Keeping Worship "Corporate"

Each Lord's Day, as we come together to worship the Lord, we are seeking to do something that is unnatural to us. But if we don't do it, we will miss the purpose and the joy that the Lord has for this kind of gathering.

We want to come with our hands and hearts held out to be filled...and they can be.

We want to learn from God's Word...and we should.

We want to hear music that turns our thoughts heavenward...and it can.

We want to praise and thank the Lord for his goodness...and we do.

But beyond all of this, we are coming to be a part of something more--specifically something more than any one of us represents. We are coming to be a part of the Body of Christ seeking all of these things together. We are not to be the collection of hundreds of individual worshipers, but rather the people of God in worship. 

You may wonder what the difference is. Let me see if I can help.

Everything that I listed above that we want to do, we could do on our own, or perhaps on our own with Spotify or Pandora readily available for the music part. But something changes when we all come together to do the same thing as one people. Actually a number of things change.

When we seek to be filled, it is not just my needs but the needs of the Body--individually and as a group--that should fill our thoughts and petitions. We need power corporately to love each other well, to meet each others' needs, to serve together well, and to seek God's direction for us as we serve our community and our world in his name.

When we sing, it isn't just to enjoy a song, or even to sing these praises to God, but to sing them to God together, and in so doing often to remind each other that we are not alone in the endeavor of praise. Sometimes when we sing, especially if you may not favor a particular song, you might want to realize that your singing is an example and an encouragement to those around you and even to the musicians leading us from the front. It says, "yes, we are with you in this praise and testimony." 

When someone leads us in prayer, it is meant to be the prayer of all of us, for all of us. We aren't supposed to be silently waiting for a finish so we can sit down or move on. We are to be affirming from our own hearts the petitions being asked, the praised being offered, the thanks being given, and the confessions being made. 

When we read God's Word out loud, we are saying it for ourselves, but also for those around us--we need to be saying it and we need to be hearing it--interestingly, the public reading of the Scriptures is one of the few elements we are commanded to have in corporate worship. God already knows what the passage says--he had it written for us, after all. But we need to be reminded of it.

And when the preaching is going on, we are to hear it as God's instruction (however imperfectly given by the messenger) to us, together. We shouldn't listen and say, "I'm already doing that" or "my neighbor really needs that." Instead, we should all be saying, "this is important for us; teach us how to do this better, or avoid this more fully, Lord," (depending on whether it's an instruction or warning). 

Something you might not expect takes place when we worship this way. Our hearts are not only drawn toward God, but toward each other. The Spirit uses such worship to remind us of our belonging to one another, and our need for each other. It keeps us from becoming music critics and sermon analyzers--instead, it helps us focus on what the Body is, hopefully, gaining through our time together before the Lord. 

As we worship, we are often told there is an Audience of One. That is true in one sense, because our focus is the triune God. However, our worship is a testimony to angels and demons. To angels there is the amazing truth that these fallen humans, redeemed by grace, have come to know the God they serve night and day because of his mercy, and they marvel. Demons likewise must marvel, and shudder, as they see all of their schemes coming apart and coming to nothing. A watching world also learns about us--not just those who might come as guests, but even the testimony that we gather before our Lord together every week. One of the best parts of that is when we, who are different in many ways, demonstrate a unity that is only explainable by the gospel.

Personal worship is a privilege, and we should engage whenever we can. But we need corporate worship to fulfill our true calling as God's people. And according to Hebrews 10:24-25, the closer the end of this age gets, the more we will need such times together. Let's not miss a moment of shared glory in his presence that we don't have to!