Philosophy of Worship
At Highlands Reformed, we believe the focus in worship ought to be on pleasing God, not men. We hold to what is called the “regulative principle” in that God has commanded in His Word how He wants to be worshipped and we must not add to those requirements.
We believe that God wants us to worship Him by joyous singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, offering Him prayer with thanksgiving, reading and preaching of His Word and the administration of the Sacraments. Thus, no drama, no dance, no heavy rock music or multi-media displays; just the people of God offering Him praise, worship and thanksgiving as required in His Word. We emphasize exegetical, expository preaching wherein our goal is always to understand what God said, and what He wants us to do as a result.
We also have no nursery, children’s church or Sunday School, believing that God’s covenant children should worship Him with their families. As a result, even the littlest ones are learning how to approach the Living God with maturity and reverence as well as joy.
We believe that proper Lord’s Day worship begins in the home, every day, as the head of the household conducts “secret” and “family” worship. Our children enjoy worshipping with us because Highland’s parents understand their personal responsibility before God to bring their children up in the “admonition and discipline of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:1-4).
And we delight in helping new families discover how to approach God in a mature, loving, and reverent way as well as how they can teach their children to worship.
For a fuller development of what we do and why we do it, please refer to the essays below.