North New Zealand Conference

Dear God Worshipper

This page is a guide to call on in the days and months ahead as we

"take our everyday, ordinary lives – our sleeping, eating, going to work, and walking around life – and place it before God as an offering." (Romans 12:1) The Message Bible

This page was prepared just for you as you go on the journey of healthy worship. Let yourself be inspired and challenged by the questions, ideas and concepts.

What would you like to say to God? What is God saying to you? To start a renewed journey of worship with God write your name here

Live Worship!
-- Eddie Tupa'i, Lead Pastor NNZC

Download Resources from the SPD Institute of Worship - click here

In the journey that God is taking our Conference on, where does this focus on worship fit?

In 2006 the Conference focus was on our hearts as worshippers. In 2011 we will again focus on our hearts as worshippers.  This time however, we will extend from individual worship to worship together with other believers.  It is my prayer that right throughout the Conference our worship gatherings will be Spirit-filled, Spirit-led times where every searching person and believer can go to find refuge, inspiration and God’s love.

2011 is going to be a year of reviving worship.  A worship that will honor God, and send out into our communities, believers who live ‘worship’.   I look forward to seeing new methods and ideas, songs, music, prayers, messages, and art, which fulfill this mission.  I cannot wait to witness NNZC believers living worship at school, at work, at the mall, in offices, on farms, worksites…

-- Eddie Tupa’i, Lead Pastor NNZC

Definitions of Worship

"...make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among (them) my people." Exodus 25:8

"A redeemed community, responding to its redeemer." -- Dr Charles Teel

"...the divine requirements for human life are not rocket science: do justice, love mercy and walk humbly before your God. Worship is the humble walk." -- John Ortberg

"The number one reason for our existence is to worship God. We were made, saved and will be recreated to worship." -- Eddie Tupa'i

"Like with Israel, God wants to camp in the middle of our hearts, where both God and you can just be... it is there where transformation happens, a transformation that brings about authentic worship." -- Peter Casillas

"The missing focus in all our ministries and resource provisions as a church is, talking about and teaching on how we can grow in our worship gatherings and lives of worship. I believe a good place to start is to revisit our worship gatherings. Imagine if the preparation for, the attendance at, the passion of and the engagement in our worship gatherings were to raise ten percent (well for that matter why not 30-50%). Imagine what that would do to our everyday living worship. Wow!" -- Eddie Tupa'i

Psalm 103:1-5 invites us to the basis of Worship, trust... "Bless Yahweh, I tell myself every part of me bless His transcendent name. Bless Yahweh, I tell myself, and do not forget any of His benefits. He is the One who has forgiven all your iniquity Who has cured all your ailments, the One who has claimed back your life from the pit. Who has crowned you with loyal love and affection, the One who has filled your existence with good so that your youth has come back."

"Let's keep in mind who the greatest worship leader is. His name is Jesus." -- Dr Robert Webber

“...Christian worship---corporate and individual---can and should be one of the most profound and relevant responses to power abuse in the world.  In worship we cast our lives upon the faithful and just power of God.” -- Mark Labberton

"But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him." -- John 4:23

"What will happen, when our churches are worshipping God, that people of all walks are led to our place of worship. And by worshipping in such a way, the landscape of the church fills with so many unknown faces with weird things around them. Will we embrace them or try to change them in unnatural ways or will we allow that same worship that attracts them, to also transform them as we walk the journey together?" -- Peter Casillas

"A glimpse of God will save you. To gaze at Him will sanctify you." -- Manley Beasley

"In order for God to meet you in your reality that you may see, He meets you in your context with its own language. Yet this action by God allows you to find true worship, which is not found in rituals, structures and labels, neither your own taste and perspective, but is found only in Jesus..." -- Peter Casillas

"...the Institute of Worship proceeds on the premise that the CONTENT and SHAPE of worship are absolutely central and primary issues. On the other hand, STYLE, while often the most heated point of discussion, may be best addressed after we have laid a clear foundation for CONTENT and SHAPE." -- Dr Lyell Heise

"The first of the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:3), the summary of the commandments by Jesus (Matthew 22:36-40), and the first of the three angels messages (Revelation 14:6,7) reflect the Biblical teaching that humans were created to worship God." -- Eddie Tupa'i

"When the hearts of the worshippers are open to God, then the church has its attention directed towards the true source of health and vitality." -- Eddie Tupa'i

"God's plan is that we, the church, are to be the primary evidence of God's presence." -- Mark Labberton 

"Spirit-led believers live lives of worship. Our focus on worship takes us to the very heart of our identity and purpose. We are created by God to worship Him. We are to live for Him and to lead others to do the same." -- Eddie Tupa'i 

"The Spirituality of Imperfection: the language of Worship is constantly incarnating into our realm. It does it, not because it has to, but because it desires to do so, thus, worship reaches even the unchurched." -- Peter Casillas 

"How quickly we forget what it's all about. We can get so strategic that we worship so our church will grow, not because He is worthy. But we're doing all this because God is worthy and we want to worship Him." -- Tommy Walker 

"...Think about worship not as a service we attend occasionally but as the life-altering recognition that someone has shown up and changed the rules that our society tells us govern human existence." -- John Ortberg 

“The content of all worship is God’s story of the world.” -- Dr Robert Webber

“How do they worship, these Seventh-day Adventists set in a kaleidoscope of cultures and situations around the South Pacific? “They worship with passion, they worship with hope, and they worship with a variety that befits the variety in which God created the human race. “In language, in song, in style, they fulfil the word of the Revelator whose insistent call to every nation and kindred and tribe and people inspires them as Adventist believers to ‘worship the Maker of heaven and earth.’” -- Dr Lyell Heise

“...Adventist worship is a Sabbath celebration, in which Jesus is adored and worshipped as Saviour, Priest, and Coming King.” -- Dr Lyell Heise

“At the core of a healthy church is the heart of the worshipper.” -- Eddie Tupa’i

“Worship is not something that we bring to God since worship comes only from Him. It’s in being with Him, in His presence, that Worship flows through our life & from our life into action ... we then want people to ‘come and hear.’” -- Peter Casillas

“ ... a passion for worship goes with an indifference to justice like a fish goes with a bicycle.” -- John Ortberg

“Somehow the God we name, the music we sing, the prayers we offer, and the Scripture we hear read and preached has to call us deeper into God’s heart and deeper into the world for which Christ died.” -- Mark Labberton

“This is the worshipper realising everything in life (including church!) is about God.” -- Eddie Tupa’i