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Word and Worship
of the reading and preaching of God's Word in Christian worship? The author is John Stott, author of the best-selling BASIC CHRISTIANITY, and rector emeritus of London's All Souls Church. WORD AND WORSHIP Word and worship belong indissolubly to each other. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of his Name. Therefore acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the Name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known. Far from being an alien intrusion into worship, the reading and preaching of the Word are actually indispensable to it. The two cannot be divorced. Indeed, it is their unnatural divorce which accounts for the low level of so much contemporary worship. Our worship is poor because our knowledge of God is poor, and our knowledge of God is poor because our reaching is poor. But when the Word of God is expounded in its fullness, and the congregations begin to glimpse the glory of the living God, they bow in solemn awe and joyful wonder before his throne. It is preaching which accomplishes this, the proclamation of the Word of God in the power of the Spirit of God. That is why preaching is unique and irreplaceable. -John Stott, BETWEEN TWO WORLDS, Eerdmans, 1981, p. 82, as collected in Authentic Christianity: From the Writings of John Stott, compiled by Timothy Dudley-Smith, InterVarsity Press, 1995. [God bless the preachers! Amen!] Have a great week, Chip Stam Pastor of Worship and Music Chapel Hill Bible Church Chapel Hill, North Carolina |