Gravity and Grace by Makoto Fujimura 

 

 

I really enjoy reading Ragamuffin Soul blog, and yesterday morning he had a link to the blog of one of his friends, Anne Jackson.  She has a post up about hypocrisies in worship, which I found so interesting.  She talks about how church culture is okay with people singing and saying things in a worship service that their hearts and lifestyles are far from meaning, with the hope that saying and doing certain things during the service will draw their hearts toward God.  She asks, “how many times do we get this backwards?

step 1: get people to a weekend service.

step 2: encourage them to “feel” the song.

step 3: inspire their hearts to fully unite and engage with the father”

Anne points out that in these things, we do the very thing that God was so angry with Israel about (external signs of worship rather than worship from the heart). She has some really insightful thoughts on this issue…so much to consider. 

Ragamuffin Soul then posted a question to Anne’s blog post: What do you see the purpose of a church weekend gathering? 

This question got me thinking about my own view of corporate gatherings.  Studying Colossians 3:16 has been very formative for me on this topic, so I thought I might talk a little about it and what I think its implications are for the “weekend gatherings?”

Let me say first that I know I still have so much to learn in this area….so I would hate for this post to come across like I have everything figured out.  I know there are so many people that I respect greatly that have differing opinions on this topic. Having said that, here is my take on some of these issues:

Colossians 3:16:  “Let the word of Christ dwell richly inside you (plural), teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms hymns and spiritual song, with thankfulness in our hearts towards God.”Here are a few implications for corporate worship I would see from this verse:

1. Corporate gatherings should be framed around letting the Word of Christ dwell richly inside us….this should inform the teaching, singing and together time.

2. Colossians is a letter written to a church, not just to individual Christians, so we should desire that the richness of Christ permeate not just individuals, but also our gatherings as believers. This is how the Bible says unbelievers are shown the power and truthfulness of the gospel (I Cor. 14:23-25)

3. Our corporate gatherings should be marked by teaching and admonishing one another….not just being taught and admonished by a pastor/teacher/music leader.  (Even though I think the teaching from the pastor/teacher is very important, it’s not exclusively how believers should be taught/admonished.)

4. Along the same thought as point #3….I think we should be asking questions like, “Do the people at our corporate gathering have an opportunity to teach and admonish one another by the talking/singing/praying in proximity to one another?”  I think this question has some implications in the way we run sound, run lights, and do “production” for corporate gatherings. (Notice I said corporate gatherings and don’t think this necessarily applies for things like concerts….ect.)

5. Music plays a huge part in our teaching and admonishing during corporate gatherings. I would say that we should provide opportunities to do it with one another….not just with a really loud band that performs for the congregation.  I believe that the role of worship leaders should be to come alongside of the congregation in worship, not to create a “worship experience” for the congregation. (I think that we help people out when we sing “we”, “us” and “our” type songs in our corporate gatherings….not only “I” and “me” type songs.)

6. Our song selection is so important, because the gospel will dwell in people and help them remember gospel truths/promises in the coming weeks in proportion to the richness of the lyrics/music.  

7. Our times of corporate gatherings need to be framed around the gospel, and the gospel always leads to thankfulness in our hearts towards God. When we see depths of sin living inside us and the inability in us to be made right with God in and of ourselves, our response to the work of Jesus becomes overwhelming thankfulness. 

If any of you are still reading at this point, bless you…i’m sorry this is getting long.  I’d love to hear what you think about this topic.   Do you totally disagree?  Why?  Are there any books/talks/people that have helped shape the way you look at corporate worship?