Meeting Times at 4th United Presbyterian Church

Cafe' Worship: 9:15 a.m. each Sunday in Gathering Hall (activities provided for children; coffee; snacks)
Adult Sunday School: 10 a.m.

Sunday Worship: 11 a.m.


Bible Study: each Thursday at 6 p.m.


Community Forum: last Thursday of each month at 6 p.m. with meal (no community forum in November, 2011)


About the 4th United Presbyterian Bible Blog

Posts on this blog are from me, Rev. George H. Waters, one of the two organizing co-pastors of 4th United Presbyterian Church. Our other organizing pastor was Rev. Sonya McAuley-Allen, who is now pastor of a church in Charlotte, N.C. Since June of 2011, Rev. Elizabeth Peterson has been our parish associate pastor for new church development. The earliest posts are sermon notes from the few I have typed the last two years. Then, there is a series of notes posted on the book of Romans. After that, it varies from week to week, sometimes church news, sometimes reflections on a happening, a passage of scripture, or even some pictures. This blog is meant to open the conversation we have going on in our church to others in our community.



The picture below is of our church's sanctuary, built in 1913.





Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Taking God Seriously, and not taking ourselves too seriously

I was thinking this morning about what worship ought to be like in our church. It seems that our worship service ought to have a real sense of reverence, but of the sort that doesn't take ourselves too seriously. There is a so-called reverence which has a sense of arrogance and rigidity. That is where the human beings who lead the service and those who participate take themselves too seriously.

True reverence has a deep sense of humility from the human side as we turn towards the One True God and Ruler of the Universe. True reverence, in humility, calls upon others to turn to the Holy One.

And, I think that a reverent service shouldn't be too 'wordy.' We shouldn't go on and on in our sermons and in our prayers, or even in our announcements. Too many human words can really fill up a worship service.

I am beginning to think that we just have too many parts to our service, so that a person who is beginning to really worship ends up being disturbed by this part and that, by having to look back at the bulletin to see what to do.

Some parts of our worship service are very important as they allow us to express some of our deepest convictions about life, God and our fellow creatures. But, some parts of our service, or at least the way we conduct them don't help us enter into a holy place but tend to keep us just outside the door.

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