Exaltation

To exalt something is to lift it up so everyone can see it. Exaltation is the church doing that with Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and the life; God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name above every name (Philippians 2:9). When we gather, the whole point is to see Him clearly and say so — in song, in Scripture, in prayer, in preaching.

That means worship is not a warm-up for the sermon, and the sermon is not a talk that happens to mention God. All of it is exaltation, or it's beside the point.

Singing together is one of the strangest and best things Christians do. Paul tells the church to speak to one another "in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19). Notice who's singing: everyone. Congregational singing is meant to be what it's called — congregational. It isn't a spectator sport.

So at TheWay, the whole room sings. There will be leading, and there will be more instruments as the church grows and people bring their gifts. But there won't be a concert you mumble along with, and there won't be a stiff, starchy service where nobody engages either. We'll sing hymns that are old and have stood the test of time — the songs that have carried generations of believers before us — and we'll sing new songs that are fresh and speak to our own generation. The test for any song is the same: is it true, has it held up, and does it build up the people singing it?

It looks like Scripture read out loud, because God's Word is worship. It looks like prayer that isn't a transition. It looks like the Lord's Supper taken seriously and baptism celebrated loudly. It looks like preaching that ends at Jesus, whatever passage it started in.

And it looks like a congregation that leaves talking about Him. Hebrews 13:15 calls it "a sacrifice of praise to God, the fruit of lips that confess His name." Our hope is that people leave talking about Him.