Music and WorshipWe believe that all of life should be an act of worship and praise to God for who he is and what he has done. Sunday morning celebrations are a weekly climax to that worship filled week. When we gather on Sundays, one of our primary purposes is to worship using all of the methods that the Bible either commands or commends. So, we include a blend of music that is filled with Biblical truths, prayer, Communion, giving, spiritual gifts, Bible reading, prayer, and preaching. All of these are done through the grace given by the Holy Spirit and for the sake of Jesus.
Another local church, which shares many of the same priorities as Trinity Fellowship Church, developed the following philosophy of worship. We have adopted it to give a more well rounded explanation of what we believe about worship and what we hope to enjoy on a Sunday morning.
1. God-centeredness
A high priority of the vertical focus of our Sunday morning service. The ultimate aim is to so experience God that He is glorified in our affections.
2. Expecting the powerful presence of God
We do not just direct ourselves toward Him. We earnestly see His drawing near according to the promise of James 4:8. We believe that in worship God draws near to us in power, and makes Himself known and felt for our good and for the salvation of unbelievers in the midst.
3. Bible based and Bible saturated
The content of our singing and praying and welcoming and preaching and poetry will always conform to the truth of Scripture. The content of God’s Word will be woven through all we do in worship and will be the ground of all appeal to authority.
4. Head and heart
Worship that aims at kindling and carrying deep, strong, real emotions toward God, but does not manipulate people’s emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking about spiritual things based on shareable evidences outside ourselves.
5. Earnestness and intensity
Avoiding a trite, flippant, superficial, frivolous atmosphere, but instead setting an example of reverence and passion and wonder.
6. Authentic communication
The utter renunciation of all sham and deceit and hypocrisy and pretense and affectation and posturing. Not the atmosphere of artistic or oratorical performance but the atmosphere of a radically personal encounter with God’s truth.
7. The manifestation of God and the common good
We expect and hope and pray (according to 1 Cor. 12:7) that our focus on the manifesting of God is good for people and that therefore a spirit of love for each other is not incompatible with, but necessary to authentic worship.
8. Undistracting excellence
We will try to sing and play and pray and preach in such a way that people’s attention will not be diverted from the substance by shoddy ministry nor by excessive finesse, elegance or refinement. Natural, undistracting excellence will let the truth and beauty of God shine through.
9. The mingling of historic and contemporary music
And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old" (Matt. 13:52).
(c) April 1994, John Piper