8.09.2006

Evangelism and worship

Also from the CREC website -

"The Church, for whom Christ died and purchased with His own blood, is the central institution of redemption and regeneration, and through her and her members the kingdom of God marches through history evangelizing the world. We happily admit that politics, education, or any other lobbying efforts will not accomplish redemption of others or the ultimate transformation of society. The primary way this redemption and transformation is accomplished is through corporate worship. The Church, gathered according to the Scriptures and in the power of the Holy Spirit, is trained, motivated, and commissioned so that the culture may be properly engaged and transformed. When the Church is confused about worship, her message about transformation will be muddled. We must begin with God’s priorities. This is why we emphasize the priority of corporate worship and acknowledge that Ezra must precede Nehemiah, which is another way of saying, once worship is in place, we have an acceptable starting point for cultural engagement. From corporate worship, the Church disperses into the world as salt and light..."

2 comments:

  1. I must say I like that. Then what I have read in the CREC website has looked pretty good to me at first glance. From your title I was hoping that this would be more explicitly focused on evangelism and worship. It seems to me that many of today's churches, and the big push in the RCA is in the same direction, see worship as evangelism. By that I mean they intentionally design worship to accomplish evangelism. I personally find that downright wrong. Worship is for the people of God, and an unbeliever cannot worship God until they are brought to faith in Jesus Christ. I guess that is part of the confusion of worship in much of today's church.

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  2. Anonymous12:33 PM

    I entirely agree with you on worship NOT being evangelism.

    How is evangelism to be done, then? I would say it's done best when you have a relationship with someone, and then discuss God, His requirements of him, and his standing before God. There are other ways to do it with people you don't know - D James Kennedy has some good ideas there, with Evangelism Explosion.

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