A Corporate Amen

Another thing that is common in CREC churches is the corporate amen. There are other verbal responses that our congregations give, but amen is the most common. (For other examples, after the Scripture reading, the reader may say something like “The Word of the Lord,” and the congregation responds with “Thanks be to God.” And […]

Worship Centrality

It is fairly common in CREC circles to hear folks speaking about the centrality of worship. This requires some explanation because it is easily misunderstood. Because the Church exists in time and in history, that which is “central” to our identity and work has to be understood in terms of our mission and task. A […]

meditation

In John 20:29 Jesus said to Thomas, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” As you probably remember, Thomas had doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead and would not believe until he saw physical proof. And Jesus gave him that […]

Confession & Repentance

People often confuse two Biblical concepts:  confession of sin and repentance from sin. Confession means to say the same thing about my behavior, thoughts, emotions, motives, goals, and desires that God says about them. It means to tell God that I’ve sinned and here’s how I did it. Some people are great confessors. They freely […]

A Worship Conversation

In the medieval Church, there was a sharp distinction between the worshiping clergy and the spectators found in the laity. The “action~ was up front, behind what was called the rood screen, and the people of God assembled to watch—well, mostly to listen. They were permitted to be in the presence of something big—they were […]

Weekly Communion

Our practice of weekly communion comes out of our understanding of covenant renewal worship. The natural procession moves from confession to consecration, and from consecration to communion. We want this progression to occur every time we worship God. The heart of biblical worship is organized around Word and sacrament. But we do not understand this […]

Spinners No Longer

In the world, people often get what they want by demanding, begging, cajoling, manipulating, and coercing everyone around them. The way to win is to knock everyone else off the top of the mountain and become the “King of the Hill.” One of the more subtle ways we do this is by what has become known […]

Covenant Renewal Worship

While the structure of a typical CREC worship service has a lot in common with what visitors might call a “traditional worship service”–enough so as to simply be a variation on such services—there are certain elements about it that stand out, and which probably, will draw some questions. The first is the common practice of […]

He Who Doubts

But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith is sin (Rom. 14:23). The context of this passage is talking about eating meat offered to idols (14:1-22). And Paul’s overall point is that there is nothing wrong with eating meat that has […]