Worship Principles and Features

Principles of Worship

The principles which guide us in our worship of God are these:

Worship should be Bible-based

It is not our concern at Back Free Church to worship according to trends elsewhere, or even according to styles with which people are comfortable. We believe that the Bible, the Old and New Testaments, which we identify as Holy Scriptures, and with the Word of God, should guide us in all aspects of our worship.

We believe that since the Almighty, supreme God is the object of our worship, He should also regulate our worship. Although some aspects of our worship reflect cultural and traditional distinctives, nevertheless we seek to bring the guiding principles of the Bible to our corporate public worship of God.

For this reason, when we meet in public worship we confine our praise to the Book of Psalms, recognising that God has given us in the Bible a manual of praise, which does not need to be supplemented. We also make the expository preaching of the Bible the central activity of worship, so that the principles of the Word of God will feed our souls and govern our lives.

This affects even the ornamentation of our building. The church buildings are simple structures, with a central pulpit, reflecting the fact that the preaching of the Scriptures is the main purpose of our worship. As we praise the name of God, lift our hearts in prayer to God, and gather with God's people, we honour Him most as we listen to what His word teaches us.

Worship should be Christ-focussed

We believe that Holy-Spirit filled worship magnifies the name of Jesus Christ. While the preaching at Back Free Church pulpit may cover a variety of things, and touch on several current issues, the main aim of our ministry is to preach "Christ and him crucified".

That is what the apostles did in the New Testament - they pointed to Jesus, and showed how the whole Bible has a Christ-centred message. For man in sin, estranged from God and spiritually bankrupt, the message of the once-for-all atoning death of Jesus Christ, as the only way to God, is what he needs to hear.

That is the message we want to proclaim: a whole Christ, preached from a whole Bible.

Worship should be God-glorifying

We do not believe that the aim of worship is to please or entertain people, or even to be 'seeker-friendly'. While we make every effort to welcome visitors and make people feel comfortable in our services, our concern is to give glory to God. Worship does not aim at men, but at God. Our fundamental concern is to please God and honour him. We worship to thank Him for the good things of life, and for the gift of His Son. We worship in order that our exposure to the teachings of the Bible will help us to make the whole of life an act of worship, so that all we do will be to the glory of God.

Some distinctive features of our worship

• You will notice that at most of our services of worship we sit to sing and stand to pray.
• You will also notice that we sing without any musical instrumentation to accompany us. Although musical instruments were used in the Old Testament, there is no record of the New Testament church using them, and we believe that their use can distract from the real music which God requires - the music of the heart.
• This does not mean that we consider all forms of music wrong. We believe that music is a gift from God, to be enjoyed and to be used to His glory. But we believe that there is no music that can compare with heart-music, and our singing reflects this. The style of singing is very simple, with a precentor leading the singing of the psalms from the front of the church.
• You will notice that Gaelic singing is distinctive in its form. Here a traditional cultural form is used, in which the precentor will sing a line from a psalm, and the congregation will repeat it. This is a skill in itself, and we are privileged to have some fine precentors at Back Free Church who are as able to lead the praise in Gaelic as in English.
• You will notice that most of the women will have their heads covered. While we do not insist on this, we do believe that it reflects the teaching of the New Testament, particularly in 1 Corinthians 11. This is not a statement about fashion, but about worship!
• You will notice that women do not take a lead role in our worship services. While we recognise the diversity of gifts God has given to women, and while we acknowledge their indispensable role in the life of our congregation, we do not believe the Bible authorises women to preach, or to hold office in the Church. While we hold to the equality of the sexes in spiritual matters, we believe the Bible teaches a disparity in the roles of the sexes in the organisation of the Church.

Perhaps these things make us distinctive. Whatever your tradition, we hope that in spite of these things (or perhaps even because of them) you will feel a kinship with us a group of evangelical Christians who love the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you visit us and join in our worship, we hope that you will feel one with us and with the whole Church of God throughout the world, who worship Jesus and seek to serve Him, in the hope that one day all our distinctives will dissolve as we worship God in the glory of Heaven!