Word in Worship: Its Notions and Practice

Word in Worship: Its Notions and Practice

Poling J. SUN

Worship in the Christian community is an ordinance of grace in which God and human persons encounter each other. This encounter is initiated by God's revelation that evokes human response to God's redemptive work. In the history of salvation God's redemption has been revealed and made sense in terms of His words, the concept of which has undergone lines of development. This article first sketches the concepts of God's words within the contexts of worship. Rooted in the Jewish soil, the words of God in Christian understanding share the notion that God's words in the context of worship reveal and remember the divine act in the history of salvation. What distinguishes a Christian understanding of God's words from that of its Jewish antecedents is the christological focus. Taking shape in the Christian worship during the earliest faith community of the first century , Jesus Christ was confessed the Word of God that revealed the divine redemptive work. The confession that Jesus Christ is the Word of God requires that the various ministries of God's words in Christian worship must serve the purpose for making known this incarnated Word of God that creates, redeems and judges.

The second part of this article accordingly suggests points of consideration that are relevant to contemporary Christian worship with particular references to the Chinese Christian Churches in Hong Kong. Whereas the proclamation of the Bible in worship has long been regarded as the most significant of all ministries of the words, this article suggests that the prominent role of the pulpit among many Chinese Churches needs to be balanced by attending to other forms of service of the Bible too. The article further suggests that in spite of the overwhelming concern for proclamation in worship, the pulpit in many Chinese Churches could only function more sufficiently if a reflection on the service of the word is considered.