This Friday’s Piper quote is inspired by the thought of Tim Challies sitting in the Sovereign Grace WorshipGod06 conference—that’s if they allow him to sit! The idea of Tim surrounded by men and women dancing, raising their arms, and (dare I say it) CLAPPING, amuses me for some reason. I am not being cruel, and I honestly hope and pray, and even expect that he will enjoy it a lot more than the unfortunate caricature us charismatics have of the rest of our brothers and sisters would lead me to suppose.
What can lead us to unity in our approach to worship? Well, if there is one man alive today who can bridge the divide between the charismatic and non-charismatic wings of the church, Dr. Piper is that man!
Let’s hear what he has to say about
the philosophy of worship. The rest of the article has five more fantastic points.1. GOD-CENTEREDNESS
A high priority of the vertical focus of our Sunday morning service. The ultimate aim is to so experience God that He is glorified in our affections.
2. EXPECTING THE POWERFUL PRESENCE OF GOD
We do not just direct ourselves toward Him. We earnestly seek His drawing near according to the promise of James 4:8. We believe that in worship God draws near to us in power, and makes Himself known and felt for our good and for the salvation of unbelievers in the midst.
3. BIBLE-BASED AND BIBLE-SATURATEDThe content of our singing and praying and welcoming and preaching and poetry will always conform to the truth of Scripture. The content of God’s Word will be woven through all we do in worship and will be the ground of all our appeal to authority.
4. HEAD AND HEART
Worship that aims at kindling and carrying deep, strong, real emotions toward God, but does not manipulate people’s emotions by failing to appeal to clear thinking about spiritual things based on shareable evidences outside ourselves.
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