The Great Commission In Worship and Is Worship

How often should a church emphasize Christ's command to go into the whole world and make disciples? Obviously it is an important theme of any Christ-centered church, but do those churches make it a part of public worship?

Our team has become very intentional about outlining the elements of our worship services so that there is a re-presentation of the gospel. But until recently we have not been good at including one part of the gospel, Christ's last command to his followers.

In worship Christ followers

• are good responding to the revelation of God's characteristics.
• are good at responding to the revelation of God's grace.
• are good at enjoying comfort from the invitation from God to bring our requests to Him.

But...

• ...are we good at being honest in our confession of sin
• ...are we good implementing the truth we have heard from the exposition of scripture

And...

• ...are we good at following Christ's command to make disciples once we leave our church campus?

As a worship leadership team it is our responsibility in planning Christ-centered worship services to include the whole gospel, including a reminder to be the church when we leave the campus...that is really worship.

To correct our neglect of 'great commission' in our worship services:

• we now include it as a part of the closing comments, reciting and memorizing it together.
• we have done away with the pre-service announcements slides and replaced them with a mission oriented video. This video gives critical and up-to-date facts about the people groups of the world who have never heard the gospel.
• we highlight stories of how our people are fulfilling the great commission in our community and around the world.
• And once or twice a year our pastor takes a Sunday to re-cast our mission and vision.

In following and implementing the great commission we are:

• true Christ-followers
• true worshippers.

The emphasis of our team and our church has not just been a challenge for the people of our congregation but also for me, the one leading from the stage. I realized I had become comfortable with doing church in the safety of my campus but God has been changing my heart and giving opportunities to go and make disciples.