What is Christian Worship?

Posted by Steve Newell @ http://www.extremetheology.com/

There’s been alot of discussion on this blog, and others, on what is and is not appropriate Christian worship. I would like to take the coming weeks to examining Holy Scripture, the Early Church, and the current Church to better understand what Christian Worship is.

The best place to begin in the Acts of the Apostles. In Acts 2:42, Christian worship is described as:

They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

The apostles’ teachings is the preaching and teaching of the Word of God. The fellowship of believers is the corporate form of worship there Christians gather together. The breaking of bread is Holy Communion. Prayer is prayer done in the name of Christ. This can best be summarized that Christian worship is a gathering of believers around Word and Sacrament under that name of Christ.

The result of proper Christian worship can be seen in the following verses from Acts 2:43-47:

Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

Proper Christian worship will result in believers performing good works for their fellow believers. Here we see that proper creeds (statement of beliefs) lead to deeds. There is a false teaching that started with UnitarianChurch in the early 1800’s that deeds and creeds are mutually exclusive. This false teaching found a new home in liberal Christian church in the early to mid 1900’s and with Rich Warren last statement about creeds and deeds.

Does your church’s worship reflect Acts 2:42?