There\u2019s something special about being with a group of people who are all passionate about the same thing. When the first Star Wars movie of the newest trilogy came out in 2015, Pastor Brent Aucoin (a die-hard Star Wars fan) invited all of Faith West to join our family in seeing the movie within the first couple of weeks of its release.<\/p>\n
The theater was packed. All kinds of people who had grown up watching Star Wars were ecstatic that their favorite franchise had a new movie. Halfway through the movie, after a whole half of watching our heroes barely evade the evil empire again and again, at a point when everything looks hopeless, X-Wings swoop in to save the day. The theater erupted with people cheering and applauding as we all enjoyed watching one of our favorite types of rescue scenes re-enacted. Can you guess who was cheering the loudest? Yep, my dad next to me was drinking in every minute of his childhood re-lived.<\/p>\n
How would my experience have been different if I had watched that movie for the first time sitting at home by myself? The crowd\u2019s excitement gave me a new delight in what I was watching, and even more than that, knowing my dad\u2019s lifelong Star Wars fandom made me love watching the movie even more.<\/p>\n
Does the phenomenon I just described hold true when we consider the weekly gathering of the church on Sunday mornings? When God instructed his people to gather for worship, how does \u201ctogetherness\u201d and a common passion impact what takes place? In our individualistic American culture, are Sunday morning worship services supposed to just be exciting, spiritual settings to have \u201cGod and I\u201d time? Or should we have a higher goal?<\/p>\n
This is the second\u00a0post in a series on Corporate Worship in Action<\/em>. In Part 1: \u201cWorship\u201d<\/a>, we defined biblical worship as the whole-person response of the people of God towards their holy Redeemer that demonstrates he is worthy of honor and glory<\/em>. In this blog, we\u2019re going to consider the purposes of the Sunday morning worship services, particularly focusing on the corporate <\/em>nature of corporate worship.<\/p>\n Several years ago, a group of core leaders within our church\u2019s worship team put together a mission statement that explains our biblical purpose for leading music each week. We put together a mission statement that included 3 purposes for corporate worship. We lead the church in singing biblical truth for 3 reasons:<\/p>\n Matt Merker puts it this way in his book, Corporate Worship<\/em>: the church gathers for exaltation <\/em>(of God), edification <\/em>(of fellow believers), and evangelism <\/em>(of unbelievers).[1]<\/a> These three purposes describe three orientations each of us should pursue when gathering for worship.<\/p>\n It may seem obvious, but worship is first and foremost about the God who is worthy of our worship. Verses such as Psalm 47:1\u20132 exhort us, \u201cO clap your hands, all peoples; Shout to God with the voice of joy. For the Lord Most High is to be feared, A great King over all the earth.\u201d We gather, shout, clap our hands, sing, and hear from God\u2019s Word first and foremost because God is worthy of that activity. This point should be convicting, because so often we come to worship saying something in our hearts like, \u201cI will clap my hands and sing because I like the songs this morning and got a good night\u2019s sleep,\u201d or even, \u201cI will come to church and watch others sing and listen to God\u2019s Word.\u201d Worship is first a matter of obedience upwards <\/em>to our worthy King.<\/p>\n Colossians 3:16 exhorts the church to teach and admonish one another \u201cwith psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.\u201d One of the God-ordained means of encouraging and convicting his people is through the corporate worship of the body of Christ. Your voice<\/em> on Sunday morning could be what God uses to remind a brother or sister in Christ of the exact truth they need to hear.<\/p>\n Paul reminds of this when he encourages us to conduct our gatherings in such a way so that an unbeliever can understand what is going on and be convicted that God is really among his people (1 Cor 14:24). The joyful worship of believers is a powerful testimony to the relevance and power of the gospel.<\/p>\n Keeping the purpose of corporate worship in focus is critical for God\u2019s people. It\u2019s easy for American Christians to come to worship believing subconsciously that the primary orientation of corporate worship is inward-focused<\/em>. Essentially, I go to church because I believe I need something, often because I\u2019m desiring an encouraging experience or encounter with God. Corporate worship becomes less about joyful obedience and more about self-fulfillment. If this is the case, you should stay home on Sundays, because virtual attendance is more convenient and the purpose of worship services anyway is to help you <\/em>have an experience that brings you closer to God.<\/p>\n The problem with this way of thinking is that God did not design biblical worship to be about you! Of course, God does bless us when we obey and worship him because that\u2019s what we were created to do. But just like every area of the Christian life, our focus should primarily be outward<\/em> and upward <\/em>and around<\/em>. What we experience<\/em> is a by-product of our joyful worship, which itself is a response to the character and deeds of God.<\/p>\n Imagine what pursuing the right kinds of purposes can produe during your Sunday morning worship:<\/p>\n Aren\u2019t those goals so much grander than the goal of personal self-fulfillment?<\/p>\n God chooses to use weak people like you and me in his mission of redemption each and every Sunday, and we must orient our heart upward, around, <\/em>and outward<\/em> towards his purposes. God then uses our rightly-oriented worship to bless our own hearts, prepare us for effective service, and draw us closer to him.<\/p>\n Just like watching Star Wars in the movie theater was so much sweeter than it would have been watching it at home by myself, praising God with my church family takes on a new sweetness compared to watching from home. May we all increasingly pursue God\u2019s purposes for our Sunday worship services, and then taste and see that God\u2019s ways are truly better than our own.<\/p>\nPurposes of Corporate Worship<\/h2>\n
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The Importance of Corporate<\/em><\/h2>\n
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