Webster’s defines center as, “the point around which a circle or sphere is described; broadly: a point that is related to a geometrical figure in such a way that for any point on the figure there is another point on the figure — called also center of symmetry.”
This is a good definition for the kind of thoughts many of these articles are seeking to communicate.
When you define center in this way, everything you add to the center circle must connect to its center in some way to keep a balance of symmetry. When we talk about centering our lives or worship on Christ, we see Jesus as the point around which a circle is described. This means that Christ is not just part of our life or part of worship but that every part of life and worship must connect to Christ. For example, in our lives we don’t just center ourselves on Jesus at church we center all the areas of our lives on Christ. There are not secular and sacred compartments of life. The visual below seeks to illustrate this.
This is a good definition for the kind of thoughts many of these articles are seeking to communicate.
When you define center in this way, everything you add to the center circle must connect to its center in some way to keep a balance of symmetry. When we talk about centering our lives or worship on Christ, we see Jesus as the point around which a circle is described. This means that Christ is not just part of our life or part of worship but that every part of life and worship must connect to Christ. For example, in our lives we don’t just center ourselves on Jesus at church we center all the areas of our lives on Christ. There are not secular and sacred compartments of life. The visual below seeks to illustrate this.
Likewise in worship, we don’t just seek to point to Jesus and tell Him how much we love Him. We want to worship Him as the center of every part of the service. Our services are not designed to make the preaching or a time of speaking about Jesus as the center of the service with music being preliminary preparation to that. In our services, we seek to proclaim Jesus in every part of the service. More specifically, one of the ways we seek to accomplish this is to proclaim the gospel story of Jesus Christ in the all the content and the order in which we worship God. The gospel is not just something to speak with our mouths but something to live in and live out. The second visual below seeks to illustrate this.
We think it’s important to worship this way because we see the primary purpose of worship to be the edification of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 14). We want to make disciples who center their whole life on the whole story of Jesus Christ at home, work and play. In order for this to happen, it’s important to provide ways to form us this way in worship at church. We hope this article will help you engage in what is happening when we worship together on Sunday mornings so that as we begin this new year, we can more fully center our lives around Jesus Christ plus nothing else.
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