Dear Church Family, In our examination of the various elements of corporate worship, this week we come to the concluding element of our service, the benediction. Our English word derives from the Latin and refers to “speaking a good word” or “blessing.” Like many of the other Biblical parts of

Dear Church Family, We have discussed congregational singing previously in this series on the corporate worship of our church. We have discussed the importance of understanding the complementary relationship between words and musical setting in corporate singing. And, we have discussed the importance of thinking about corporate singing in terms

Dear Church Family, The preaching of God’s Word (the sermon) has fallen on hard times. Many churches are even embarrassed to use the word ‘sermon’ (that sounds too preachy!). Instead, labels like ‘sharing’ or ‘meditation’ or ‘giving a talk’ are used to describe what the pastor does when he stands

Dear Church Family, Confessing our faith through the historic creeds of the Christian Church is an important aspect of our corporate worship. There are some who decry the use of confessions and creeds as man-made constructs that have no place in the Christian faith; however this goes against the teaching

Dear Church Family, In the discussion of our first hymn, we talked about the uniqueness of singing and the way in which both the words and the music of worship songs help us to engage the whole of our beings in worship – mind, heart, and body. This week, we

Dear Church Family, In our examination of the elements of our corporate worship service, most recently we looked at the importance of confessing our sins, corporately and privately. Just as it is important to examine ourselves, confess and repent of our sins, it is equally important to know that according

Dear Church Family, While serving as a hospital chaplain one summer during seminary, I would pay regular visits to the patients on my assigned ward. One time, I visited with a man as he was preparing for heart surgery. I didn’t know the man, but as we talked, he told

Dear Church Family, In our morning worship service, after the pastoral prayer, we recite together a portion of a Reformed catechism or confession. The Westminster Standards (Confession, Larger and Shorter Catechisms) contain the summary of the doctrines taught in Scripture and as such are received as part of the constitution

Dear Church Family, In the corporate worship of the church, the pastoral prayer (called “the long prayer” in some traditions) has fallen on hard times. If there are any prayers publicly offered in worship services today, they are often limited to opening and closing prayers for the service and the