Napier Baptist

I'm still doing some reading for the forthcoming worship seminar for our church. I've just read an article by David Dockery on Southern Baptist worship and his cry for renewal in Southern Baptist worship. Whilst the Southern Baptists have their own definate characteristics I still found it very interesting. Dockery says this about worship: 'Worship is the foundational activity of the Christian church. It defines the life-giving functions of the people of the new convenant and the new age. Worship is a joyful experience for the believing community and is as necessary for spiritual life as air and food for physical well-being...Worship [in the New Testament community] was a vertical movement, that is, the praise of humanity to God. But there was also a horizontal movement because wprship is celebrated with others. Therefore worship was a community act, and the relationships between the members of the worshipping community were of the highest importance.' With the New Testament itself, Dockery identifies 3 groups from which the early church developed. The first group, identified as Jewish Christians, was characterised by a continutiy with temple worship (Acts 2:46; 3:11-26). The second group he refers to as Hellenistic Christians. The worship of this group is characterised by the renunciation of Jewish ritualism (Acts 6:1-7:50). Jewish rituals were reinterpreted as having been fulfilled in Christ (Heb. 7-10). The thrid and largest group by the end of the first century was comprised of gentile Christians. Gentile Christian worship was exhorted to be orderly (1 Cor. 14:40; 1 Tim. 3:15) since it had developed out of pagan origins. Worship became Christocentric and content orientated (1 Cor. 14:6-26) as preaching and the Lord's Supper characterised its major aspects. Also, worship became more organised and structured as the community developed.

There's some interesting things to consider here as the NT church changed and shaped its worship within different contexts.