Category Archives: Christianity

Worship at the center…

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A great comment was made by someone at CPCC the other day, reminding us that whatever we do as a church — including evangelism and outreach — must flow out of worship. He had just read the following (from an OPC publication, available online), where author Larry Wilson quotes John Piper. It is one of my favorite points made by Piper, and its significance is worth digesting…

But our Lord Jesus declares that God is seeking worshipers (John 4:23–24)! As we grow in our love for God, we will, like John Calvin, grow in our zeal that God be truly worshiped, as well as truly known. If our Lord grants such zeal, it will drive reformation and renewal in every aspect of the church’s life. It will even renew our evangelistic and missionary zeal. John Piper helpfully exhorts:

Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exists because worship doesn’t. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man…. Worship… is the fuel and goal of missions…. When the flame of worship burns with the heat of God’s true worth, the light of missions will shine to the most remote peoples on earth…. Where passion for God is weak, zeal for missions will be weak. Churches that are not centered on the exaltation of the majesty and beauty of God will scarcely kindle a fervent desire to “declare his glory among the nations” (Ps. 96:3). Even outsiders feel the disparity between the boldness of our claim upon the nations and the blandness of our engagement with God. (John Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad [Baker, 1993], pp. 11–12)

It is of the utmost importance, then, that our hearts be gripped by the real point of worship.

Amen! The whole of Larry Wilson’s article, THE REAL POINT OF WORSHIP, can be found here.
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Unfashionable…

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9781601420855mPastor Tullian Tchividjian’s new book UNFASHIONABLE, Making A Difference in the World by Being Different, is good reading so far. Let drop some quotes in the blog for you to chew on…

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…our culture is growing weary of slick production and whatever’s new and is growing hungry for authentic presence and historical rootedness. Younger generations don’t want trendy engagement from the church; in fact, they’re suspicious of it. Instead they want truthful engagement with historical and theological solidity that enables meaningful interaction with transcendent reality. They want desperately to invest their lives in something worth dying for, not some here-today-gone-tomorrow fad.

…Just when our culture is yearning for something different, many churches are developing creative ways to be the same. Just as many in our culture are beginning to search back in time, many churches are pronouncing the irrelevance of the past. Just as people are starting to seek after truth, many churches are turning away from it. As a result these churches are losing their distinct identity as a people set apart to reach the world.

Let’s recall what Jesus said (Luke 14:34-35),
“Salt is good, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is of no use either for the soil or for the manure pile. It is thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”