True Worship

As people seeking to imitate Jesus and follow His word as best as we can, we endeavor to practice true worship. Jesus spoke about the need to worship God in spirit and in truth in John 4:22-24. God's prescription for the way we all ought to conduct true worship includes the vital elements: Spirit and Truth. To say one should worship in spirit is to say we should give our heart, soul and mind to God (cf. Matt. 15:7-9; 22:37). There is no rocket science behind Jesus’ statement. The point is that our hearts should be centered on Him (cf. Mic. 6:8; Jam. 4:8). 

Note that Jesus pairs the “spirit” principle with “truth.” This means that with an open-heart willing to obey God, we must cling to His pattern for worship and our lives. Jesus tells us plainly what truth is in Jn. 17:17. His word is our pattern for worhsip and from such a pattern we obtain the following elements of worship:

Praying 

Jesus taught his disciples how to pray in Matt. 6:9-15 and Lk. 11:1-4. When the church was first established in the book of Acts, this is exactly what we observe the early disciples practicing (Acts 2:42; 6:4; 12:5). Like them, we seek to bring our petitions and thanksgiving before God in intimate conversation that has been made possible through Jesus' blood (cf. Heb. 4:14-16).

Giving 

Every Sunday, we give back to God from our personal means. We do this from our hearts (2 Cor. 8:1-5; 9:7) and this is something that we see the early disciples were engaged in (1 Cor. 16:1-2). We do not ask that visitors give because this is the sole responsibility of the individual members that make up the Northwest church. This money is used specifically for the spreading of the gospel, benevolence and edification.

Remembering Jesus’ death/Lord's Supper 

The most important part of why we come together every single Sunday is to remember the death of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is something that is central to the lives of all God's faithful disciples because of what it means to Him and to us. He instituted this memorial on the last night of His life (Matt. 26:26-29; Lk. 22:17-20). 

The disciples in the New Testament gathered together every first day of the week to remember Jesus' sacrifice on the cross by partaking of unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine (Acts 20:7; 1 Cor. 10:16; 11:23-26). 

Singing 

Another ascpect of true worship is singing. The New Testament teaches us that such singing is to be done from the heart and with the mouth (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; Heb. 13:15). As such, we refer to this as "acapella" singing. When we do this, we glorify God because this is what He prescribed for us and we also teach and admonish one another through the lyrics themselves.

Preaching and Teaching 

Each Sunday and Wednesday that we meet, we study God's word together. This is typically led by our evangelist (2 Tim. 4:1-2). Each week he (or one of the men) prepares biblical material to be presented in the form of a sermon or bible class (cf. Acts 20:7). We do this in order to learn more about God's will for our lives, to grow in our faith and to lead others to Christ.

Living a holy life acceptable to God 

Although we meet together every week on Sundays and Wednesdays, we are commanded by God to be holy as He is holy (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Pet. 1:15-16) when we leave and go our separate ways. As a result, when we leave our worship/bible study services, we strive to live as lights in a dark world. We do this in order to bring glory to God and others to Christ.