There is a notable pattern to many of the worship encounters that we find in the Bible. For example, the prophet Isaiah’s encounter with the great God of heaven in Isaiah 6 offers us a three fold cycle for corporate and personal worship: Praise-Pardon-Petition. This pattern serves as a broad structure to our church’s worship services.

A vision of the one, true, living God leads us to awe and reverence as we declare “our God is mighty” and “worthy of all praising.” This leads us to acknowledge our unworthiness and how we have not gladly submitted to His kingship. A true knowledge of God always leads to a true knowledge of ourselves. Therefore, we candidly and specifically confess our sins to the Lord and experience His pardoning grace. Experiencing His generosity moves us to become generous in offering all that we are and have to Him.

Then our service moves into a cycle employing the various means of God’s grace. We turn to the Scriptures and devote ourselves to reading and preaching them. We give ourselves to intercessory prayer and to the sacraments so that we receive God’s needed grace to strengthen us spiritually.

Our service concludes with a hymn of commitment where we renew our resolve to lead others to our Savior. Then, we receive the benediction as the Lord sends us forth to serve Him just as He sent the prophet Isaiah long ago (See Isaiah 6:8).