Worship: Our Primary Pillar

“Redeemer Church exists to pursue the glory of God and the joy of all people through worship, fellowship, discipleship, and mission.”

This is our church mission statement. As a church, our desire is that God would be glorified by people finding their joy in Him. We believe that true joy is found in God, and as John Piper has said, that God is most glorified when we are most satisfied in Him. This is what we are all about.

Our four pillars – worship, fellowship, discipleship, and mission – are the four ways that we pursue that singular desire. To help us pursue the glory of God and the joy of all people, I am going to take the next few weeks to look at these four pillars. We’ll start with worship.

The Priority of Worship

Worship is our giving of glory to God in response to seeing the glory of God.

The book of Romans is about this. In Romans 1, we see that the essence of righteousness is recognizing and responding to God’s glory in worship. Likewise, we see that the essence of sinfulness is failing to recognize and respond to God’s glory in idolatry.  Every one of us has failed to recognize and respond to God’s glory and given ourselves to the worship of idols.

This is the bad news that prepares the way for the good news, that there is a perfect worshiper who has paid for our idolatry in full. Jesus Christ saves us from idolatry back to the true worship of God. When we see Jesus, and when we comprehend in our hearts that in sheer grace He gave Himself for us, we behold the glory of God in the fullest way possible. And now, in response to the glorious mercy of God, we are called to “present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship” (12:1). Everything we do now falls under this singular purpose – to give glory to God in response to seeing the glory of God.

Not All Pillars Are Created Equal. 

Worship is different than the other three pillars. Because worship encompasses everything we do, worship is our primary pillar. Our fellowship is worship. Our discipleship is worship. Our mission is worship. And without a heart of worship, our attempts at fellowship, discipleship, and mission are idolatry.

In the next three blogs, we’ll look at worshipping through fellowship, worshipping through discipleship, and worshipping through mission. May we pursue the glory of God and the joy of all people as we respond in worship to the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.