A Worship Decoder

                All around you in the sanctuary are symbols that are codes to understanding the God we worship and how we should worship Him.  Here are the meanings of the codes you see every Sunday.

Colors:  The colors for the Altar clothes and other items have their own meaning.

White:  purity and holiness                          Red: redemption, salvation sacrifice

Purple: royalty and power                           Green: new life and provision

What do these colors teach you about Jesus?

The Altar

                The altar is a reminder that Jesus is the Lamb of God sacrificed for us so all items on the altar represents Jesus.  Everything on the Altar should say something about Jesus!

Cross: reminds us that Jesus gave Himself for us.  It also shows we should be firmly established with God (vertical post) in order to reach out to the lost and our brothers and sisters in Jesus (left and right arms).

Offering plates: reminds us that as God has given us everything He blesses us by allowing us to give!

Bible:  the written Word of God reveals to us the Living Word of God Jesus Christ

Candles: remind us that Jesus is the light of the world.  The number of candles teaches us too!

1 = “The Lord our God is One God!”; 2 = Jesus is fully God and fully man; 3 = the Trinity; 4 = four corners of the world and Gospel for the whole world; 6 = creation (seldom used); 7 = fullness of creation and the Sabbath; 12 = twelve tribes and twelve apostles the people of God

Altar cloth:  reminder of the Tabernacle made of curtains, the veil before the Holy of Holies and the cloth used to humiliate Jesus during the Passion. 

Communion elements: The Body and Blood of Jesus are presented in different ways in denominations.

The altar can also contain olive oil to show the healing power of Jesus, incense to remember the sweetness of the presence of Jesus and other items used by different denominations.

The altar rail

                The altar rail places us before the altar so we can meditate upon Jesus and spend time with Him in prayer!  The middle is usually open to show that as the sacrifice of Jesus rent the veil before the Holy of Holies we are now allowed to enter into the presence of God ourselves and do not need a priest.

Pulpits

                Pulpits are for the proclamation of the Word of God. The Bible is read and the Gospel proclaimed by the preacher from them.  Some have one while others have two.  With two pulpits the larger is usually used for preaching and the smaller for announcements.

Piano and Organ

                From our Jewish heritage music has been a part of worship. Many of the Psalms have choir and music notations on them.  Some denominations do not believe in music because it is not directly mentioned in the New Testament.  But the Apostles would have known music in their worship.

Choir loft

                The choir loft is usually around the altar area.  The choir is singing to God and so should be pointed at the altar.  In fact everyone in the sanctuary should be pointed at the altar directing their worship to God.

Audio/visual equipment

                Audio/visual equipment can be used to enhance worship with our video oriented society.  With audio/visual equipment has come a new problem, to not let worship degenerate into entertainment.