WORSHIP
The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That statement says that all of life is about worship, the glorification and enjoyment of God. Worship is not limited to Sunday morning. In fact, if the only time we think about worshipping God is on Sunday morning then we are missing out on an important aspect of life.
At St. Paul's we believe life should be spent worshipping the living God whenever and wherever we are since God is the creator of all that we can see and enjoy. Worship means to ascribe worth and as we consider all He has done for us in giving us life, in giving us eternal life, in providing for our needs for friendship, fellowship and material needs, we are meant to ascribe that worth to Him, by remembering Him in adoration, praise and thanksgiving.
Probably the one place at St. Paul's where ancient and future meet is in our Sunday Morning celebration of worship as a community. On Sunday morning we have two distinct worship services. At 8:00 a.m.we have a traditional Anglican worship service from the Book of Common Prayer which follows the liturgical tradition of the church from the 16th century with language adapted for modern usage. This service has no music.
At 10:30 a.m. we have a more contemporary expression of Anglican worship. This worship is traditional in that we use liturgies that connect us with the tradition of the church from its inception and with Anglicans all over the world who use these same forms, prayers and lessons. The music in this service includes ancient hymns and modern praise and worship songs and is led by our worship band. As Jesus said to his disciples, "Every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."
We believe that tradition of common prayer and worship we have inherited has value in ordering our lives together. It gives us a language for worship that the culture doesn't teach and allows us to offer our best to the Lord. t is a celebration of thanksgiving in keeping with the commandment Jesus gave to keep this in remembrance of His death and passion until His coming again.
We believe that Communion is for those who: have accepted the gracious gift of God in sending Jesus to die for our sins, rejoice in His resurrection from the dead as it promises our own resurrection of believers, and who have chosen to follow Him by accepting His lordship over our lives and patterning our lives after His command to obey all He has commanded. We understand that does not describe everyone who visits with us and we encourage those who cannot authentically participate in the table to either excuse themselves at the time of the peace during worship or to remain with us and during the time of communion and either remain in your seats or come forward with others and fold their arms across your chest to receive a blessing. We are not a community who judges others on the journey, but a place where all are truly welcome, wherever you may be at this point in your life.
Our worship includes sharing in the table fellowship of Holy Communion that Jesus shared this with His disciples and that the early church practiced regularly. Communion expresses our unity in confession of faith and our self-understanding as those who have been and are being saved from sin and death.
