As a Reformed Church, our worship service is based on the centrality of God’s Word. The liturgy is a re-enactment of God’s redemptive story. We are invited to participate in the story through the Call to Worship. The songs remind us of who God is as we sing about His attributes; we are also reminded of His mighty acts, what He has done for us. As God’s people, we pray and confess our sins before the Lord, knowing full well our depravity and sinful nature. In the absolution, God’s grace is extended to us so that our sins are forgiven in Jesus’ name. We hear God speak to us through the preaching of his Word and through the Sacraments. As God’s people, we respond accordingly in giving and in our commitment to the Lord. Edified, we go forth into the world to do what God has called us to do, and we faithfully do this until the Lord’s return.
Through the four-fold movement of our liturgy – Gathering, Proclaiming, Responding and Sending Forth, it is our prayer that worshippers will encounter God. William Temple summarised it so well when he said: “Worship is the submission of all our nature to God; our consciences quickened by His holiness; our minds nourished by His truth; our imaginations purged by His beauty, our hearts opened to His love, our wills surrendered to His purpose – all this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable.”
