New Hope Presbyterian Church

Worship has an audience of one, God. The goal therefore, of worship is to give glory to God. A secondary goal, according to 1 Corinthians 14:26, is the edification of the church. Accordingly, worship at New Hope is first and foremost for the glory of God and secondarily for the edification, or building up, of the believer.

When it comes to music, above all else, decisions at New Hope are made in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. Secondarily,  our music and worship style decisions are based on the following in order of importance: The Westminster Confession of Faith, the Directory for Public Worship, (DPW), the Book of Church Order of the OPC, and finally the Session of New Hope. Since it is our understanding that the Scriptures give principles for worship rather than forms, no specific liturgy or musical form or style is considered more Biblical or appropriate than another.

The Leader of worship is the Holy Spirit, but the human worship leader is the pastor. His primary participatory role in the worship service is the proclamation of God’s Word (preaching), which is the apex of worship, the point at which God speaks to the worshipers rather than vice versa, and the point around which all other aspects of the worship service coordinate and under which all others are subordinate.

The types of music sung at  New Hope consists of: Psalm, hymns, and spiritual songs, consistent with Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16.  Typically we have a blend and balance of musical types; both contemporary and traditional, each Sunday morning, with a frequent but not necessarily weekly singing of a Psalm. We believe that we should embrace both modern and ancient hymns and praise songs as long as they are biblically based and musically excellent.

 

In our worship we use a variety of musical instruments. Piano, organ, guitar, drums, violin, and flute, just to name a few.