Church Worship vs. Corporate Worship…?

Don: In our discussion so far, we have defined personal worship as not just worshiping alone but worshiping with the desired end-product of some individual benefit; and we have defined corporate worship as not just organized worship in church but worship which is in service to others—it is both plural and participatory. In other words, the end product of working together is a corporate benefit; or as Paul put it, it is to build up the body of Christ.

We’ve been wavering between two competing ideas. First is the idea that all worship is personal; that even when we worship together, each of us brings individual, customized, and personal thoughts. This means that what we each take out of worship, even when we worship together, is different; that the end product of worship is then extruded through a filter unique and intelligible only to the individual worshiper.

The competing idea is that all worship is corporate, except individual worship that prepares one for corporate worship. In other words, one may pray, study, and meditate alone, but the end product is the preparation of the heart, mind, and soul for service to others.

In the new covenant, the dwelling place of God is no longer the tabernacle and its ritual trappings. Instead, it is the Word—God—made flesh in the body of Christ and dwelling amongst us. The body is a constellation of believers whose central belief is that God is the Father and that they are a unity that contributes to the building up of the body of Christ. God no longer needs a building to dwell in:

However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands; as the prophet says:

‘Heaven is My throne,
And earth is the footstool of My feet;
What kind of house will you build for Me?’ says the Lord,
‘Or what place is there for My repose?

‘Was it not My hand which made all these things?’ (Acts 7:48-50)

Furthermore, the body in which God seeks to dwell is an humble and contrite one:

Thus says the Lord,

“Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool.
Where then is a house you could build for Me?
And where is a place that I may rest?

“For My hand made all these things,
Thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord.
“But to this one I will look,
To him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word. (Isaiah 66:1-2)

Paul explained this issue of worship through a body of humility rather well:

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith; if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12)

So the end product of worship is the building up of the body of Christ, the deliberate elevation of that body above our own, the preferment of others. Note, too, that the elements or forms of worship that Paul specified—prophecy, service, teaching, exhorting, giving, leading, showing mercy, loving, rejoicing, and so on—are all activities done in the service and mainly for the benefit of others, not of ourselves.

Paul also noted that we grow and mature in worship that builds up the body of Christ:

And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. (Ephesians 4:11-13)

Jesus himself addressed the issue of corporate vs. personal worship in the Sermon on the Mount. He placed the three pillars of religious practice common to all major religions—prayer, fasting, and the giving of alms—in the context of worship:

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before men to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.

“So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. 6 But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.
“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words. So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. (Matthew 6:1-7)

Note that Jesus did not forbid prayer or fasting or alms-giving, but he greatly downplayed their importance as elements of worship—literally relegating them to the closet. He even relegated the importance of church worship when he said:

Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. (Matthew 5:23-24)

The importance of corporate prayer over personal prayer is further indicated by the sole use of the plural personal pronouns—us, we, our—in the Lord’s Prayer.

We tend to center our worship on our individual selves and to think that our own personal piety is at stake. But the concept of corporate worship that has emerged from our study seems to be far from what we usually think of as worship. Worship needs to be centered around God, not around us. It needs to benefit God through service and goodwill to others, not our individual selves. When we worship in that way, our personal piety takes care of itself, but self-centered worship makes idols of ourselves and our piety. No wonder Jesus was so lukewarm and guarded about self-centered worship, in his Sermon on the Mount.

What, then, does proper worship—corporate, focused on building up the body of Christ through service to others—actually look like? What do we need to change about the way we worship now? What should we teach our children? Is there a difference between personal worship (worship that affects the worshiper) and private worship (worship that excludes other people), and if so, what does it imply?

David: Except for the plural voice in the Lord’s Prayer, none of the scripture quoted mentions communal worship. It is “corporate” worship not in a communal sense and not in the sense of an organized body (a church, for instance) but only in the sense of building up Christ corporeally. This certainly has implications for churches and organized religions.

Don: Hebrews does tell us not to forsake gathering together; but certainly we need to examine whether corporate worship as we are now defining it (building up the body of Christ) necessarily involves assembly.

Elder Gallimore: Paul also wrote to the Colossians:

When this letter is read among you, have it also read in the church of the Laodiceans; and you, for your part read my letter that is coming from Laodicea. (Colossians 4:16)

Jay: If worship is really about an experience with God in order to get closer to him and develop a deeper understanding of him, I don’t think it can be achieved alone, but only through love of one’s fellow man. The ministry of Christ calls us to share God’s grace, to love our neighbor, to serve others. If that is how we experience God, then that is also how we worship God. It seems to me dangerous to think one can do this alone, separate from community.

Jeff: The expression “corporate worship” tends to conjure up in my mind the liturgical service. I have sat through many of those and it has become a neatly packaged way to worship. The passages we have read today do not reflect this kind of worship at all. Are our “worship packages” simply the result of faith community tradition and culture? Paradoxically, they do seem to give one the opportunity to avoid the effort of contact with one’s fellow worshipers!

Donald: We talk about the body of Christ and also of being his children. So he is the father of our family, and our—his—family is our “corporation.” We know we are not the only child in the family, so corporate worship necessarily involves our siblings—other human beings. As children, we simply accept and love our parents and siblings as our parents and siblings; but as mature adults, we tend to start questioning their role in our lives and our role in the family.

David: There seem to me to be at least two differences between church worship and corporate worship (as we are now defining it). First, corporate worship is personal in the sense that it is inner-driven. It is not imposed on one through the vehicles of scripture and liturgy. If it is “imposed” at all, it is imposed by the inner light. Corporate worship is personal in the sense that it is matter of how you personally lead your life and how closely you match that of Jesus. Second, church worship is periodic, whereas corporate worship is 24/7. I feel a tension between these two forms of worship.

Elder Gallimore: In the Beginning, God made the heavens and the earth and said:

“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” (Genesis 1:6)

God is defined in scripture as love, and love by its very nature can exist only in a plurality because it must share and multiply and be in communion. He created the universe and intelligent life because he is love. There is a personal perspective in that I feel compelled to interact and to share with my brothers and sisters the love that God gives me. I can’t do this by flaunting the size of my offering; I can only do it by loving them. I cannot resist loving them any more than God could resist loving me.

Jeff: Love must involve more than one. Self-love is not love. Service to others is the one factor capable of unifying all or any body of humanity. We experience this directly in times of war, for example. Existential threat has a way of trumping ideology, theology, racial, social, financial, and other causes of discord when the chips are down. This happens even with our church, such as when we—people of all different stripes—come together to participate in a service project. Service unifies and thereby builds up the body.

David: To manifest our love for and service to others, wouldn’t our time better be spent in the soup kitchen than singing songs and generally having a good time in church? How genuine is the love of one churchgoer for another, especially in the bigger churches where just about everyone is a stranger to everyone else? It seems to me the love and service that Jesus wants is one on one. “When you have a problem with your brother, get out of church pronto and go settle it with him,” to paraphrase. As a last resort, bring the community in to help solve it, but above all first try it one on one. If all is well with your world, by all means go and have a good time in church; but the real corporate worship is done in the body of Christ, not in an ecclesiastical body.

Jay: Can we bring church worship into harmony with the corporate worship called for by scripture and Christ? I think we can point to examples of it in our own church, but are we doing it as well as we can?

Alice: Paul made clear that the purpose of spiritual worship is to give oneself wholly over to God, ego and all—“to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice.” When we achieve this, then we are equipped for corporate worship—we are changed and capable of being in the service of God.

Chris: I think private and personal worship are different, but we tend to conflate them. Personal worship is about our relationships with God and one another. Helping others in need is personally energizing. In church worship, how can one know whether the people around one are engaged in serious worship or are there just for show? It seems to me a church should encourage and provide opportunities and avenues for people to serve others and in that way manifest their love. It can be achieved by meeting the basic needs of the needy. This is a personal activity but can be organized through church.

Elder Gallimore: We should be amplifying our love on Sabbath mornings. Heaven too is filled with worship and praise. Humans have a hard time dealing with praise—it can change one for the worse; but nothing changes God. All the praise and adoration heaped on God does not make him love us one iota more or less. Our love is what he loves, and that is what we should strive to amplify in Sabbath worship.

David: Is not the Good Samaritan the perfect example of a worshiper? There is no assembly; just a person in need and a person who loves him enough to give it.

Donald: Isn’t there value in both assembly and corporate worship, and in the amplification of the one by the other? Sabbath worship helps me to do my bit. It’s personal in that sense, but the intended beneficiary is not myself.

Jeff: Fundamentally, it seems we need to weigh these two types of worship and re-focus accordingly. They don’t have to be in a state of tension, if we can reconcile our traditional worship with that which Christ proposes—with service at its heart and with assembly serving to amplify our service effort.

Don: God clearly understands that Mankind’s evil nature tends to self-worship, even to the extent that we corrupt our worship of God and the good things it involves (prayer, fasting, almsgiving), turning them into idols and our worship into self-worship. God continually seeks to get us to look outside ourselves in order to elevate our piety but without risking self-worship. The service of others is such a common, universal, unifying business and it is the central element in building up the body of Christ. Our theological and doctrinal divides must take a back seat to our unification through service.

Jeff: What is portrayed to us of the life of Jesus through the Gospels is predominantly his service activities. He seems hardly ever to show up in the synagogue.

Don: We’ll talk more about Jesus next week.

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