Here at Refresh Community Church We are committed to building a Gospel-Centered culture of worship. Although we have a “style”, the main objective of worship at Refresh Community Church is to point people to Jesus while harnessing the gifts, talents, and experiences of those in our congregation. We use this approach in order to create a collective experience that engages the hearts of God’s people across all ethnicities, generations, and socioeconomic backgrounds. That is why we describe worship at Refresh Community Church as “Transcultural”.
These 8 standards are foundational to the way we experience and engage in worship here at the Refresh Community Church.
1. Gospel Enabled
Our primary focus when we gather to worship is to glorify God. We aim to experience God in such a way that he is glorified in our affections. We are able direct our worship towards God because he has enabled us to do so through the Gospel. The gospel is the conduit by which the believer can worship. Hebrews 10 gives a clear picture of Christ as the high priest and how we can now enter the holies of Holies because of his sacrifice alone. As Christians and lead worshippers our worship should celebrate Christ’s work in our lives through his death, burial, and resurrection. We don’t come to God clothed in our own righteousness but hidden in the righteousness of the Son. Therefore, God accepts our worship because we’ve accepted what Christ has done on our behalf by reconciling us to God.
2. Spirit Empowered
We are empowered by the Holy Spirit minister to God and his people. We put no confidence in the flesh or rely solely on our ability and giftedness, but we worship by the Spirit of God. As we lead others, we desire to rely on the Spirit’s power to use our gifts to glorify God. We value spontaneity of ministry to the body, so we will look for ways to wait on the Holy Spirit in worship. We also want to be open to Spirit’s leading through songs, prayers, and exhortations.
3. Joyfully Reverent
Because God is holy, we want to approach him with reverence. We will try to avoid being trite, flippant, superficial, or frivolous, but instead will aim to set an example of reverence, passion, wonder, and joy! We pray that our reverence of God is authentic, transparent, and communicates genuine devotion. Whether rehearsed or spontaneous we will strive to be real before God and each other.
4. Expressively Diverse
Personality and preference influence the way we worship but it alone cannot warrant the way we respond to God. The Bible itself must ultimately inform the way we respond in worship. We also understand that God has created people, cultures, and ethnicities to uniquely display his glory. (Psalm 67:5) Therefore we seek to glorify God through our various cultures and preferences reflected in our church within the scope that scripture allows us to. This takes a great amount of humility and consideration for others. The worship of God is as vast as he is, so let us not reduce our view of him through our preferred lenses but through the macro-lenses of the Word. We will fail to see his beauty if we view only in the way we prefer.
5. Undistracting Excellence
We believe there is a difference between excellence and perfectionism. Perfection in ministry is unhealthy and dangerous to the heart, leading toward performance and away from honesty. Therefore, we will try to pursue excellence not for selfish gain or perfection, but in a way that removes distractions and points to Jesus. We desire to let the beauty and truth of God shine through our abilities and gifts.
6. Biblically Saturated
As we seek to glorify God through worship, we believe it’s vital that all aspects of worship be permeated and shaped by God’s Word. Our worship will reflect a rich theology of the Triune God revealed in all of Scripture.
7. Heart Engaging
We believe that the hearts of God’s people are the main instruments of praise as reflected in the New Testament. Although we value musical instrumentation, singing, and physical expressions of worship, we believe that they are expressed most genuinely through thankful hearts that have been transformed by Christ. Isaiah 29:13 states, “And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men. We are tempted to fall into the same pattern mentioned in this passage. We pray that the Lord will search our hearts continually and give us pure hearts of worship. As worship leaders our times of worship should aim at igniting and carrying deep, strong, real emotions toward God, especially joy. We pray that our expressions of worship to God will be a reflection of our hearts’ position toward God.
8. Thankful Singing
Thankful hearts result in a singing people. Colossians 3:16 states, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Singing is means of grace that God has given us to encourage, teach, and strengthen one another. Singing is not only horizontal but vertical as well. We see this reflected in Ephesians 5:18-20. Verse 19 states, addressing one another (horizontal) in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs making melody to the Lord (vertical) with your heart. We aim to cultivate this by arranging and playing music that will encourage singing and we will also provide space during worship for the voices of the congregation to be heard without musical accompaniment.
If you have interest in joining a team with the privilege to pursue and uphold these standards, click Apply to Serve below to complete our serving application. We would love to talk with you and see how you can use your gifts to serve.
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How can I learn more about Music?
Email our Worship and Arts Director Mark Goins at mark@refreshcommunity.church to learn more.
Contact Mark