Why Corporate Worship?
We worship together to –
- Respond in grateful obedience to God’s call
- Be instructed by God’s Word
- Be in communion with God and each other
- Celebrate God’s redemptive work in Christ
- Raise awareness and appreciation for God’s work in our lives
- Produce in us a profound awareness of the glory, majesty, and mystery of God
- Be encouraged, equipped, and inspired by the Holy Spirit to be agents of restoration in our world and to give this world the shape of things to come
As God’s covenant children, the community of believers at Seymour Christian Reformed Church is committed to gathering weekly for corporate worship.
We seek to honor God in a manner of worship that is genuine and faithful to the Trinitarian Biblical witness.
We embrace the challenge and opportunity to engage in corporate worship that is true to Christ’s church of all times and all places, is consistent with our reformed heritage, and is meaningful and effective in our particular community.
The Essential Elements
We maintain a balance in weekly worship services by remaining committed to –
- Entering into God’s presence in adoration and praise
- Reaffirming our identity as children of God through forgiveness of sins
- Faithfully celebrating God’s grace to us through the sacraments of baptism and the Lord’s Supper
- Listening to God’s Holy Word in order to mature in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit
- Responding in thanksgiving to God’s acts of mercy
- Being commissioned for service in God’s world
As we worship a never-changing God while witnessing to an ever-changing world, the community of believers at Seymour Church recognizes both our obligation to establish continuity with the historic and universal church, and our obligation to relevantly present the Good News to our contemporary society.
By the Holy Spirit’s leading, we seek to utilize a rich variety of worship practices from both past and present, as well as to design and discover new expressions of worship.
Ideal Characteristics
Corporate worship at Seymour strives to be –
- Spirit-inspired
- Participatory
- Accessible
- Reverent
- Inclusive to all ages, genders, ethnicities, and socio-economic status
- Always changing, while remaining faithful to tradition
- A balanced style of liturgy and music
We look forward to the day when Christ returns and makes all our worship perfect. Meanwhile, we seek to be led by the Holy Spirit to worship in ways that are honoring to God and help us to mature in Christ.
One way we do this is through a balanced style of worship. While preserving traditional worship practices, we remain open to new and expanded styles of music and liturgy.
Corporate worship at Seymour is a collective offering from all of God’s children. Congregational song will always remain a primary and essential worship tool. Liturgy is carefully crafted to allow all worshipers to feel fully welcome and able to participate in worship, regardless or one’s background or familiarity with Seymour’s or any other worship style.
Worship is a joyful sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, offered by all the people of God. We must avoid evaluating worship based only on our own personal preferences or emotions.