As stated under the heading “New to Clifton”, our main purpose in worship is to contemplate and celebrate the glory of God in Christ Jesus. Our gatherings focus on hearing from God and responding to Him. We know the Lord through His Word, and so we come together corporately to pursue Him through reading, preaching, singing, praying, and “seeing” the truth of the Scripture. As His Holy Spirit leads us in understanding and pondering the seriousness of our sin, we are also reminded of what a great Savior we have in Jesus and the joy of living for His Kingdom in the fellowship of other believers.
Our preaching is expository in that our pastors seek to proclaim faithfully the intended meaning of the Scriptures. We publicly devote ourselves to prayer as an expression of our dependence on the Lord, and we see the gracious work of God displayed visibly to us through celebrating baptisms and the Lord’s Supper.
We sing a mixture of gospel-centered hymns and songs, both old and new, desiring to prefer unity while displaying a diversity of personal backgrounds and preferences. Our musical style is somewhat eclectic, gathering in a rich collection of Christian song from many centuries and traditions. Our congregation sings heartily, and an adult choir often lends its voice to the various aspects of our worship experience. On a normal Sunday morning, our singing is accompanied by 8-10 instrumentalists: piano, organ, flutes, violins and violas, trumpet, guitar, bass, and drums (sometimes more, sometimes less).
The late Chip Stam, our beloved minister of music, wrote the above description. He is now singing the praise of his Lord in His very presence. If you would like to read more about his vision of worshiping the Lord through music, you can visit a compilation of his one-time weekly e-mail devotional on the subject of worship and prayer, the Worship Quote of the Week at www.wqotw.org.
Our music ministry has been around a long time. This photo, posted here for posterity’s sake, depicts Clifton Baptist’s Bible Class Orchestra and was taken in 1925.