How the Church Can Do Corporate Worship Better

All followers of Jesus agree the Bible instructs us to worship God, but the Bible doesn't tell us exactly how we are supposed to worship. You simply cannot find the Sunday morning worship service style that many American evangelical churches have adopted anywhere in the Bible. The same goes for any other specific worship style that fits a particular culture. This doesn't mean worship styles and structure are bad or wrong, but we should be open to thinking critically about how we worship. One potential weakness of the predominant evangelical worship style is that it might not fully facilitate biblical corporate worship.

God expects both individual and corporate worship. Throughout the Bible, we see various individuals who have personal relationships with God and they commune with him and worship him. But once God revealed himself to the Israelites and chose them as his people, worship became inextricably tied to the community. This did not change with Jesus as he established the Church, also his chosen people who are unified in their worship of God. Corporate worship is the communal discipline of the church to gather regularly and worship God together.

Primarily, corporate worship happens when the Church gathers in local communities across the globe, usually on Sunday mornings. When we gather with other followers of Jesus, we make our shared worship an anchor and an identity-forming part of who we are as God’s chosen people. In the Bible, this is a significant part of corporate worship's role in the nation of Israel and the early church. The current evangelical style of church does this part well, where there is an emphasis on gathering with others around the focus of worshiping God through singing praise, reading and preaching his Word, prayer, and Communion.

But there is one massive blind spot with this model that was difficult even in Bible times. In Isaiah chapters 1 and 58, God critiques the Israelites saying that their assemblies, sacrifices, and religious practices are missing what God wants because they are not accompanied by caring for each other, and in particular those that are the poorest and most needy. God's heart for corporate worship includes caring for the needs of those in the community. In Romans 12:1, Paul teaches the early church that true and proper worship is in offering our bodies as a living sacrifice to God. He then elaborates what that means through the rest of the chapter, talking about how to love and serve others within the Church. It's in this chapter that we hear the instruction to "rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn" (Romans 12:15). A recognition of, solidarity with, and care for others should be included in our corporate worship.

 I don't want to go through the effort of gathering on Sunday mornings only to result in facilitating private, individual worship experiences.

For most churches, corporate worship means the church gathers in one large room and sings the same songs together. But that is usually the end of our unity. The layout of the room is focused on the singers on the stage or a big projection screen, like you might see at a concert. Sometimes, efforts are taken to remove distractions of the crowd and enhance the emotional experience, such as making the room dark or adding other visual elements like fog or light shows. There is a de-emphasis on the others in the community in order to provide an experience that allows each individual to have a private time of communion and worship with God. 

I don't want to go through the effort of gathering on Sunday mornings only to result in facilitating private, individual worship experiences. This is our best opportunity of the entire week to practice corporate worship so we must be intentional in creating opportunities to be known and know others even as we praise God and pray to him. We want to value everyone who has chosen to give their time to the community when they attend our worship services. At our church, we take time to practice rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn. At the beginning of our service, we invite anyone to share why they are praising God that day and then we choose to praise God with them. We give space to share any burdens or concerns we have so we can pray alongside each other to God. Every week, stories of God's grace, provision, goodness, and faithfulness are told as we remember answered prayers and reset our spirits to gratefulness and appreciation. People also express vulnerability and weakness and we get to pray with them. Additionally, we are presented with opportunities to practically care and meet needs with real people across the room when the worship service ends. By giving time and space to listen to the people around us instead of ignoring them or acting like they are not there, we can more completely practice biblical corporate worship.

Worship deserves a central role in every gathering of the Church. But our American evangelical style of worship has room to grow in connecting with and caring for others in the room. God has taught us that reflecting his heart toward others is just as important in our worship as our singing, dancing, Bible studying, and gathering.