Michiana Covenant Church: Worship at MCPC

For a sample order of service, see here

For other prayers we frequently use, see here

For calls to worship we frequently use, see here

The Pattern of Worship at Michiana Covenant Church

Adopted by the Session, April, 2004

A church’s theology of worship will be expressed in its practice of worship. At Michiana Covenant Church, we believe that our worship participates together with the church of all ages at the heavenly throne of God (Heb 12, Rev 4-5). Therefore we have sought to follow the pattern of worship laid down in scripture and practiced throughout the history of the church.

This pattern has a simple structure that can be expressed as follows: 1) God’s people are called together to worship him; 2) we come before God on the basis of a sacrifice; 3) we hear the Word of God proclaimed; 4) we respond with our prayers and praises; 5) we partake of the covenant meal; and 6) we go forth with the blessing of the Triune God. This is not a fixed liturgy, but a common pattern consistent with every biblical worship service, and has been followed throughout most of the history of the church (see Ex 24, 2 Chr 5-7, Acts 2:42; 20:7-12).

The book of Revelation portrays the entire history of redemption, from the death and resurrection of Christ until the end of the world, as a worship service (chapters 4-22). Redemptive history sets forth the pattern of our worship. Just as Christ’s sacrifice forms the entrance to the heavenly visions (chapters 4-5), so also his sacrifice is the basis for our worship. Just as the various “sevens” of Revelation proclaim the purposes of God in redemption (chapters 6-18), so also the sermon today. And just as redemptive history concludes with the marriage supper of the Lamb and the blessing of God’s people (chapters 19-22), so also our worship concludes with the covenant meal and the benediction. Worship is designed to be a microcosm of redemptive history.

1. God Calls Us to Worship Him

In the Old Testament this could be accomplished by the blowing of trumpets, which assembled the people together. In Revelation 4, this includes the singing of songs of praise as the heavenly hosts gather. At MCC we have a responsive call to worship, in which the pastor reads those parts that call the people to worship God, and the people respond by giving praise and thanks to God.

2. We Enter God’s Presence through the Sacrifice

No sinner can approach a holy God except through a sacrifice. God taught this to Israel through their sacrificial system (Ex 19-Lev 10). New Testament worship is based upon a sacrifice as well–the sacrifice of Jesus Christ (Rev 5). This is why we sing a hymn of repentance, followed by a prayer of confession and declaration of pardon. Repentance is about turning the heart and mind away from our sins and toward God. As we enter worship we need to repent of our sins and flee to Christ. The declaration of pardon expresses the power of the keys of the kingdom which Christ has given to his church (Matt 18:18; John 20:23). Having been forgiven for our sins, we sing the praises of our Savior, and then, with gratitude in our hearts, offer our tithes, offerings, and firstfruits to the Lord.

3. God Speaks to Us in His Word

At the center of our worship is the reading and preaching of the Word. The reading of the Word is the foundation for the preaching of the Word. We hear a chapter from the Old Testament, and then respond by singing a Psalm, followed by the New Testament lesson. The sermon is an integral part of worship, because worship itself is supposed to remind us of who we are and where we stand in God’s redemptive plan. (See the session’s statement on “The Preaching of the Word.”)

4. We Respond to the Word with our Prayers and Praises

The Congregational Prayer (or prayer of the covenant community) then applies the sermon to all of life. As the sermon has reminded us who we are, so now in prayer we ask God to remember his promises. We pray first for the rulers of nations and all people (1 Tim 2:1-2), that God would use the preaching of his Word to convert the nations (Matt 28:19-20), and then that God would bless the ministry of the church in our area as well. All matters, whether great or small, are brought to the throne of grace and are placed in their proper context (1 Ki 8:22-53). In this context we also recite the Nicene or Apostles’ Creed as the profession of our common faith, by which we declare that we do indeed believe the promises that God has given us in Jesus Christ.

5. God Feeds Us in the Covenant Meal

Just as the Book of the Covenant in Moses’ day was powerless without the Blood of the Covenant (Ex 24), so also the preaching of the New Covenant is powerless without the Blood of the New Covenant. In the Old Testament, the peace offering would conclude the worship service–the covenant meal to which Paul refers in 1 Corinthians 10:18 while talking about the Lord’s Supper. In the New Testament the worship of the early church is at times called “gathering together to break bread” (Acts 20:7), which included both the preaching of the word and the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Having heard with our ears of God’s promises, we now take with our hands, and eat with our mouths, the covenant meal which signifies and seals to us those same promises.

6. We Go Forth with God’s Blessing

Just as God calls us to come and worship him, so also he sends us forth with his blessing. Having worshiped him in Spirit and truth at his right hand in Jesus Christ, we are now to live the whole of our lives as those who are seated with God in the heavenly places in Christ. Worship is not so much a “break” from the “real world,” but a reminder of what is truly real. Therefore the benediction sends us forth with God’s blessing to live in his service. The benediction is not a prayer or a wish, but the declaration of a redemptive-historical reality: the same blessing which God gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and which Jesus Christ has inherited through his resurrection from the dead, has now come to you. You no longer live as a stranger and alien from God. You are now his child. Therefore go forth and live as his child, knowing that his blessing rests upon you.

Conclusion

The pattern of worship is then to become the pattern for our lives. Our weekly confession of sin is to shape the way in which we confess our sins daily to God and to those whom we have offended. Our weekly hearing of the Word of God is to show us how we ought to read and understand the Word each day. Our regular prayer life should be enriched and strengthened through our corporate prayers. Through our participation in the Lord’s Supper, our daily breaking of bread in our homes becomes a reminder of the great Wedding Supper of the Lamb. If all of life is worship, then what we do on Sunday morning should reorient us back to the true meaning of life.

Postscript on Hymnody
We are convinced that if the church would recover her ancient theology of worship, most modern debates over music style would subside. Psalms and hymns should be liturgically appropriate–which means that they should fit into the pattern of worship outlined above. For this reason we regularly sing the Psalms, which were designed to be sung in the worship of the church. We also regularly sing hymns from all periods of church history as an expression of our unity with the whole body of Christ throughout all ages.

II. The Preaching of the Word

We affirm the teaching of our Larger Catechism that the reading, but especially the preaching of the Word of God, together with the sacraments and prayer, are the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to his church the benefits of his mediation, made effectual to the elect for their salvation by the Spirit of God (WLC 154-155).

The Word preached is inseparable from the Word written and the Word Incarnate, our Lord Jesus Christ being not only the pre-eminent Preacher (Heb 1:1-2) but also pre-eminently that which is proclaimed in Scripture (Luke 24:27), both the Messenger and the Message. All true Christian preaching, being grounded in the apostolic witness, derives its substance, authority, and power from the Divine Preacher, our Lord Jesus Christ, working through His Spirit (1 John 1:1-4).

Therefore, the preaching of the Word of God is to be regarded and received as the Word of God (1 Thes 2:13).

Accordingly, the public preaching of the Word of God is central to the worship of his church. The minister of the Word is to preach sound doctrine faithfully, making known the whole counsel of God. He is free to invent neither doctrines nor applications not warranted by the Word (Deut 4:2, etc). In aid of this, all preaching should be expository, and should normally expound an entire book in sequence (lectio continua), although occasional sermons and series (lectio selecta) may be appropriate at times.

Preaching should be approached with diligent and learned study and conducted with great reverence and propriety, not flippantly or casually. The minister of the Word is to preach diligently, plainly, wisely, zealously, with fervent love to God and the souls of his people, and sincerely, aiming at God’s glory, and the conversion, edification, and salvation of his people (WLC 159).

The Word of God is to be preached only by such as are sufficiently gifted, and also duly approved and called to that office (WLC 158). That is, except in extraordinary circumstances, only lawfully ordained ministers of the Word may preach.

The preaching of the Word must be faithful to the preaching of Christ as it has been committed to us by the apostolic witness (2 John 10). To wit,

1) It must proclaim Christ and Him crucified. Preaching which does not proclaim the centrality of Christ and his work of redemption, or which bypasses the cross of Christ in order to inculcate moral lessons is futility and no gospel.

2) It must not favor any one portion or Testament of Scripture over any other, Christ being preached plentifully throughout the Old and New Testament Scriptures, to which the Apostles bear abundant witness (1 Pet 1:10-12).

3) It is, in accordance with the preaching of Christ, the eschatological proclamation of Kingdom of Heaven (Mat 4:17; Luke 4:21), the mystery which has been revealed to the Church at the end of the ages (Eph 3; 1 Cor 10:11).

4) It proclaims thereby the mighty saving acts of God in history as they are consummated in His Son and it is therefore covenantal and redemptive-historical in its interest and orientation, laboring to convince us of our participation in these mighty saving acts (Acts 2:14-39; 7; 13:14-41; 17:22-34).

5) It therefore speaks directly and authoritatively to the Church’s contemporary context without reference to the passing fancies of the present day, there being no redemptive-historical gap between the Apostolic age and our own, namely, that the Church is the colony of heaven in the midst of this present evil age out of which she has been delivered while she awaits her Savior (Phil 3:20; Gal 1:4).

6) Such preaching is by its very nature ecclesiological, its imperatives necessarily grounded in the Church’s covenantal union with Christ her Head, with whom she is seated in the heavenly places (Col 3:1-5).

7) Such preaching is by its very nature doxological, redounding to the praise and glory of God (Rom 16:25-27).

III. The Frequency of Communion

The Session of Michiana Covenant Church believes that, for the spiritual well-being of the body and for proper worship, communion should be observed every Lord’s Day.

Christ clearly commanded us to partake of communion (Matthew 26:26-27); however, frequency of this communion is not explicitly stated in the scriptures. The two views which have been judged among the Reformed churches to have the most biblical support are the quarterly (or seasonal) view, which draws a connection between communion and the Old Testament seasonal feasts, and the weekly view, which argues that communion is an integral part of the regular corporate worship of the church.

Critics of the weekly view argue that weekly observance of communion diminishes the special character of the sacrament. However, the same argument could be made for the other means of grace. Does weekly preaching and prayer make them any less special or effective? Even so, the Session intends to honor the quarterly communion view by calling for a seasonal communion celebration for churches in our region.

Our advocacy of weekly communion stems chiefly from our confession that communion is indeed a means of grace “whereby Christ communicates to his church the benefits of his mediation” (WLC 154). We confess that in the Lord’s Supper we “do . . . really and indeed . . . receive, and feed upon, Christ crucified, and all benefits of his death” (WCF 29.7) to our “spiritual nourishment and growth in grace” (WLC 168). For the health of the body of Christ, we judge that this means of grace should therefore be exercised frequently.

Weekly communion was a common practice in the early church and was revived during the Reformation by Strasbourg and other Reformed churches. Following their example, we seek to conform our worship to the model set forth in Scripture. As we have affirmed elsewhere (see “The Pattern of Worship at Michiana Covenant Church”), the heavenly pattern of worship demonstrated repeatedly in Scripture consistently culminates in the partaking of a covenant meal.

Accordingly, the sacrament of communion as commanded by Christ should be more than just an occasional addition to our worship service. Rather, it is the culmination or fulfillment of our worship every Lord’s Day. With it, we take with our hands, and eat with our mouths, the covenant meal which signifies and seals to us the eternal promises of God.

IV. The Use of Wine in Communion

The session of Michiana Covenant Church holds that the use of wine in communion, having been instituted by Christ, is fitting and proper. The use of grape juice, while not sinful, deviates from Biblical practice. In support of our position, we offer the following:

Wine, properly used, is a blessing from God
God provides “wine which makes man’s heart glad” just as He gives “food which sustains man’s heart” (Ps 104:14, 15). God promises His obedient people that He will bless them with an abundance of wine (Deut 7:13, 11:14; Prov 3:10). Misused, wine becomes a curse (Prov 23:29-35). The Bible uniformly condemns drunkenness (1 Cor 5:11, 6:10; Eph 5:18; Gal 5:21).

Wine, as referenced in the Bible, contained alcohol
The Bible draws no distinction between wine and grape juice or between fermented and unfermented wine. The same wine (Hebrew yayin) that made Noah (Gen 9:21), Lot (Gen 19:32-35), Nabal (1 Sam 25:37), Ahasuerus (Est 1:7, 10), and others (Isa 28:1, 7; Jer 23:9) drunk, was given to Abraham by Melchizedek (Gen 14:18), kept in the storehouses of the kings of Israel (1 Chr 27:27; 2 Chr 11:11; Neh 5:18) and permitted to all God’s people (Deut 14:26).

Jesus used wine at the Last Supper
The Last Supper was instituted with wine, not grape juice. Unfermented grape juice would have been unavailable in ancient Palestine in the spring of the year, many months after the grape harvest. Lacking refrigeration or pasteurization, the juice would have quickly fermented. Jesus spoke of “the cup” as filled with “the fruit of the vine” (Matt 26:29; Mark 14:25; Luke 22:18), which designated wine partaken at the Passover and on the evening of the Sabbath. There is no indication in the Bible that our Lord performed a miracle and created fresh grape juice for the first Supper. It is plain that the apostles taught the use of wine in communion to the church from the fact that some became drunk at the celebration of the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 11:21).

The significance of wine in the Supper
Wine, much more so than grape juice, symbolizes the blood of Christ, which was shed for our sins. It is the glorified body and blood of Christ that brings us the blessing of the eschaton. Wine’s resemblance to Christ’s blood is found not simply in its color, but most importantly in its power to gladden man’s heart.

That is why wine’s alcoholic content, the result of transformation by fermentation, is significant. The “alcoholic glorification” of the grape juice has theological and eschatological significance. In the same way that meager grape juice gives way to the wine of blessing, the old gives way to the new and better covenant. Grape juice is dead, but wine has passed from death to life through fermentation.

Pasteurization, the manmade process by which grape juice is manufactured, interrupts the God-ordained process of fermentation by killing the agent of that transformation. There is a connection between the modern unnatural manufacture of grape juice and the modern extra-biblical hermeneutic that requires it for communion, both of which are 19th century innovations. By stunting the development of grape juice into wine, we truncate the biblically ascribed meaning of this cup of blessing.

Therefore, the session has determined to return to the practice of using wine in the Lord’s Supper. Nonetheless, for the sake of those with tender consciences, the session will also retain the use of grape juice for the present.

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