christ? What would prayer mean if we didn’t have God in the picture? We need to be sure that our primary reason for coming is to glorify and enjoy God and then recognize everything that we do during corporate worship as an exercise of this truth.

Reformed Theology: The Centrality of the World

When you ask someone what “Reformed” means, you could get a whole host of responses. Some think that it is a defined liturgy (prayers, readings, saying, etc.), others think it’s simply a name on the church, still others might simply tell you they have no idea. While there are several distinctive themes of Reformed theology, the first one which stands out is the centrality of the Word of God. In all matters of faith and life, we are to subject our thoughts and beliefs to Scripture. Yes, our experiences, traditions, and reason all play a part in interpretation. The distinctive of Reformed theology is that all of these are subjected to Scripture as the final authority. As the Westminster Standards put it, “Under the name of Holy Scripture…are now contained the books of the Old and New Testament…all which are given by inspiration of God to be the rule of faith and life” (WCF I.1.2). This is based upon the belief that all of Scripture is “inspired by God” (2 Tim. 3:16).