By: Logan Pearce
As Miranda and I work on Austin City Life’s Worship Handbook, we have been working on a worship statement. This is our provisional worship statement. I was stirred to worship through editing and writing it!
A Narrative of Worship
Austin City Life believes that the triune God created man in his own image to unceasingly & authentically worship Him (Gen 1:27). Worship is a continual outpouring of who we are in mind, heart, soul & body to what we desire most; everybody worships something (Rom 12:1-2). We were created before sin entered the world to authentically worship the one true God of the Bible. After sin entered the world we did not cease to worship, but rather we rejected God and his authority and redirected our worship to lesser—unworthy and unholy—gods (Gen 3; Rom 1-5). This was the Fall—a fall from grace into an idolatry of wisdom and self-rule. But the story doesn’t end there…the Fall doesn’t stand alone (Gen 3:15). Christ, the Son of God, came to earth, defeated sin, death and evil; and by his sinless life, love-filled death and miraculous resurrection, gives us new life, a foretaste of the new creation (1 Cor 15; 1 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:16; Rev 21-22)           .
Worship Through (Not After) Repentance
Through the gospel authentic, true worship is regained. This worship can take many forms because God is worthy of worship in many ways. We can worship Him through making good culture, living obediently, serving one another, or singing a great hymn (Rom 12-16; Col 3-4). However, one aspect of worship that is frequently neglected is the role of repentance and faith (Lk 3:3; 5:3; 24:47; Rom 2:4; Act 5:31; 2 Cor 7:10; Rev 3:19). ACL aims to teach, train and encourage repentance from sin and faith in Christ as a rhythm of everyday worship. The challenge and blessing of living a life of true worship is to discover, over and over, that Jesus is a better god, a better savior, than anything this else. Repentance is God’s gift of returning us, over and over, into the arms of this better Savior. We believe that repentance and faith is good news, and is itself an act of worship, one that will continue until Jesus comes again to make all things new. Only then will our worship be unhindered and our vision unimpaired to see and savor all that God is for us in the Spirit and the Son, freeing us to appropriately enjoy all good things.