Our Worship

 

“Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil.” –Ecclesiastes 5:1

Legacy Baptist Church meets regularly a few times each week. Though the structure, emphasis, and time may vary, we believe there are some core principles, attitudes of worship, and approaches that ought to be consistently applied to each gathering. Our hope is that each assembling will provide for the glory of God and the good of the saints. We pray that the following attitudes and qualities would both rule in our hearts and reign in our services:

1. God-Focused: We determine to place the Lord and His Word at the center of our affections when we gather together. He alone is to be praised, honored, feared, and adored above all others. The Scriptures declare that He is to receive the glory in the church, and we are both compelled by duty and bound by love to give him such deserved honor. (Psalm 96:7-8; 135:3-6; Ephesians 3:21)

2. God-Present: God is everywhere. His Holy Spirit indwells the believer. Jesus Christ is the Head of the church and in our presence. Add to this that the Scriptures tell of the Lord drawing nigh to us when we approach Him, and we should wholly expect the presence of the Lord in a most unique and powerful way when we gather together in corporate worship. His evident presence not only offers special fellowship with the saints, but also provides an inescapable demonstration of this glorious salvation before unbelievers. (Psalm 139; Ephesians 1:13-14, 22; Revelation 1:13; James 4:8)

3. Bible-Based and Bible-Saturated: Every thing we believe and, therefore, offer in our services must be based on the absolute truth of Scripture. Each song, prayer, reading, testimony, and sermon should have a foundation resting in God’s Word and thus supporting its content. Beyond that, the very words of the Bible ought to permeate the fabric of our service from beginning to end. (Colossians 3:16;  2 Timothy 3:15-17)

4. Heart and Mind: The prepared content of our gatherings is purposefully intended to aid the believer in expressing deep, strong, real emotions toward God that perhaps one would have otherwise found difficult to convey. These feelings must be grounded in understood truth, and so we reject any manipulation of people’s emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking about spiritual things based on shareable evidences outside of our own experience. (Psalm 111:1)

5. Earnest Intensity: There is little place in our gatherings for the silly, frivolous, nonsensical, flippant, irreverent, or superficial. Rather we intend to portray an attitude of humble reverence, passionate wonder, and broken-hearted joy as we consider how the Lord of all has extended fellowship to us. (1 Timothy 2:1-3:15)

6. Genuine Communication: The message and worship of the church must be founded in truth, and therefore, it is unseemly that anything less should accompany its delivery. We renounce all deceit, craftiness, trickery, pretense, hypocrisy, sham, affectation, and posturing that should pose as a servant of truth. Neither do we seek an overly artistic or oratorical performance by man that might make suspect the authenticity of the delivered offering. (2 Corinthians 4:2)

7. Undistracting Excellence: We continually pursue the goal of providing hymns, prayers, testimonies, readings, special music, and messages in such a manner that one’s attention will not be unnecessarily diverted from the spiritual substance by poor ministrations or by excessive finesse, elegance, or refinement. It is our belief that normal and natural excellence will not distract from the truth of message or the beauty of our Lord. (Philippians 1:10)

8. Welcoming Warmth: The unbeliever in our midst will find that our worship services are determined primarily for the glory of our Lord and the edification of the saints. However, we welcome the attendance of all who might come to know the saving grace of Jesus Christ. Surely, the unregenerate soul will find himself greeted warmly by our congregation, and yet, he may not, and really should not find himself ‘at home’ amongst us. We are a new creation, a changed and peculiar people, and a group passionate about sharing this good news and our glorious Savior with all who will listen. We hope to have you join with us at Legacy! (Acts 2:42;  1 Corinthians 14:24;  2 Corinthians 5:17)

“Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary…praise him according to his excellent greatness.” –Psalm 150:1a, 2b