The Church (Part II)

Well, thank you for joining us today as we continue our study through the Grace Fellowship Church Statement of Faith. Today we'll be looking at the Doctrine of the Church, Part 2. This will be Part 2 of 3 in our study of ecclesiology.

You'll remember from last time that we, in Part 1, we looked at the study of the Church and considered the purpose of the Church and the nature of the Church. This week, we're going to transition and look at the activities of the Church and the essential nature of the Church in the believer's life.

Because it's been a little bit, we'll just do a quick review on Part 1. So you'll remember that when we looked at Part 1, we considered the nature of the Church. What is the Church? We learned that the Church is God's ecclesia, ecc meaning out of, kaleo meaning to be called, and so the Church are God's called out ones, God's called out people who have been called out of the world by God specifically to assemble.

The Church is the assembly of God's called out people. And we looked at the transliteration, the origins of the word Church and the transliteration from the Greek, the Greek word kouriake, which has been translated to mean church, and the Greek word kouriake means that which belongs to the Lord.

And so the nature of the Church is this. The Church is God's called out ones, called out of the world to assemble for his purposes and the Church belongs to him. You'll remember too that we looked at metaphors for the Church, that the Church is Christ's body.

The Church is made up of many members and yet is united. The Church is one and exists to carry out God's will in the world. We looked at the Church as Christ's bride. She is beloved, beloved of Christ, Christ gave himself up for her.

He bled and he died and he purchased her with his own blood. We looked at the Church as the temple of God, as the house of God. We looked at agricultural metaphors, that the Church is God's flock, God's field.

In architectural terms, the Church is the pillar and buttress of the truth. The Church exists to hold up and to defend the truth of God, to defend the word of God. As I mentioned this week, we're now going to turn our attention to the activities of the Church and the essential role of the Church in the believer's life.

The Church’s Ministry of Worship, Discipleship, Evangelism, and Service

So let's take a look at our Statement of Faith. The second part of our Statement on the Church reads like this. God has called the Church to a ministry of worship, discipleship, evangelism and Christ-exalting service.

We affirm the priesthood of all believers and the necessity of every Christian being joined with and actively involved in a local church where they will find fellowship, mutual upbuilding and accountability.

So as we've done over the last number of weeks, what we will do is isolate some of the various sections of this passage or this text, excuse me, from our statement and then unpack them together. So we'll look at the first sentence first.

The first sentence reads like this. God has called the Church to a ministry of worship, discipleship, evangelism and Christ-exalting service. And we're going to park ourselves here really for the lion's share of our time.

These are the activities of the Church local and the Church universal. In the day-to-day life of the Church, in the functional life of the Church, this is what the Church is to give itself to. To the ministry of worship, to the ministry of discipleship, to the ministry of evangelism and to the ministry of service and specifically Christ-exalting service.

And if we look very carefully, we can actually see that these different activities can be categorized quite neatly into three different domains. So the first domain is ministry to God, that is a ministry of worship.

The second domain is ministry to believers, namely the ministry of discipleship or as some theologians call it, the ministry of nurture. And then thirdly, ministry to the world and so ministering to the world through evangelism and through service, sacrificial loving service to our neighbors.

So let's focus first on the Church's ministry to God. The ministry of worship. In our state, we affirm that the Church has been called primarily to a ministry of worship and this is such an important truth for us to grasp.

Before the Church gives herself to the work of evangelism, as important as that is. Before the Church gives herself to the ministry of discipleship, as important as that is. Before the Church gives herself to any other activity under the sun, the Church must be a people who are individually and corporately given to the worship of God.

We must be a people whose mouths and actions honor God and whose hearts are near to Him. This after all is why all of creation exists. That every animate being and every inanimate object might demonstrate and declare the praises of God.

We'll look at this in Scripture. Romans chapter 11. In Romans chapter 11 and verse 36, Paul tells us, For from Him, so that is from God, and through Him and to Him are all things. So everything is from God.

Everything exists through Him. He upholds all things by the word of His power and everything exists ultimately to Him. Everything exists for Him. Everything is to be returned to Him in praise and glory.

This doxology ends with, To Him be glory forever. Amen. And I would say, Amen. That is why God made us. That is why God made the Church. That is why God has called the people out of the world to assemble.

That we might come together corporately to fulfill the very purpose for which we have been made, namely to proclaim His excellencies. In the words of the psalmist in Psalm 149 and verse 1, Praise the Lord.

Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise, in the assembly of the godly. And I want us to note that word assembly. In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, that word that is used for assembly is ecclesia.

Sing to the Lord a new song, His praise, in the assembly, in the ecclesia, in the church of the godly. The Church was made to worship. Now it begs the question, What is worship? And I'm going to pose this question to you.

When you think of worship, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? For most people, it's singing. Maybe for some, they might include praying. Maybe for others, preaching. But it just seems to be that singing is always at the top of the list.

And then it descends slowly through other activities. And what I would like to suggest is that I believe that worship is far more general than what most people think. Most people, I believe, have a narrow or a truncated idea of what worship is.

When we look at the word worship, first if we consider its origins in the English language, our word worship actually comes from an Old English term, which means worth Skype. And that might seem like a rather strange word, but in the first half of the word, it actually tells us what worship is, or what worth Skype is.

And that is to ascribe worth to something. To attribute value. And this aligns quite well with the biblical usage of this term worship. And so, in our New Testaments, the English word worship is translated from the Greek word proskuneo, which means literally to kiss, to set our affections on something.

Or, in a posture term, to be prostrate, to be on our faces in reverence and in adoration. The word worship we also see in our Old Testaments, and that's been translated from the Hebrew word halal. You might recognize that word from other usages, but there's also a Hebrew usage of this word halal, and it means to show off, or to boast in, or to celebrate and praise.

So we could say that to worship is to do anything that ascribes worth to something. To worship God is to ascribe worth to God. It is to adore Him. It is to set our affections on Him. It is to revere Him, to show Him off, to boast Him.

It is to give Him praise. And for the Christian church, we are commanded to reserve all of these things for God alone. We'll remember from Matthew chapter 4, when Christ, our Lord Jesus, was being tempted in the wilderness, He said, He quoted scripture in Matthew 4 .10, He said, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve.

And so all of these things in the life of every believer and in the life of the corporate church, worship is reserved for God alone. We are to celebrate Him. We are to fix our hearts on God our Savior.

We are to boast in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to be consumed with one driving obsession. And that obsession is lifting up and exalting and boasting in and showing off and magnifying our one true God.

The one true God of the Bible. And that's why Grace Fellowship Church has adopted part of 1 Peter 2 verses 8 and 9 as part of our mission statement. We exist to proclaim the excellencies, to show off, to make known, to make much of the excellencies of God.

The God who called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light. Now, I'm going to pose the question, how is it that we worship? So how does the church worship? And it must be said that it is the Bible that dictates.

It is the Bible, it is the Word of God that regulates how we are to do this. So in your handout, I've included a copy of our statement on worship. We're actually going to do a study of a statement within a statement.

So we're not going to be doing a separate study on the doctrine of worship. We'll include this here. And it reads like this. Sorry, Grace Fellowship Church statement on worship. We worship together by reading, teaching, and preaching the Word of God.

Praying, singing, giving, fellowshipping, and celebrating the ordinances of the church. So this is what our statement reads. And that's good and helpful. But it's also important, necessary, that we see that this is actually borne out in the scriptures.

And so we're going to spend a little bit of time specifically today in Acts chapter 2. So if you have your Bibles, turn there to Acts chapter 2 and verse 42. To set the scene, you'll remember that Peter had just preached a message after Pentecost.

And that literally thousands became believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. And in this section here, beginning in Acts chapter 2 and verse 42, we see the life of that early church. And this is what it says.

And they've devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.

And the Lord added to their number, day by day, those who were being saved. So here we see a description, not necessarily a prescription, but a description of the early church and their priorities. And I think that it's instructive for us, it can be helpful for us, to see what is it that the early church prioritized in their worship, in their corporate life, in their assembling.

And so leaning on this, and leaning on our own statement on worship, we're going to work through what it is, or how it is, that the church corporately worships God. So the very first thing I'm going to mention is that the church corporately worships God by reading scripture, by preaching, and by teaching.

We see this in Acts chapter 2, what does it say? They devoted themselves, they were literally devoted, they gave themselves to, number one, the apostles' teaching. So the apostles' teaching in the corporate life of the worship of God in the church.

One of the foundational elements of worship is the teaching and the preaching of God's word, the reading of God's word. After all, all of worship ultimately is a response to revelation. Worship that truly honors God, sees God in his word.

Sees God certainly in his creation, but specifically, and most specially, in his word. And responds to God as he has disclosed himself to us in worship. And so the word of God both ignites our worship by telling us who God is, and it informs our worship by telling us how we are to worship him.

You'll remember in John chapter 4, verses 23 and 24, in Christ's interactions with the Samaritan woman, our Lord Jesus said to the Samaritan woman, The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

For the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. God is seeking those who engage in what I call spirited worship. In worship that is empowered by the Holy Spirit, certainly.

But also, and also, worship that is heartfelt, that is genuine, that is passionate, that is sincere. God wants us to have a genuine and a passionate worship. True worship is not cool and casual, but is fervent, and it is white hot.

But, true worship does not consist in heat alone. True worship consists in heat and in light. And I would like to submit, just like a light bulb, heat isn't generated until the light is on. True worship is not true worship until the light is on, and that light in itself generates the heat.

I'll give an example of this. We know of many churches around that there is fervent worship, there is passion in their worship, and yet it is all heat and no light. And our worship must be both of those things.

This is an example of lots of heat and no light. The preacher, pastor, author John MacArthur, in his book on worship, it's a great book on worship, it's called Worship, the Ultimate Priority, he tells a story about a woman named Maria Rubio who lived in Lake Arthur, New Mexico.

And on one particular morning she was cooking a burrito on a skillet, and noticed that on this burrito there appeared to be something that resembled the face of Jesus. She excitedly showed it to her husband and her neighbors, and all agreed that the face on this particular tortilla truly did resemble the face of Christ.

And so she went to her priest, interestingly enough, and asked that her priest bless the tortilla. MacArthur writes, she testified that the tortilla had changed her life, and Mr. Rubio agreed that she had been a more peaceful, happy, submissive wife since the tortilla had arrived.

The priest, not accustomed to blessing tortillas, obviously, was somewhat reluctant, but agreed to do it. After this, Mrs. Rubio took the tortilla home. She put it in a shadow box frame with piles of cotton to make it look like it was floating on clouds.

Mr. Rubio built a special altar for it to rest on. They put the whole thing in a wooden utility shack in the backyard and opened the little shrine to visitors. Well, within two years, more than 35 ,000 people visited this tortilla shrine.

For 28 years, pilgrims kept coming to see the holy tortilla. Over time, the burn marks faded and the image was hard to make out, but the people still wanted to worship at the shrine. Then in 2005, Mrs. Rubio's granddaughter took the tortilla to school for show and tell, and someone accidentally dropped it and it shattered.

Mrs. Rubio kept the shadow box now, with only fragments of the shattered tortilla floating in the cotton clouds. But no one seemed interested anymore, and the Rubio family finally closed the deteriorating shrine.

This is worship that consists all of heat and of no light. It is Scripture, and Scripture alone, that informs our worship, who we are worshiping and how we are to worship. And so we see that the Word of God had a prominent place in the worship of the Church.

As I mentioned in Acts chapter 2, the Church was devoted to the Apostles' teaching. In Acts chapter 20, in verse 27, we see the Apostle Paul visiting with the Ephesian elders. He's on his way to Jerusalem, and he says to them, so this is during his time amongst the Ephesian church, what did he give himself to?

It wasn't displaying tortillas. He said, I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Paul writes to his protege, Timothy, who was actually ministering in Ephesus at the time, and he says, until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to exhortation, and to teaching.

This is to have a prominent place in the life of the Church, in the ministry of the under-shepherds who oversee and care for and feed and protect God's flock. Now some people might say that preaching has really become more of a cultural practice rather than a biblical practice in the worship of the Church, and that maybe instead of having preaching, we could just have round tables with discussion.

But that just isn't accurate. I want us to listen here to the forceful words of Paul. So now this is Paul's second letter to Timothy, 2 Timothy. He's nearing the end of the course. He's about to pour himself out.

The emperor Nero is about to take his life. And near the end of his letter, when one might reserve some of the most important, some of the most profound, some of the most necessary exhortations, he says to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4, verse 1, he says, I charge you.

Listen to the gravity of these words. He says, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead and by his appearing and his kingdom. So in light of the coming judgment, in light of eternity, verse 2, preach the word.

Those three words. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke and exhort with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but will have itching ears.

They will, sorry, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

This is how Timothy was to fulfill his ministry, not by doing what the false teachers were doing, not by doing what was popular amongst other people, amongst professing Christians, amongst the other crowds, but in the light of eternity, preach the word of God, give yourself to this, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

And so for a pastor, for an elder, for an under-shepherd who is assigned to the care of God's church, we are to preach the word. We see this in the lives of faithful men in the Old Testament. And we see this even in the life of Christ.

Mark chapter 1, verse 38, Christ said, Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for this is why I came out. Certainly it is a trustworthy saying that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

And as part of that, as one of the principal elements of Christ's earthly ministry, it was a ministry of preaching and teaching. Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones, the good doctor, he recognized this. In one of his very first pastorates in Wales, he came to a church that gave a lot of preference to drama ministries and other elements of, maybe what I would say, less essential elements of church life.

And the very first thing he did was he took the pulpit and he nailed it to the floor. The word of God was to be central in the meeting of the church. And it must be central in our worship. It must inform our worship.

It must give truth and fuel to our worship. It must be the foundation of everything that we do as the corporate body of Christ. We need to understand that it is ultimately not emotionalism. It's not good music.

But it is deep doctrine that leads to deep doxology. Deep doctrine that leads to deep doxology. If the church wants to instill a culture of fervent, white, hot worship to God, we must instill a culture of faithfulness to the word of God.

Regardless of what other people do, our worship must be a word-centered worship. Next we see in the corporate life of the church's worship, the church gave themselves to prayer. We see that again in Acts chapter 2.

They devoted themselves. They gave themselves to prayer. And this is really only natural. Prayer, after all, is communication with God. And a church that rightly ascribes worth to God will have an insatiable appetite to know Him, to seek Him, to find Him, to walk with Him, to talk to Him, both individually and corporately.

In many ways, I think prayer is a taste of heaven. This should be true in the lives of every Christian, that right now we are walking by faith. And we ought to be walking with our God by faith. Walking with Him and talking with Him.

I think it should be as if there is a veil between us and Him, and we are walking alongside, we are talking to Him, and one day the veil will be removed and faith will give way to sight. And we see this prioritized again in the life of the church.

Paul writes to the Colossian church, continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. That's Colossians 4 .2. He says in 1 Thessalonians 5 .17,. Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

In 1 Timothy 2, again writing to Timothy, we see a lot of this is coming out of these pastoral epistles because it's instructive for the church. He says, 1 Timothy 2 .1. He continues on in verse 8, he says,.

And he is talking about the corporate life of the church if you look at the context of this particular section in chapter 2. He says, I desire that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.

The church is to give herself to prayer, always individually and certainly corporately. Earlier this week, during our family worship time, our family was discussing Matthew chapter 6. And if you're familiar with Matthew chapter 6, this is in the middle of the Sermon on the Mountain.

The Lord Jesus is teaching his disciples about praying in secret, and giving in secret, and fasting in secret. And he says in Matthew chapter 6, that we should go into our room and close the door and pray to our Father who is in secret.

And he who sees what is in secret will reward you. And my kids asked a good question. They asked the question, Dad, does that mean that it's wrong for us to pray in public? And of course, the answer is no.

The primary purpose of that whole teaching is to say that we are to have a private prayer life, a private prayer life before God that only God sees, that no one else sees, and that we're to do it for the one who sees in secret and for the one who will reward us.

But even the Lord Jesus taught, he demonstrated, he acted as an example of one who prays in public. In John chapter 17, we see the high priestly prayer of Christ. Christ is in the presence of his disciples, and he offers up a lengthy prayer, a prayer that takes up a full chapter in the Scriptures.

All of John chapter 17. We see the public prayer life of the Apostle Paul, certainly a man given to praying in private. He talks to the churches in his letters about not ceasing to pray for them, to make mention of them in all of his prayers.

And we see again in Acts chapter 20, again amongst the Ephesian elders. In Acts chapter 20, in verse 36, it says,. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all, and there was much weeping on the part of all.

We see in the life of the church that there were prayer meetings. In Acts chapter 12, we're told that James, the brother of John, was killed by Herod, and Herod who saw that this pleased the Jews, imprisoned Peter, perhaps to do away with him as well.

And in Acts chapter 12, in verse 5, it says,. So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church. And then we know the story. The angel led Peter out of the jail. He helped him to escape from jail, and Peter went to the house of Mary, the mother of John Mark.

And there, when he came to that house, what were they doing? Acts chapter 12, in verse 12, tell us they were having a prayer meeting. Many were gathered together and were praying, it says. So we see this prioritized in the early church.

Acts chapter 2, we see this in the life of Christ. We see this in the life of Paul. We see this throughout the scriptures that the church prayed. We must be a people, corporately, who are committed to abiding prayer.

Prayers of adoration. Prayers of confession. Prayers of thanksgiving. Prayers of supplication and intercession. I love this quote from E .M. Bounds. He says, One of the constitutional enforcements of the gospel is prayer.

Without prayer, the gospel can neither be preached effectively, promulgated faithfully, experienced in the heart, nor be practiced in the life. And for the very simple reason, that by leaving prayer out of the catalog of religious duties, we leave God out.

And his work cannot progress without him. When we leave prayer, we need to realize this, when we leave prayer out of the corporate worship of the church, ultimately we leave God out of the corporate worship of the church.

We must give ourselves to prayer. Next, we see that the church is to worship God through singing. This is probably the form of worship that we're most familiar with, and so maybe I have to make the least amount of argument for it, but we see it in the Psalms.

Psalm 30, verse 4,. Sing praises to the Lord, O you his saints, corporately, you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name. We see that even in the life of Christ, in Matthew chapter 26, verse 30, it tells us,.

And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives, even our Lord Jesus sang hymns of praise. Colossians chapter 3, verse 16,. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. There we see the fuel for this worship.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thanksgiving in your hearts. And so we see the connection between the word of Christ, the role of teaching and admonishing, and then the songs that the church sings.

Some of our Presbyterian brothers and sisters think that it's only right that we sing psalms. I would respectfully disagree. We're to sing psalms? Absolutely. We should make greater efforts, I think, to sing more psalms in our worship.

But we should also sing hymns, old hymns, new hymns, spiritual songs. We shouldn't be smug or elitist about it. If it's a song that's filled, if it's rich with the word about Christ, if it's rich with truth about God, then it's just right for us to sing.

We see again in Ephesians 5,. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

We see the fervency there. There should be passion in your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God, the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to pick up speed as we continue moving along.

We should worship God through giving. Again, Acts chapter 2, we see this in action. But we have to acknowledge that because of abuses by men who profess to be shepherds of God, because of abuses by churches and a variety of things, people treat giving with suspicion.

But we ought to. Maybe I'll ask you. What do you think? Does giving have a place in the church's worship? I think if we were to look at the scriptures, we would say absolutely. Part of the entire Old Testament system of worship included tithes and sacrifices and giving, giving for the sake, for the benefit of the Levitical priests, giving in the sacrifices and worship to God, giving to those who were under-resourced.

And then in Acts chapter 4, verse 34 and 35, we read this. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet and it was distributed to each as any had need.

So there was a sense of generosity, of sacrificial giving, of loving our neighbors as any had need. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verses 6 and 7, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. This passage is not preaching a prosperity gospel, that when we sow a seed, if we give $1 ,000 to some pastor or to some ministry, that God will multiply that a hundredfold or a thousandfold.

Now what this is saying is that when we are generous with God's resources, when we steward God's money well, he will provide more for us to steward. When we demonstrate that we are faithful in little, he will allow us to be faithful in much.

And notice here that it does not teach a 10 tithe. I don't believe that a 10 tithe under the new covenant is a biblical view of giving. No, instead in this passage in 2 Corinthians 9, it says each one must give as he has decided in his heart.

It's not to be a tithe, but to be an offering. And I think that for those who have an eternal perspective, we appreciate that it is better to store treasure in heaven than to store our treasure here on earth.

I love what Randy Alcorn wrote. He wrote a book called The Treasure Principle. It's a small book, but a very helpful book. And his treasure principle is this, that we cannot keep it in this life. We cannot keep our wealth in this life, but we can send it ahead.

And brethren, we ought to do this. For those of us who have an eternal perspective. And for us as a church plant, it is our desire not only to be givers individually, but to be givers as a church corporately, to be generous, to worship God with the resources that he gives us to steward.

And so we see it's important to serve, as we see in Scripture, to give to missions, as the Philippians gave to Paul for the sake of the proclamation of the gospel. We see that it's important to meet the needs of the household of faith, to provide for and to care for the needs within our own assembly.

We see that it's important to give to those who are not within the household of faith, to ensure that their needs are cared for. And we think it's important as well to provide for those who make their living by preaching and teaching the word and the gospel, to pay them double honor, the laborer deserves his wages.

Next, we see that the church gave themselves to fellowshipping. And we're going to talk about this a little bit later. But what I want us to point out here is that the church gave themselves, it says, day by day.

They were able to love one another because they knew one another. There was a genuine friendship. There was a genuine care. It wasn't in and out, as fast as they can do it. But no, but it was getting to know one another, and breaking bread, and having meals in each other's homes.

It was about hospitality. Our Lord Jesus says, The world will know you are my disciples by your love for one another. And there ought to be this superficial love in our hearts, or excuse me, supernatural, not superficial.

A supernatural love in our hearts for one another. A genuine love. We're to fulfill all of the one another's of scripture. If we open our Bibles, and if you were to just look in a concordance, or do an online search for all of the one another's of scripture, you'd find that there are dozens of these commands.

It is impossible to live the Christian life as a lone ranger. And then we're to do it by celebrating the ordinances. Again, we see this in Acts 2. They broke bread. What are the two ordinances of the church?

The two ordinances of the church are the Lord's Supper, the breaking of bread, the bread and the cup, and the ordinance of baptism. And the word ordinance really means just that which has been ordained by God.

And we're actually going to study the ordinances at a later date, so I won't look at that too much here. So to worship through the reading, the preaching, the teaching of God's word. We're to worship through prayer.

We're to worship through singing. We're to worship through giving. We're to worship through fellowshipping. We're to worship through the ordinances of the church. Next, we will turn our attention to ministry to believers, namely discipleship or to nurturing Christians.