What you can't do at church

At BBC, we have an intentional order of service that helps us do the things we need to do as a community that worships the one true God. We don’t come and “wing it” or change it up to make it more interesting. The order of service are the steps we take to worship and learn how to worship.

First, there is the call to worship. The congregation of God is called to give its attention to the act of worship. Next, we sing a song as a congregation. We don’t have solos because the songs are meant to be sung together. Then we have a corporate prayer of confession. The elder leads us, but he is praying this prayer for us as a group, not for himself. We stand and recite a creed together, and here we are not only learning the truth of our faith, we are participating with our Christian ancestors who wrote the creeds, usually under extraordinary circumstances. We participate in a responsive Scripture reading, and we sing together. The Scripture is read by a member of our congregation, and then we hear the Word of God preached. The sermon is not for anyone else; it is prepared and prayed over and preached to you, the congregation present at Brooklyn Baptist.

If you see a common thread here, it’s that we do all these things together. Church is a participation in worship by the saints. There are two things you can’t do at church. The first is to just observe. Visitors observe, but if you’re just observing, you are a visitor, not a participant in worship. The second is to come to get something out of it for yourself. Though church is a means of grace, it is not an activity we do to encourage ourselves. We are activity participating in worship of a holy God. It is not to be taken lightly, and it the most important thing we do all week. It is a duty and high privilege. For the saints of God, it is the highest joy, and it is my greatest joy to gather with you all each week.