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The Sunday morning worship service at CBC represents a high point in the life of our church family. We gather together to drink deeply of the limitless refreshment of God’s glory. We seek to focus on the supreme expression of that glory in the face of his crucified Son. We yearn to be transformed by the Holy Spirit into the image of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In anticipation of the renewing work of God, our corporate worship is naturally filled with an abundance of joy and humble awe. Sensing our weakness before a holy God, we confess our sins.
As beloved recipients of his forgiving and empowering grace, we sing his praises. The songs we use in worship thus range from contrite pleas for mercy to triumphant expressions of jubilation. It is our practice to combine music gleaned from the rich heritage of our ecclesiastical past with compositions taken from the present, songs that exalt God by encouraging the praises of all his worshippers.
The ministry of the spoken word occupies a central place in Sunday morning worship. The preaching is expository. Each week a passage of God’s word is carefully explained and applied to our lives. Generally, we preach through books of the Bible consecutively, seeking to understand how the details of scriptural texts illuminate the grand agenda of God for his people and the world. It is our prayer that each sermon will convict and edify true believers, as well as call unbelievers to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Highlights of corporate worship are our monthly observance of the Lord’s Table and the quarterly testimony of baptism. Both draw us into a dramatic and potentially life-changing encounter with the glory of God through the cross of Christ.
It is our fervent prayer that the Sunday morning worship of Camelback Bible Church makes us each more like Christ so that we might penetrate a dark world with his radiant light – a light to save and transform many to the glory of God!
The planning of each worship service is one of the many responsibilities of the Worship and Music Ministry, one it shares with the entire pastoral staff and board of elders. The elements in our service are those modeled or explicitly commanded in the New Testament; elements which we expect and encourage each person to participate in throughout the week as individuals, within their families, small groups and ministries. When we celebrate these elements corporately, it truly is a glorious and unique experience in our life together as God’s people!
- Biblical preaching. The ministry of the spoken word, principally through expository preaching, occupies a uniquely central role in our services.
- Scripture reading. The regular, public proclamation of the words of Holy Scripture.
- Corporate prayer. Uniting our hearts in praise of God, confessing our sins, expressing our thanks, bringing requests to God, and interceding for others.
- Communion at least monthly. Sharing together the Lord’s table, the glorious symbol of Christ’s body and blood shed for us.
- Baptisms at least quarterly. Through this symbolic act of dying and rising with Christ, we celebrate the public testimony that God has graciously worked in a person’s soul.
- Music. Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs that give voice to our praise and encouragement. During a service, one might expect to hear hymns accompanied by an organ, modern songs accompanied by an ensemble of instruments such as guitar, piano and percussion; offertories and special music of a great variety; vocal, instrumental and bell ensembles.
- Fellowship. Joyfully participating together in God’s work, whether through unity in songs and readings, through mutual encouragement from testimonies and the word, or through loving interaction before, during, and after our service.
- Collection of tithes and offerings. Giving to God’s work through all of Camelback’s ministries as a result of God giving so richly to us.
