A television documentary showed several types of worship services in American churches. I liked some of what I saw but was troubled by an emphasis on being entertained instead of being led in worship. The focus of many services was on having fun rather than on worshiping the Lord.

This is more than a matter of differing styles. I've been enriched in highly liturgical as well as in less formal services. I have also been edified in gatherings marked by spontaneity and freedom. But in all of these there was a genuine sense of worship.

The one indispensable element of a good church service is the celebration of God's great redeeming acts in the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ. These saving events were the theme of an early church hymn quoted in 1 Timothy 3:16, and they were to be central in the message Paul urged Timothy to proclaim (4:6-10).

We ought to praise God joyfully for all of His blessings, both spiritual and temporal. But we must also be good listeners to the instruction and challenges of God's Word. This combination of the inflow of God's Word and the outflow of worship is what makes for a good church service.  — Herbert Vander Lugt