Flourishing through our Liturgy and Worship

Turning to Jesus: Why We Worship

“Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” (John 6:68)

• We gather in worship because God has first come to us in Jesus Christ. Through the Holy Spirit, He calls us into His presence, speaks His Word, nourishes us with His grace, and sends us into the world.

• Worship begins not with what we bring to God, but with what God has done and continues to do for us. Our gathering is a response to His love, faithfulness, and invitation to abide in Christ.

• In John 6, Jesus feeds the multitude, gives thanks, and offers Himself as the bread of life. Some seek to make Him king on their own terms, while others turn away when His teaching becomes difficult. When Jesus asks the Twelve whether they too will leave, Peter answers, “Lord, to whom shall we go?”

• This is the heart of our worship. We come not because we have everything figured out, nor because worship always feels easy, but because we have come to know Jesus as the Holy One of God.

• At Renewal, our public worship gathers us around Scripture, prayer, song, the Lord's Table, and the fellowship of God's people. Through these shared practices, we learn to recognize God's voice, receive His grace, and offer our whole lives in response.

What Is Liturgy?

• The word liturgy comes from the Greek leitourgia, referring to public service or work undertaken for the people. In Christian worship, it describes the shared patterns, words, and actions through which the church worships God.

• Liturgy is not simply a script or an order of service. It is something we participate in together.

• Every church has a liturgy, whether formally written or informally practiced. What we say, sing, pray, repeat, celebrate, and leave unsaid shapes our understanding of God and of ourselves.

• Liturgy does not simply express what we believe; it helps form what we love, how we understand the world, and how we live.

• Faith is passed on both explicitly, through Scripture, preaching, teaching, and children's ministry, and implicitly, through the habits, rhythms, gestures, and relationships of a worshipping community.

• Across generations, the church has gathered around the teaching of the apostles, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer (Acts 2:42). We join this continuing life of worship.

The Shape and Rhythm of Our Worship

“Abide in me, as I also abide in you.” (John 15:4)

Our worship follows the shape of a dialogue between God and His people.

1. God Calls , We Respond

God gathers us as His people. We respond with praise, thanksgiving, confession, and prayer, remembering that we come by His grace rather than our own merit.

2. God Speaks , We Listen

Through Scripture, preaching, and the work of the Holy Spirit, God addresses His people. We listen with humility, allowing His Word to comfort, challenge, correct, and renew us.

3. God Invites , We Receive

God welcomes us into communion with Himself and one another. At the Lord's Table, we receive and remember Christ's self-giving love, responding in faith and thanksgiving.

4. God Sends , We Go

Our gathering does not end with ourselves. Having received God's Word and grace, we are sent to love and serve our neighbours, bearing witness to Christ wherever He has placed us.

Our weekly worship also follows the rhythms of the Christian calendar-Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, and Ordinary Time. Through these seasons, we return again and again to the story of Christ, allowing the gospel to shape our experience of time, memory, hope, and daily life.

Role of the Arts in our Liturgy and Worship

• The arts help us see, hear, and inhabit the gospel story. Across all seasons, the arts serve the liturgy:

  • Musical: Songs we sing together and music we hear shape our memory, theology, and affections

  • Poetic and narrative: Prayers, readings, and the narrative flow of the service guide how we enter the story of God

  • Visual and space: Space, colour, lighting, timing, table, posture, and environment guide our imagination and help us respond with intention.

The Theology of our Liturgy and Worship

• Worship Begins With God: God takes the initiative. He calls, speaks, welcomes, and sends; we respond in faith, thanksgiving, and obedience. Worship is first a gift of grace before it is our offering to God.

• Worship Is Trinitarian: We worship the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Our prayers, songs, and practices reflect the communion into which God has welcomed us through Christ.

• Worship Is Participatory and Rooted in Scripture: Worship belongs to the whole gathered church, not simply those leading from the front. Together we sing, pray, listen, confess, receive, and respond. Scripture gives our worship its language, story, and substance.

• Our Words Matter: The words we choose shape how we understand God and one another. We attend carefully to whom we address, what we proclaim, what we pray, and what we leave unsaid. Our language should be faithful to Scripture, rich in the gospel, and accessible to the people gathered.

• God's Word Is Living and Active: When God speaks, something happens. His Word does more than communicate information; it calls us to faith, confronts sin, offers comfort, and forms us in Christ. Our worship makes room for attentive listening and faithful response.

• Worship Makes Room for the Fullness of Human Life: The Psalms teach us to bring joy, grief, gratitude, anger, doubt, longing, and hope before God. We need not pretend to be other than we are. Together, we learn to offer our whole lives to God in worship.

• Worship Forms Us Over Time: Our repeated practices shape our hearts, minds, bodies, and imaginations. Across generations, we are formed through both the explicit teaching of faith and the implicit habits of worship, learning to inhabit the story of Christ together.

How We Discern and Nurture Worship as a Community

1. Where do we recognize God at work in our worship?

• Where are people encountering the grace, truth, and presence of God?

• What are we learning about God through Scripture, prayer, song, and the Lord's Table?

• What is praiseworthy, and what are we moved to give thanks for?

2. How are we participating together?

• How are different generations, backgrounds, and abilities welcomed into worship?

• Are we helping people participate, rather than simply observe?

• How do our shared words, practices, and rhythms help people feel part of the gathered body of Christ?

3. How is our worship forming us in Christ?

• What are our repeated practices teaching us, both intentionally and unintentionally?

• Does our worship make room for joy and celebration, but also lament, confession, silence, and difficult questions?

• How are Scripture, prayer, the Christian calendar, and the Lord's Table shaping our lives beyond Sunday?

4. How might we nurture what God is already doing?

• What aspects of our worship should we preserve, strengthen, or reconsider?

• How can our gifts in music, teaching, prayer, technology, hospitality, and the arts serve the worship of the whole church?

• How might our Sunday gathering better prepare us to live as witnesses to Christ throughout the week?

We do not gather to create an experience of God, but to respond to the God who has already come to us in Christ. We listen for His voice, receive His grace, and are sent to share His life with the world.

On "Flourishing through our Liturgy and Worship"

Curated by the Stewardship Collective — For updates, questions or shared discernment, contact connect@renewalchurch.ca