Our Purpose in Worship
We are committed to glorifying God through Christ-centered worship. Our services will be designed in such a way that the focus is on Christ and not on ourselves. We believe that through worship we personally encounter the Living, Sovereign Lord.
Inter-Generational
We will aspire to be a church that bridges the generations in its worship experience. This will stretch our church family since there is cultural pressure to divide ourselves according to age and narrow the focus to various groups such as builders, boomers, or busters. While pursuing a target audience is advantageous in many ways (and effectively used by many churches), we believe our church has a calling to unite the generations in worship together.
Blended Style
We will seek to use the various musical styles and worship forms in such a way that people of different ages and backgrounds will feel at home in our worship environment. We are committed to using traditional, contemporary, alternative, and other musical expressions in our attempt to bridge across the diversity of our culture and church family. Yet, it is not our goal to honor all ages and musical preferences every Sunday. We intend to be blended without turning each worship service into a “choppy” experience.
Relevant
While we seek to be blended, we will design our worship format to have a strong appeal to the younger generation, as well as the non-churched. In a world that is increasingly divided by age, it becomes necessary for each generation to make way for the church of the future. As time goes by, each age group must learn to sacrifice its preferred worship style with the goal of reaching those who walk to a different beat.
Integrates Tradition
We believe it is possible to use tradition in a culturally relevant way. Placing our primary emphasis on a relevant style does not mean abandoning our roots or the contributions of the church through the ages. We will seek to incorporate practices in our worship experience that link us to our past through the use of music, prayers and liturgies drawn from previous eras.
Participatory
We are called to participate in worship with our total being: loving God with our heart (emotionally), soul (spiritually), mind (mentally), and strength (physically). We will seek to provide a worship environment that encourages freedom of expression while guarding against using external forms as a measure of spiritual maturity.
Conclusion
The worship values stated above will require creative effort. There are healthy tensions in our objectives that will force us to be imaginative and innovative. We believe that working toward this end will strengthen our worship experience and lead us to love God and each other more deeply. In the end, our desire is to design creative worship services which will highlight the character and works of God in a way that leads to both reverence and celebration.