The primary way in which we treasure Jesus together is through worship. We believe that all of life is to be offered to God as worship in gratitude for saving us through the finished work of Christ. One important aspect is in the church's corporate worship each Lord's Day (Sunday). At Five Points, we strive toward worship that is God-centered, embodied, and congregational.
God-Centered
When the church gathers for worship, we are the participants and God is the audience. In Ephesians 3:10, the apostle Paul says that it is through the church that God desires to display His manifold wisdom to the cosmos. He is clear that He is to be at the center. What does this look like, practically speaking? It means we center our gatherings around His Word (the Bible). We read the Word, pray the Word, sing the Word, preach the Word, see the Word through baptism and the Lord's Supper, and respond to the Word.
The primary mode of preaching at Five Points is expositional. What that means is that we mostly preach through entire books of the Bible so as to expose the church to the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:26-27). We will do topical series from time to time, but we believe God's voice is best heard in the church through this model of preaching.
The church gathers to hear and behold the glorious One, the One who stands above the entire universe. He is the Creator, the Designer of Niagra Falls and countless other wonders. Filled with reverent fear, we approach God to adore His unrivaled beauty. God gathers us to glorify Him. -Matt Merker, Corporate Worship, p. 62
Embodied
In the quote above, Matt Merker captures well what is meant by God-centered worship and also helps us to see that corporate worship is intended to be embodied. By that we simply mean that the normative pattern of Scripture is for believers to gather together in real space and time. In a world that is overwhelmed with digital technologies, the church continues to value the whole person. Consider this passage from Hebrews 10:24-25...
And let us consider how to stir one another up to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
Resonating with this passage, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: "The physical presence of other Christians is a source of incomaprable joy and strength to the believer."
Congregational
What we mean by "congregational" is that the congregation are the primary participants... not the audience. In Colossians 3:16, Paul told the believers in Colosse to let the word of Christ richly dwell among them by singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We are intended to help each other grow in Christ by singing together! Our main criteria in selecting songs, then, is that they are biblical and singable. At Five Points, our worship contains songs that have spanned the centuries of church history and others that are more contemporary. The goal is not to tailor everything we do to a specific demographic, but to be pleasing to the Lord.
