Parkhill A/G Music Ministry

Worship Values

Mission Statement

In the context of a Jesus-centered, God-honoring song service; passionate, intimate, and consecrative worship will be facilitated and taught in a culturally relevant and Biblically correct fashion at Parkhill Assembly of God Church.

Passion, intimacy and consecration are fundamental values of worship.    Even though the essence of worship extends far beyond what happens when the Body of Christ gathers, these values can be taught and reinforced during Parkhill’s worship times through music.  Through effective teaching and the ministry of the Holy Spirit, God can transform His people into worshipers who worship in Spirit and in truth, the kind He desires, on a week-by-week and day-by-day basis.

Our relationship with God is to be the most important thing in our life.  Devotional life should be one that continually realizes the awesomeness of God’s love, the greatness of Jesus’ sacrifice, and the revelation that we have had our destiny changed from one of eternal exile and torture to one of eternal ecstasy and oneness with the Triune God.

As we realize these things more clearly, we are more motivated to live passionately for God’s service.  We value the gift of salvation and therefore desire to serve and spread the Word.  This revelation also shapes the way we worship him corporately.  We have received immeasurable wealth and an unfathomable gift, without earning it.  The Bible exhorts us in Psalm 100 to bring an offering of thanksgiving and praise to God with joy and gladness.

David’s personal worship values were reflected in the worship music he wrote, to be sung in Israel.  He expressed himself with exuberance, abandon and even desperation.  “My heart is steadfast, O God; I will sing and make music with all my soul.” Psalm 108:1 “David and the whole house of Israel were celebrating with all their might before the LORD, with songs and with harps, lyres, tambourines, sistrums and cymbals.” 2 Samuel 6:5 “From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.  I long to dwell in your tent forever and take refuge in the shelter of your wings.”  Psalm 61:2-4

“He who has been forgiven much, loves much.” as the scripture says.  Our demonstration of worship in the corporate setting should be appropriate to the mercy we have received and the  God we serve.  Sincere Celebration!  Singing of songs is insufficient if the body, soul, and spirit fail to passionately engage the Savior by His Spirit.

Worship at Parkhill should be marked with enthusiastic participation of all individuals, regardless of age and background.  People should be “singing and making music in their hearts to the Lord,” as Ephesians 5:19 says.

In imparting the value of passion into our worship, our greatest challenge is not in commanding people to respond the right way, for that would result in insincerity based on manipulation.  The challenge is, by the Holy Spirit, to help people receive a deeper revelation of God’s reality and let the passionate response come as a result.

The message of Jesus is that God is with us.  God has come near and made His residence with men.  Not only so, but also Jesus said in John 15, “Remain in me and I in you.”  He desires our intimacy with Himself.  “Without Me, you can do nothing.” 

Although God is a God of justice, a holy God and an all-consuming fire, His mercy triumphs over his justice.  David’s music also reflects this in Psalm 103:10, “He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.”  Salvation has made it possible to be intimate with God.  Hebrews 10:19-22 states, “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.”

Worship of God is a deeply emotional endeavor.  It does and should involve every element of the human soul and spirit.  God knows us, through and through, and our hearts are laid bare before Him.  How much better it is, for us to come to Him willingly and purposefully, seeking to know Him more fully.  In Psalm 63:2, David sings, “I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory.”  In our times of Christ-centered worship, we ought to be unashamed to say, “Lord, show me Yourself!”

Valuing intimacy in worship glorifies God.  It was the Father’s “good pleasure” to reveal Jesus in Luke 10:21.  God is glorified as men turn and approach Him; this is the goal of worship.

James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to You.”  This intimacy has obvious benefits to men and even in those benefits that we receive, God is glorified.  We do not worship in order to attain a blessing or an experience, but it is correct to actively seek His face and hand in worship.  In Psalm 63:1, David sings, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”  Again, in Psalm 86, David sings, “Hear, O LORD, and answer me, for I am poor and needy. Guard my life, for I am devoted to you. You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.  Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long. Bring joy to your servant, for to you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.”  “Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.”  Psalm 119:2

Finally, this value of intimacy demands a level of expectation and listening.  David sings, “In the morning, O LORD, you hear my voice; in the morning I lay my requests before you and wait in expectation,” in Psalm 5:3.  This is not to say that every musical worship service requires an altar or intercession time.  What should, indeed, be promoted is an attitude of receptiveness and expectation on the part of the worshipper.  When God draws near to us, we will be changed if we are open to His leading. 

This will, of course, happen by the power of His Spirit.  1 Corinthians 2:10 says, “The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”  If we facilitate attentiveness to Him, He can change us; and we need to be changed.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”  Romans 12:1-2

The consecrative element of worship is comprised primarily of commitment and repentance.  God has said that our bodies or lives are the appropriate sacrifices.  The heartbeat of true worship facilitates this and gives us a chance to say, “I will serve God when I go from here.”  It is erroneous to think that worship is completely contained in the singing and preaching and praying that we do in the large group setting.  Since this is true, we take the time we have, in realization of God’s mercy, to say, like Aaron, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

The fact that humanity is fallible does not negate the necessity to consecrate ourselves to God in worship.  Even though the worshiper may fall as soon as he or she leaves the moment, the words spoken in faith are a positive advance of the worshiper’s spiritual life.  Also, the fallible nature of man is the reason for the second aspect of consecration, repentance.

When David was worshiping God in Psalm 51:10-13, he said, “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.  Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.”  This implies both repentance and commitment.  In another section the psalmist said, “Search me and know me, see if there be any wicked way in me.”  David also said in Psalm 119, “Blessed are they whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.”

Repentance is critical for our advance with the Lord.  He is a holy God and in His presence we become aware of our deficiencies and sin issues.  As the Lord reveals our sin to us in worship, we must make the choice to ask forgiveness and turn away from it. 

Possibly, the best scriptural illustration of consecration in worship is found in Isaiah 6.
” In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.  2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.  3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.  7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

We facilitate consecration in worship not to recreate a scriptural experience or follow a formula to achieve a result.  We do so because it is the highest calling in worship according to
Romans 12:1-2.