Everyone knows that going to church doesn’t insure someone is different from others who don’t go to church. The reason is there really isn’t such a thing as “going to church”. “Church” is a group of people—not a building or an event. When someone “goes to church” without understanding worship, it often means very little. Christians don’t “go to church”. We gather to worship our Lord and King.
So, let’s talk about worship. In the last post we looked at individual worship—presenting ourselves as a living sacrifice to the Lord. But when most people think of worship they think of corporate worship—worship with the body of Christ. It isn’t about showing up or being in a certain place. It is about what happens when the body of Christ come together to worship our Lord. And corporate worship is as essential to spiritual health as individual worship. In fact, in scripture, when people participated in corporate worship without preparing themselves with individual worship, God told them to go away (Isaiah 1:12-17).
If we don’t worship God individually throughout the week, we aren’t ready for corporate worship.
We join the body of Christ—our family, friends, neighbors, co-workers and people we don’t even know—in worshiping our God. Successful worship requires consistency and focus.
In southern California ministers know that many have accepted our culture’s view that we shouldn’t get too carried away with “going to church”. One church of about 5000 weekly attendance recently reported that over the course of a year, 30,000 people came to their services once a month. Clearly worship isn’t a priority for many—it is seen as one more possible activity for a given weekend, often giving way to recreation, sports, sleeping in, etc. For corporate worship to be what it is intended to be, we have to be committed to worship with the body of Christ consistently.
But what if we “don’t get anything out of it”? Even the question betrays an attitude that worship is about us.
It isn’t. We come to worship God. It is HE who is supposed to get something out of worship. We “get out of worship” what we need only when we realize it isn’t about us.
So, corporate worship requires that we are actually in worship on a consistent basis—for most, at least weekly. But anyone who has been to a worship service knows we aren’t always worshiping just because we are in the service. We have all found ourselves distracted during worship, thinking about lunch instead of the Lord. So, corporate worship requires that we are not only there, but that we are actually focused on God.
When we sing praise to God, we need to be focused on God and practice praising Him (most of us aren’t very good at it).
When we pray, we need to actually be talking with God.
When we give, we need to intentionally present our offering to God as an act of worship.
When we share communion, we need to remember what the communion elements represent.
When we hear the Word taught, we need to ask God how He wants us to respond as an act of worship.
All of us have experienced distraction. So, we need to be real with the Lord and ask Him for help.
To truly worship God with the body of Christ, most of us need practice. We need to come before Him saying, “Lord, I am not very good at this, but you are so important to me that I do my best and ask your help, so I can present my life to you.”
When we do this, our focus—not just during the worship time, but throughout our week—is on God. We see things through God’s eyes. We remember God’s presence. We live as people of God.
Worship is not optional to the Christian—it is essential for health and for life.
Gerry Lefebvre says
Outstanding post Randy!
Pat Wolfe says
Thank you Randy. I hope to be a regular follower of your blog posts.
Randy says
Thanks Pat. As I shift my roles and am focusing on the work of The Essential Faith Project I will be posting much more frequently. I hope they are useful to you.
Scott Diamond says
Hi Randy. What do you think of the mix of activities? As you know, I’m not a Christian but the few times I’ve gone I’ve been somewhat perplexed by the mix of prayer, sermon and especially music. At times it seems more like an entertainment package than an activity to be close to god. Does there have to be music? It seems like so many services follow the same “formula” and I would think this might take away from the connection to God which some people are seeking.
Randy says
Hey Scott, good to hear from you! You put your finger on something church leaders constantly wrestle with, and I’m not sure there is a set answer. Worship is an expression of the value we put on God (the “worth” part) to God. To some extent this is subjective. Most people don’t know that there are four universal elements to Christian worship (meaning they are found throughout Christian history, and without regard to culture or geography). They are praise, prayer, offering and communion. Of course in some churches/cultures there are other elements, some of which tend to take precedence. In America, most non-liturgical churches have combined their worship times and teaching times, so the sermon becomes a dominant part of the service. Personally I have no issue with this so long as it still facilitates worship (it doesn’t always). And of course, as you noted, in most churches in America, music has become a dominant part of the worship. In theory this is a form of praise, and the people “up front” are there to facilitate the expression of praise on the part of the people in the congregation. In reality, it can often turn into a “show” (and before someone reading this comments-I have found this can be true regardless of the music style) and when that happens it usually does take away from the actual worship of the people in the body. Last year in the church I served, we intentionally had entire service with no music just to make sure we all realized it could be done. A lot more could be said on this subject, but since this is just a reply to a comment, I’ll stop here for now:-).
Scott Diamond says
Thanks Randy. Well thought out reply and I learned something