How We
Worship
"All have sined and fall short of the glory of God, and
are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came
by Christ Jesus" (Romans 3:23,24). There is no better news than
this. In Christ, God frees us from our guilt before God and the
eternal punishment we deserve. This Good News moves us to
spontaneously express our thanks and praise, love and respect for
God. The Bible calls all such expression worship. The Lutheran church believes that the form of
worship that best allows public worship to an interaction
between Christ and his Church is liturgical
worsip. The
Bible uses, and many understand the word liturgy for the
formal, organized worship of believers. More narrowly defined, the
term liturgical
describes a unique kind of worship found in many orders
of service used in Christian churches - a worship style that is
built upon the historic Christian liturgy.
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The Order of
Service and hymns for our weekly services are
found in Christian Worship: A Lutheran Hymnal , unless
expressed otherwise. Our service folder lists the page
numbers of the liturgy (found in the front of the hymnal) we
will be following, and the hymns we will be singing (found in
the main part of the hymnal).
Thank Offerings are given out of
love for our Savior. We freely return to him a portion of the
material blessings he has given us. If you are a visitor to
our service, please do not feel obligated to present an
offering, unless you are moved to do so by the Good News of
Jesus and your love for him.
Holy Communion is celebrated on
the second and fourth Sundays of the month. St. James
practices closed communion - an act of love, not a
personal judgment of your faith.
God teaches (I Corinthians 11:27-28
Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup
of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning
against the body and blood of the Lord. A man ought to examine
himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup.
) that you can harm your faith if you don't know what you are
receiving.
God also says (1 Corinthans 10:17
Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one
body, for we all partake of the one loaf. ) that this
sacrament is an expression of a unity of belief. We don't want
you to confess agreement with us if you don't know or aren't
in agreement with what we teach.
If you are a visitor to our service and have not
been instructed or confirmed in the faith of this
congregation, the Wisconsin Synod, or our sister synod (the
Evangelical Lutheran Synod) we ask that you refrain from
communing with us until you have spoken with our
pastor. |
If you are interested
in learning more about what the only true God teaches
us
in his pure and true Word (the Bible)
which we believe, teach, and confess at St. James, please contact
us. |
