Pastor’s Corner “Why Go to Church?”

In his wonderful book Worship, Community, and the Triune God of Grace, James B. Torrance considers the questions, “What is the use of going to church, what good does it do me, what do I get out of it?” He likens these challenges to the question of why one would marry. After briefly listing some wrong, utilitarian reasons—to have someone to pay the bills, to do the housework, the shopping, the cooking—Torrance writes:

There is only one supreme reason for getting married—for love’s sake, for the other’s sake, for mutual love, self-giving, a longing for intimate communion, and sharing of everything. So in Christian worship, we worship God for God’s sake; we come to Christ for Christ’s sake, motivated by love. An awareness of God’s holy love for us, revealed in Jesus Christ, awakens in us a longing for intimate communion—to know the love of the Father and to participate in the life and ministry of Christ. Worship in the Bible is always presented to us as flowing from an awareness of who God is and what he has done.

The next three Sundays we are going to explore why and how we worship our Triune God in the context of our weekly “worship services.” This upcoming Sunday I will teach how our liturgy carries us into true worship, a grace-filled movement to the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. I will also briefly present our Worship Ministry’s emerging vision: “Engage the hearts of people in Spirit-filled Unified Worship of God through Jesus Christ.”

The following Sunday, July 20, I will facilitate a discussion among a small group of our worship leaders and church members on the roles of liturgy, music, and silence in worship. Then, on Sunday July 27, I’ve invited Nathan Thompson to preach on “Why the Church Sings,” exploring specifically the role of music in worship. Nathan has led music in churches for over fifteen years, and recently has been coaching our worship band led by Phoebe Giannini and Dan Ellison.

These next three Sundays, God willing, will build on Immanuel’s strong foundation of Spirit-led, Christ-sourced worship, creating a trellis for growing our Worship Ministry and strengthening the unity of our congregational worship.

Your Pastor in Christ,