Our Worship Service

Goodwood Baptist Church believes our worship service must be governed by Scripture alone. Therefore, we adhere to the Reformed Regulative Principle of worship. (Further expounded by Sam Waldron here).

We believe worship is not limited to the 30 minutes of singing before a sermon but extends to our whole life. Therefore, we strive to teach God’s people that worship is a way of life.

“Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

We further learn from Scripture that God desires warm and passionate worship from the heart and not merely lip-service (John 4:23; Mark 7:6). JI Packer said, “Theology is at its healthiest when it is consciously under the eye of God of whom it speaks, and when it is singing to his glory.”

This basically means good theology leads to doxology and devotion. John Calvin said, “The gospel is not a doctrine of the tongue, but of life. It cannot be grasped by reason and memory only, but it is fully understood when it possesses the whole soul and penetrates to the inner recesses of the heart.”

Therefore, we aspire to worship that is passionate, Christ-centered, God-focused, Bible-based and Spirit-led, which stems from a heart that loves God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength (Luke 10:27).

We strongly emphasize congregational singing. We acknowledge the human voice as the greatest musical instrument ever made, and that by the design of God. Thus any accompaniment by other instruments must serve to enhance the voice, and not drown it out.

Furthermore, we acknowledge the place for all the voices of God’s people to heard, rather than a few gifted vocalists. Thus while we do have some singers on microphone, they will always be muted and secondary to the congregational voice of the whole body of believers gathered together.

A typical worship service may look as follows:

Worship is held before the morning and evening sermons, for a duration of approximately 30 minutes.

The selection of songs as chosen by the worship leader, compliments the main theme of the sermon, thus helping prepare our hearts in worship to the Word to be preached. The songs are mostly introduced by the piano, with the rest of the musicians and congregation joining in on cue.

There are around 4 or 5 songs chosen at a time, played as they are originally written, interspersed with the Bible readings, short commentary and prayers, in an order chosen by the worship leader. Each service has a final song, before the closing prayer.

Welcoming
Announcements
Call to Worship (Scripture that calls the congregation to worship)
Four to five songs, introduced by a short reading from Scripture
Intercessory prayer between any two songs
Tots theology and Kingdom Focus between any songs
Sermon followed by a closing song
Benediction

Tots theology is a 5-minute slot between two songs. It focuses on young children, to make them part of our worship service. The main theme of the sermon is then explained through a story

Kingdom focus is a 5-minute slot between two songs. It focuses on a Goodwood Baptist Church ministry or a Sola 5 church. The idea is to introduce people to our ministries and pray for it during our intercessory prayer.

Intercessory prayer is a time of prayer between two songs in the worship section of our service where we pray for the needs of our church, ministry, other churches, other ministries, South Africa, the world, the church at large and missions.

Back