National Avenue Christian Church
(Disciples of Christ)

A century and a half ago the Danish philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, became disgusted with inane worship in the church of his day and he wrote:

This has to be said; so be it now said. Whoever thou art, whatever in other respects thy life may be my friend, by ceasing to take part in the public worship of God, as it now is, thou has constantly one guilt the less, and that a great one: Thou doest not take part in treating God as a fool.

We are aware that worship needs to be theologically profound and that the human soul needs more to be inspired than entertained. In our worship services we strive to celebrate with thanksgiving the saving acts of God in a service focused on a proclamation of scripture and humbly gathered in the mystery of holy communion. The apostle Paul warned the church against disgracing the sacrament in much the same way that Kierkegaard articulated a disgust with irrelevance.

Our worship services are ordered to honor the tradition of word and sacrament known to the church for the majority of her history. We follow a liturgical year of scripture readings from the Old and New Testaments and endeavor to wed our music selections and prayers to the themes lifted up in the scripture readings for the day.

A full theological explanation of our worship tradition may be found in the book Thankful Praise edited by Keith Watkins and an excellent discussion of the need for relevant and challenging worship and preaching may be found in Marva Dawn’s book, Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down.

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National Avenue Christian Church
1515 South National Avenue
Springfield, Missouri  65804
417/869-9176
fax: 417/869-7256
e-mail: natlave@natlave.com