March 1989

Every Sunday about three hundred Christians gather to worship at Christ Church (PCA) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Many of them grew up in other Protestant and evangelical traditions. They bring these backgrounds and ex periences with them, enabling the congregation to draw from the breadth and depth of the Christian tradition as they worship.

Worship is at the heart of Christ Church. The congregation was founded on and centered around the concept of worship and takes seriously its goal to involve all members in contributing to Sunday services.

Call to Worship

In the name of our risen and glorified Lord Jesus
Christ,
I welcome all of you to this service of worship.

Christ has arisen from the grave!
He died and rose that we might have eternal life.
Christ has ascended to the Father!
He ascended that we might experience God's
presence and power.

Today, we celebrate the ascension of our Lord.
Let us worship and glorify Christ the King.

In RW 10 Koyzis gave a brief historical overview of psalm-singing and offered suggestions for using the psalms in worship. In this second article, he compares ways of singing the psalms.

Psalm-singing Christians basically fall into two categories: those who chant the psalms directly from the Bible and those who sing metrical paraphrases of the psalms, in which the biblical text is reworked in poetic meter and (often) rhyme.

"How is it that we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own language?"

Three Views on How the Bible Ought to Determine Our Worship

Should we burn incense in our public worship? Should we kneel? Should we raise our hands during prayer? Should we dance? Should we speak in tongues?

*Everyone who is able, please stand.
*THE APPROACH TO GOD
Votum
Sentences
Salutation
Hymn
Prayer of Confession

A leading RCA pastor tells why churches ought to become involved.

Models for Paying Church Musicians

We knew we were on to a subject of intense interest when we conducted a survey on payment of church musicians. So we weren't surprised when the responses poured in after we printed the results of that survey in RW 9. Many respondents offered helpful perspectives and suggestions, some of which appeared in RW 10 (also see p. 46).

More on Paying the Piper

I hoped in the article "Paying the Piper" that you might also address the very basic and sensitive issue which I believe many churches are still dealing with :

"WHY pay the musicians?"

. Paul Westermeyer. New York: Harper & Row, 1988,128 pp., $14.95.