For God Alone: The Primacy of Worship
For God Alone - The Primacy of Worship In September of 2016, Central Baptist Church Bearden (Knoxville, TN), a church I served nearly seven years, launched a discussion regarding their direction and vision. Ultimately, that discussion led to the creation of a Vision Lay Team (VLT). Throughout much of 2017, this congregation-elected team met most Monday evenings for 1.5 - 2 hours praying over and discussing their future. Following much prayer, many discussions and meetings, this team (of which the author was a member ex officio) created four dreams around the general topics of worship, discipleship, community, and evangelism. Rightly so, worship was the first dream among the four. Worship is the church’s first priority. Bruce H. Leafblad is the person I respectfully call my worship mentor. Dr. Leafblad joined the music faculty at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in the fall of 1983, the beginning of the second year into my master of music degree at Southwestern. Le...