Jesus said, "True worshippers will worship in spirit and in truth." (John 4:24)
* Seeker-Sensitive Worship Services
Those who follow the Willow Creek Community Church model who seek to present and explain the gospel in non-religious terms using contextually relevant methods to non-christians. God uses this style of worship often in suburban communities where the unchurched are welcomed to a church service without all the formality of formal worship services. Praise choruses are used as a way of giving a buoyant atmosphere without appearing to be too religious. Drama is often used to creatively present the truth of the Bible in entertaining ways. The felt needs of people are often considered in the presentations as a way of appealing to where individuals are hurting. Believers are encouraged to get the deeper teaching of the scriptures in other mid-week or home fellowship meetings.
* Grow-level Worship Services
These fellowships are aimed at helping growing Christians to develop in all aspects into Christ. Typically worship services will concentrate on the preaching and teaching of the scriptures to Christians who are interested in finding how they can learn how to study the Bible on their own in more personal ways.
* Develop-level Worship Services
These fellowships are designed to provide opportunities to Christian who have discovered their gifts to contribute to the edification of fellow believers. The Lord uses a wide variety of gifts and talents in the developing Christians to provide a worship service that will instruct, inspire, and illuminate the full counsel of God from the scriptures.
* Disciple-Making Worship Services
These fellowships are often conducted in para-church organizations like those of the Navigators, Inter-Varsity Fellowship or Campus Crusade for Christ. Purposefully, these worship services are designed to give disciples opportunities to grow in their preaching, teaching and leadership skills. The greatest benefit that often comes from these worship services is that people have an opportunity to grow in their understanding of how God can use them to make disciples through a variety of speaking, writing and teaching ministries.
* Leaders Worship Services
These fellowships are designed to help leaders grow in their intimacy with the Lord. Often times leaders worship services are done individually so that the leader is able to personalize his worship and gain greater intimacy with the Lord. Occasionally, Pastors, Teachers or Christian leaders will come together in conferences where they will worship the Lord with specific agendas designed around a particular topic.
* Reproducers Worship Services
Occasionally, heads of mission organizations, denominations or para-church groups will assemble their reproducing directors to help refine, focus and sharpen one another for the purpose of finding ways to more effectively fulfill the great commission of Matthew 28:18-20. World wide conferences such as those conducted by the Billy Graham Association and World Evangelical Fellowship bring delegates from around the world to worship, pray and to share with one another ways that they can cooperate as a world wide body of Christ to see the great commission accomplished.
* Multipliers Worship Services
Occasionally, selected groups of world class denominational or para-church organizations will assemble to worship, pray and discuss ways that they can most strategically help fulfill Acts 1:8 "You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and unto the uttermost parts of the earth."
* Liturgical Worship Services
These worship services tend to worship the Lord by following a prescribed church calendar around the Christian Year Advent, Christmas, Easter. Lectionary guides are often used to provide continuity, consistency and order for the worship schedules. Hymns are often classical and done in a traditional style where the emphasis is on giving the maximum glory to God in a reverential manner. Members of the congregation are content to being led by the minister in their scripture reading, prayer, and responsive readings.
* Traditional Worship Services
Many churches that grew out of the Reformation follow this style of worship that emphasizes giving thanks to God for His goodness, love and forgiveness in Christ Jesus. Hymns are generously used throughout the service, but the reading of the scripture and its exposition is a central feature. Some young people are occasionally bored with this method of worship since it can be somewhat predictable.
* Revivalist Worship Services
Patterned after the revival ministries of George Whitefield and John Wesley, this worship style focuses on evangelism to win the lost to Christ. Many gospel hymns are sung with enthusiasm in this worship service since it seeks to draw people to love, forgiveness and free gift of salvation offered through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. An invitation is often given in this service since the priorities revolve around winning people to Christ wherever and whenever the Spirit of God leads.
* Praise And Worship Services
There is an emphasis on practical preaching in these worship services to help people find practical answers for life’s most perplexing problems. Praise choruses and hymns are used to help people find greater ways to give worship, glory and honor to the Lord. Many Pentecostal fellowships prefer this worship style since there is a focus on spontaneous choruses that everyone learns to sing by heart.
* Ethnic Adjusted Worship Services
These fellowships put their emphasis on conducting a worship service that reflects that cultural conditioning and background of the people in their local communities. Contextualization is often emphasized in order to help people get their felt, real, perceived, cultural, social, and spiritual needs met. By adjusting their worship services to the contextual needs of the people, the leaders have to be especially sensitive to the happenings of the previous week’s events.
* Film Evangelism Worship Services
These fellowships have been used by God to bring hundreds of thousands of people to faith in Christ with such films as the Jesus film. Usually conducted outside, these worship services will begin with choruses to seek to draw crowds of people to the outdoor showing of the evangelistic films or videos.
* Drama Evangelism Worship Services
These fellowships have been used by God to help present the gospel in a variety of settings with minimal expense. The dramatic portrayals of Biblical scenes or topics have a way of communicating the truth of the scripture in ways that often appeal to the dramatic senses of people.
* Children Evangelism Worship Services
These worship services are conducted to provide children with a less demanding worship services that takes into account the shorter attention span of children. God often uses puppets, picture story books and music to enhance the way that children are taught how to worship the Lord in ways that make sense to them.
* Youth Evangelism Worship Services
These worship services are designed to provide a praise oriented fellowship that appeals to the needs, culture and language of youth. God often uses youth oriented worship services to teach youth the essentials of worship that they will use for the rest of their lives. Young people are often actively involved with leading in these worship services.
* Sports Evangelism Worship Services
These worship services are often conducted at half-times in Basketball games, football matches, or soccer matches. Campus Crusade for Christ has effectively used their athletes in action teams to win thousands to Christ through these testimonially oriented services that appeal to people through changed lives.
* Age Group Specific Worship Services
These worship services can be conducted in nursing homes or any place where special groups of people share age related needs, perspectives and problems. God often uses these worship services to provide comfort, calm and solace to people who are struggling through similar circumstances.
* Family Worship Services
These worship services are conducted either in nuclear family settings or in extended family environments where the heads of the family take responsibility for leading the services. God has used such seed family fellowships to plant and grow thousands of churches throughout the developing world.
* Educational Worship Services
Often conducted in Bible Colleges, Seminaries or Theological institutions, these fellowships put an emphasis on teaching people how to focus on the essentials of worship that they will need when they start their ministries. Daily chapel services need to be careful that they do not become repetitious so that the worship services build upon key educational themes that can be reproduced in a variety of church fellowships.
* Underground Worship Fellowships
In many countries and societies, Christians are forced to hold their worship services covertly. God has often used these secret house fellowships to build Christians in their faith, knowledge of God and fellowship in the pattern of Acts 2:41-47. The persecuted church has to be careful to worship in a way that may draw public or governmental attention to itself for fear of being shut down.
* Special Event Worship Fellowships
Occasionally, churches will have special worship services to offer thanks or express urgent prayer requests for the needs of the community, nation or a movement.
* Healing Worship Fellowships
Special services can be held to seek the Lord’s special healing on individuals and groups. Those who are blessed of God with the gifts of healing assemble people to bring group focus on seeking the Lord’s mercies in bringing comfort, healing and restoration to those who are sick and suffering.
* Special Occasion Worship Fellowships
The Christian calendar often has special dates that merit special worship, thanks and singing to highlight great times in the church’s history. Some denominations put more attention on these dates in the Christian calendar depending on their particular church polity and history.
* Cross-Cultural Worship Fellowships
Some fellowships are in various stages of moving from a homogenous to a heterogenous group. God often uses these transition stages in helping cross-cultural fellowships to find the best style of worship for their congregations.
* Elder Led Worship Fellowships
Often Brethren fellowships prefer to put the plurality of God leaders in charge of their worship fellowships. These fellowships allow for the development of a wide of gifts to grow in leadership. No single individual is usually allowed to dominate the worship service.
* Home Worship Fellowship Services
These fellowships meet in private homes to worship the Lord with people of like-minded interests. Often, these fellowships are the beginning seeds of a new church while the fellowship grows to a point of being self-sustaining.
* Internet Worship Fellowships
These fellowships are growing through their prayer groups, chat groups and worship interactions over the internet. Emailing enhances the communications in these fellowships that are conducted on-line.
* Personal Worship Services
Individuals who develop a pattern of private worship to the Lord on a daily basis learn the best ways to exalt the Lord in their own Bible studies and personal prayers. Just as Jesus went out to a lonely place and prayed every morning this private worship service is essential to grow in one’s intimate relationship and knowledge of the Holy One.
