Ordination is not something we do at every worship service, but it is something incredibly special that we do occasionally in our worship service. For a young person like Timothy, it was incredibly important that Paul and other Christian leaders laid their hands on him and appointed and empowered him to be the pastor at Ephesus. This is the same for us today. We ordain our elders and deacons in the church, and they receive from God the authority of that office and the grace to fulfill its responsibilities by prayer and the laying on of hands of other leaders in the church. This is, in part, how the mission of God continues in the church from generation to generation as new leaders and pastors are raised up, examined, ordained, and installed in fulfillment of their calling to follow Christ.

The Apostle Paul wrote at least two letters to his young protege Timothy. Timothy was installed as the pastor of the church at Ephesus and in 2 Timothy 4, Paul instructed him to “Preach the Word. Be prepared in season and out of season.” This same command applies to all pastors in Christian churches today. At City Line Church, preaching the “God-Breathed” Word faithfully is central to what we do in worship, because God is central to what we do in worship. Our preaching isn’t always going to be the hippest or coolest, but it will be about God the Father, sending God the Son to save us, and the Father and Son sending the Holy Spirit to teach and empower us as the church. God, in his unconceivable love towards us, decided to communicate with us, in the Words of Scripture and through his Son Jesus. So, we will preach the Word faithfully at City Line Church every Sunday as part of our worship.

The reading and hearing of Scripture is one of the most important acts of worship during the worship service. In our society and culture in general, we have less and less awareness and understanding of Scripture. We rarely see or interact with Scripture outside of Sunday morning. Reading Scripture in worship helps us maintain the centrality of the Bible in our lives as Christians. The reading of Scripture coupled with the preaching of God’s Word stands at the center of our worship and constitutes one of the privileged moments of worship. It is God speaking to us. We can have, even in churches that have a ‘high view of Scripture,’ a slight understanding of the Bible. We can easily have a ‘too low’ view that can subtly creep into the Bible reading of even those with the highest view of Scripture's authority and inspiration. It's the view that has taken hold whenever we come to the Bible without a sense of expectation that we are meeting with the one who made us and sustains our every breath. These two passages, one from the OT and one from the NT, point us to the divine nature of Scripture and the importance of reading them publicly.

One of the central acts of worship is the intercessory prayer. The “prayers of the people” in the worship service is spoken by someone or multiple people in the congregation on behalf of the congregation. The prayers of the people, at its core, is an intercessory prayer. It is a prayer calling on God as priestly intercessors for each other in the church, for our region, and for our world. Acts 4 gives us a very early example of the people of God praying to God asking for boldness and power in the preaching and spreading of the Gospel even through intense opposition.

Talking about money and giving in church can be a little awkward, but the Bible has important things to say about the topic. There are at least two different ways that churches can get off track with financial giving. First are the churches that never ever talk about money. “Let’s not talk about money, let’s just talk about God.” As if God has nothing to say about how his people handle and think about money. The second is the flip side of that. Let’s talk about God SO that we can talk about money. And these churches tend to talk about money all of the time. "Jesus wants you to be healthy and wealthy, all you need is a little more faith. So, in faith, give a lot of your money to this church so that you will be blessed financially in return.” We want to be neither of these two extremes. We, at City Line Church, want to be people who give, as to the Lord, with a cheerful heart knowing it is part of our worship of him.

A time of greeting one another during the worship service can seem like a clever way to keep people awake and caffeinated, or a convenient way to make space for taking our children to their classes for worship. And for some introverts, it is the most dreaded 210 seconds of their week. But there are very important practical, biblical and theological reasons for our time of greeting. In addition to doing so because we are told to do so in the New Testament, we greet one another because we are meant to be in community together and because when we do so we demonstrate the reconciliation found in the gospel.

Confessing our sins together as the whole body of Christ in a worship service can feel like a strange thing to do. Especially for those who didn’t grow up in more liturgical traditions. But, at a most fundamental level, why do we confess our sins as Christians? We do it because we are all sinners. When we confess our sins, we admit this truth, even if we didn’t struggle with that particular sin over the past week. Even if we didn’t, it is likely we will in the future! But, when we confess our sins, both corporately and individually, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. So, in confession, we find relational forgiveness and wholeness because of God's character and love towards us.

Christians are regularly encouraged to sing praises to God in Scripture. We sing praises to God in our worship services because we are invited and even commanded to sing. We sing praises to God in our worship services so God’s Word goes deep into our souls. And, we sing praises to God in our worship services simply because it brings glory to God. Singing has such a unique way of communally bringing our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths together in worship of our Great God.