Session 3 - In Spirit And In Truth:
Discerning Authentic Worship (a.k.a. More Than A Millennial Cliché)
Theme: Making Sure We Have The Correct Picture Of The God We
Worship
The Essential Elements of Christian Worship pt 1.
1. Making God The Centre of our Worship. (See handout)
2. Telling the Christ Story. (See handout)
Toward a fuller Evangelical understanding of the Lord's Table. John
Armstrong:
“There is no real doubt about this simple historical fact—through the centuries this
meal has been the central and characteristic action of the church at worship. If the
church is a community that remembers Jesus as Lord, then the chief way this has been
done in public worship has been through this Supper. And this remembrance is not
designed for sentimental reflection but as a divinely invoked “recalling” of the historic
event of Christ’s life and work, particularly his passion, resurrection, and ascension.”1
Note the fullness of the Christ Story that is brought out in the celebration of
the Lord’s Table. It is not supposed to be a private moment of personal
piety. Listen to David Peterson:
“The Lord’s Supper, which has so often throughout church history been understood
as a means lf deepening the personal communion of believers with their Lord, is clearly
meant to focus the eyes of the participants on one another as well as on God. We do not
simply meet to have fellowship with God but to minister to one another as we express our
common participation in Christ as our Saviour and Lord. Any distinction between ‘love
feast’ and ‘Eucharist’, or ‘fellowship meal’ and ‘Holy Communion’, is artificial from a
New Testament point of view.”2
Anamnesis - Remembering the past in the present, so as to point to the
hope of the future.
The Lord’s Table must not become a privatized form of personal piety, but
retain the focus on the corporate as an expression of the Unity of the Body
Paul E. Engle and John H. Armstrong, eds., Understanding Four Views on the Lord’s
Supper, Zondervan Counterpoints Collection (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2007),
15.
2 David Peterson. Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship, (Downers
Grove, IVP, 1992), p. 218.
1
of Christ. 1 Cor. 11 example.
3. Spirit-led Worship. More than just spontaneity. (See handout)