City Church Seven Hills

Though it’s seldom included in a formal doctrinal statement, a church’s worship style is one of the most immediately noticeable, and potentially contentious, characteristics it has. Many people make decision about which church they will attend based almost solely on what the worship service is like. Music style, how the sacraments are practiced, what the preaching is like, pews, chairs, how the people dress. All of these things factor in to how a church is perceived and what people want from their place of worship.

While music style is not a directly theological issue, we believe that the we worship very much is. The way we worship, says a lot about how we see God and what He is worth to us. The genre of music we use, the way we dress, the order of our service, what we sit on – these things can all change and adapt in service of the Gospel of the Kingdom. But at City Church Seven Hills, we stand by the following statement regarding our worship:

We believe in enthusiastic, dynamic expressions of worship including singing, lifting hands, dancing, shouting, and waving flags. (Psalm 63:4, Psalm 134:2, Psalm 57:9, Psalm 149:3, Exodus 15:20, Jeremiah 51:27, Psalm 150:3-5, Joshua 6:20)

The scriptures listed there contain examples of those various expressions in the Bible. The Psalms in particular are a treasure trove of what the worship of the One True God looks like. It’s a wide spectrum and we believe that all of it is important. Not that everyone has to do ALL of these things in EVERY worship service. But all of these things should have a place in our expressions of worship.

An important thing to note is that this transcends personality. Some people are naturally inclined to more enthusiastic expressions of worship. Dancing or shouting or jumping comes easy for them. For others, the most natural way to worship is in stillness or even silence. Those with a quieter personality may find it harder to shout in worship, but worship should be a sacrifice – it should cost us something. On the other side, those who find it easy to dance, may have to learn the discipline of stillness in worship. All of it is important for all of us.

The main point here, is that your personality can’t limit your worship. Your personality will determine how you worship most often, or most easily, but you have to let the Bible tell you what worship should look like. And we look at the passages above, we see that worship is singing, it’s lifting our hands towards heaven, it’s dancing and shouting to assert victory in the spiritual realms, it’s waving flags to honor the Lord of Hosts. These are not things we do just because they feel good and they are not things we can skip because they feel uncomfortable. This is what worship looks like.

Now, let’s take a step back and clarify. None of those things are worship. Note the wording carefully: This is what worship looks like. These are ways the Bible tells us to express our worship. Worship lives only in our hearts. You can dance and sing all day and not have a drop of worship in your heart. Or you can sit perfectly still and be full of worship. I can’t judge or quantity the worship that is inside of you.

The point of our doctrinal statement is not to be prescriptive or legalistic, but to call attention to the type of worship expressions that are found in the Bible. We want to be a community of worship built on the Bible. We want sound doctrine and deep spiritual experience. That is what fuels our commitment to seeing these biblical expressions of worship in our worship services.

If dynamic, enthusiastic expressions of worship make you uncomfortable, whether to see them or to engage in them, we encourage you to take a step. You don’t have to go from nothing to wild dancing all at once. But do something you haven’t done before. Raise your hands. Spread them wide. Get your feet off the ground. Sing a little louder. Embrace the type of worship that the Bible is calling us to.