February 1996 New Horizons

Let's Keep Our Sunday Evening Worship

by Paul H. Alexander

One of the small pleasures of my early childhood was playing with other children outside the church after Sunday evening worship. For a half hour or more, the adults seemed to forget their parental responsibilities and we ran wild and free in the soft summer air of a Kansas evening. While our parents pursued more mature interests, we captured lightning bugs, played tag, or chased girls with toads we had caught. It was one of the high points of the week. Life without Sunday evening worship would have been a drag! Fewer and fewer children would think so today. Sunday evening worship is not a part of their lives because an increasing number of churches are not including it in their schedules. Sunday evening worship seems to be on the endangered species list, and there is a lot more at stake than a child's game of tag. Sunday evening worship can meet important needs in the lives of God's people. True, Sunday evening worship is nowhere specifically prescribed by Scripture—but then, neither is Sunday ... Read more

Teaching Children to Worship

by Paul and Judi English

Worship is very important—in fact, the most important thing that we do. The Shorter Catechism says, "Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever." God created us to worship him, and worshiping God is our most important task—our chief end. Although in a general sense we should worship God in all that we do, it is on the Lord's Day that we gather for formal worship. On that day, the church gathers as the body of Christ to come into his presence and give him the worship that he is due. God's relationship with man is covenantal. In particular, the covenant that we have with God is not just for us, but, as God told Abraham, it is also for our children. Therefore we teach our children to worship him, even from the youngest age. When we teach our covenant children to worship with us, we are teaching and preparing them for the most important task of their life—and eternity. American churches in general suffer from a low view of corporate worship. Indicative of this are the ... Read more

The Toronto Blessing

by Rowland S. Ward

Melbourne, Australia, has just had a number of experiences which only reinforce the fact that we have a tremendous privilege in simple, reverent worship and Christ-centered preaching based on proper exposition of Scripture. You will recall the Roman church's teaching about indulgences prior to the Reformation in the sixteenth century—how God could be bought. Perhaps now, in this age of marketing, we are seeing how God can be sold—and we are seeing it in supposedly Bible-loving Protestant churches. The truth is that we can neither buy God nor sell him, and the man-centered religious activity of man is still idolatry. This article provides some reactions to the recent Howard-Browne meetings, which are the common stuff of much discussion in Christian circles at present. The great need is for real discernment. I believe the Holy Spirit is grieved by the lack of applied discernment, not only among ordinary believers, but also among pastors and ministers. Phenomena that are at best of no spiritual ... Read more