Grow Guide | September 5
Renewing Worship | Worship
Connecting Questions
What is one of your favorite things about gathering for worship?
Name one or two things you have learned about worship during this summer series Renewing Worship that was a new perspective or a reigniting of your imagination.
Context
This week we conclude our summer series Renewing Worship by taking a wide-angle view at worship in general. Now that we have spent the summer dissecting each part of the worship service, let’s step back and see if, when we put it back together, it might look different.
The text for this week is Colossians 3:1-4, 9-17. This passage does not specifically talk about the worship service. However, it does provide a general overview of what the purpose of the worshipping body--the church--is and how it should function. The Apostle Paul wrote this letter, from prison, to the churches in the cities of Colossi, Laodicea, and the surrounding region. Some false teachers had come to the church and tried to convince the disciples of Jesus to turn back to the pagan practice of worshipping elemental spirits and angels. Some also tried to get them to return to an exclusively Jewish ethnic identity. Paul reminds the church of what the main focus and identity of the church actually is. This passage will help ground us in the purpose of worship.
Look at the Book
Read Colossians 3:1-17.
What might Paul mean by the phrase “you have been raised with Christ” in verse 1?
Where should the church set its mind? Why? (verses 2-3)
Make a list of the “earthly things” in verses 6-7 and compare it to the things with which they are to “clothe yourselves” in verse 12-14. What do these things look like in our everyday lives?
What does the “renewed self” look like according to verses 10-11?
Imagine that verses 15-17 were instructions for how to conduct a worship service. What might a worship service look like based on these instructions?
Restate verse 17 in your own words.
Taking it Home
There is a lot packed into these 17 verses. What is one or two things that said to you, “Yes, I could work on that in my own life?”
Based upon this text, combined with our entire summer series, how would you answer this question: What is the purpose of worship?
How will you make worship a bigger part of your life as we move into the fall?