Sunday Worship

One can speak of Christian worship in a broad sense whereby it is the offering of one's life to God, to glorify Him and rejoice in Him. Christian worship is also in the narrower sense, communal worship. By the former is meant the global perspective whereby all life is clearly worship, namely a sacrifice of praise of vines manifesting God's name. The second, on the other hand, is represented by the moment when God's people gather together to celebrate God. Here the particular expression of worship, represented by the community meeting on Sunday, is considered as a significant moment in our church life and can be summarized in the following definition: Public communal worship is the act of faith and obedience in which the church of Jesus Christ, under the action of the Holy Spirit, glorifies God by acknowledging his primacy through hearing and obeying the preached Word, submitting one's life to his educating and consoling presence, responding through obedience to the ordinances of baptism and supper, songs and prayers.

For the evangelical church, worship is a moment of the highest value. It is the occasion when an attempt is made to combine the personal dimension with the collective dimension; the existential expression with the liturgical expression; the free manifestation with that prepared by the elders; the historical scope with that of eternity. It is our conviction that the dissociation between daily life and "spiritual" life is something that not only dishonors God but also brings sad consequences in people's lives. Therefore, in worship we try to maintain a connection between all these various dimensions. We know that the risk is to be sucked into history, to the point of losing Gospel specificity, but also to be drawn into eternity to the point of compromising Christ's lordship over all life. Our desire is to bet for the primacy of God over all life, manifesting this commitment in worship as well.

Without compromising the reality of Christian freedom, worship is organized in various moments that, with order and decorum, manifest its richness:

1. The musical prelude welcomes those present, helping them to recollection in God's presence;

2. introduction orients toward awareness of the presence and guidance of the Holy Spirit;

3. by teaching catechism, in addition to valuing children's attendance at worship, we engage in the transmission of doctrinal background to future generations;

4. free time for the testimonies, songs and prayers of believers, allows for the expression of the principle of the priesthood of all believers. At this stage, the confessional dimension of worship participation and the connection with the real life of believers during the week just past is encouraged;

5. the Lord's Supper, which is attended by all church members and guests in fellowship with their respective local churches, is at once the commemoration of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, fellowship with the church body of Christ, and proclamation as anticipation of the fulfillment of the Kingdom and the future feast;

6. preaching represents the central moment of Christian worship, as the Word of God is proclaimed, explained and applied to the life of the congregation for its growth in the knowledge of God and the reality He governs;

7. communications, greetings and the final blessing foster continuity in the life of the church with the community and personal commitments of the following week, promote a sense of belonging to a larger project, governed by the Triune God;

8. the musical postlude closes the worship, linking the solemnity of the celebration to the engagement in conversations among the congregants.

All this evokes the Trinitarian dimension of Christian worship, in which the action of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is recognized, indulged and exalted by the voluntary participation of the church.