Usually our worship service starts with invocation. This is our first prayer in which the minister calls God to come with His manifested presence in the midst of the people. Usually in this prayer we ask God to forgive our sins and to remove everything that stays between us and Him. Then we invite the Holy Spirit to come and anoint the service with his grace.
The purpose of the invocation is to focus the attention of the worshipper on God and invoke God’s blessing on the service. It calls the people together to worship the Lord.
We have a blended type of worship. Because in our church we have a lot of old people we start with one or two hymns. Then we pass into flowing worship that starts with more dynamic songs that involve the congregation in worship and exalt the Lord for what He has done for us. After two or three songs we slow down the tempo and enter a more intimate worship focused on God’s character and holiness. The distinction we make between praise and worship is that praise is more focused on what the Lord has done – namely His act of creation and redemption, while the worship is more focused on what God is – namely His attributes.
The corporate singing integrates the whole congregation for active participation in the worship. The purpose of the common singing is, first, to give the people the opportunity to express their personal thanksgiving and adoration to God, and second, to prepare their hearts to receive the Word of God that can come to them in the sermon or in prayer.
The public reading of the Scriptures is dynamic and beautiful part of worship service. The purpose of our gatherings is to hear the Word of God. And how can this happen if not by firsthand Bible Reading. The Letters of Paul have been written in order to be read in public (1Thes. 5:27; Col.4:16). Hearing them is like the Apostle speaking in our meetings even today, and this is a great blessing and encouragement. What we read is the Word of God – it has the power to change us.
We are a small church, so there is no problem to give the people opportunity to share with the congregation their experiences with the Lord and their needs. This is a very beneficial time. First of all, because by giving their testimonies people learn to be bold in sharing the Gospel in public; second, because sharing the answers to their prayers encourage us to pray more and have faith in God; third, because during this time they have the opportunity to praise God for His intervention in their life and share what He did for them; and fourth, because when we hear their needs we can focus our prayers in the next part of the service.
Every service should include a corporate prayer. It has special power because Jesus said in Matthew 18:19:
In addition corporate prayer serves for edification of the participants.
Often some of the members of the congregation lead in prayer and then the pastor closes. This prayer usually includes praise and thanksgiving for God’s goodness, confession of our sins, supplication and request for spiritual health and the needs of the people (Philippians 4:6-7). Often there is also intercession for God’s people (Ephesians 6:18-19) and government leaders (1 Timothy 2:1-3).
The sermon occupies the central place in our service. It is the culmination of the worship. It is God’s message to the people. The other elements of worship are directed to God, but the sermon is directed to the congregation. God has chosen men to speak forth His message to other men so that their fellowship with Him might be restored and maintained. As Apostle Paul has put it, the Word of God is “useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Every service has at least one announcement. It is time to announce future events, to put people in remembrance of the order of the weekly services and to make note of some changes if such occur in the coming days.
The purpose of offering is to worship God not only with our words, but also with our material possessions. The word “money” is not mentioned in Paul’s writings – even when he speaks a lot about them (2 Corinthians Ch.8-9). The offering is a spiritual sacrifice as singing is. So we approach the offering as an act of worship and an act of stewardship. Sometimes the minister takes the opportunity to teach and train people in the worship of giving of their tithes and offerings to the Lord. Usually during receiving the offering by the usher we sing a song.
Often the minister invites a certain church member to lead the lat prayer. Then he closes the service with the words: “And now let the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us, with our homes, with our church, and our country. Amen!” In the Bible there are two examples of such blessing – Numbers 6:24-26; and 2 Corinthians 13:14. This is the final prayer that closes the worship service.