The Importance of Worshiping in Community

Throughout of God's Word people have been coming together to worship Him. It is essential to our walk with the Lord that we worship in fellowship with one another. David says in Psalm 34:3, "Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together!" David is calling us to come together and praise God. If we only worship by ourselves, how will we ever learn to love like Jesus did? Jesus was always in fellowship with His people and we must follow His example.

We are called to have fellowship with one another. 1 John 1:7 says, "But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Song cleanses us from all sin." We cannot live the life that God has for us on our own. We must come together with those who believe in the power of the Jesus' atoning death and Resurrection. 

When the Apostles were starting the initial church body, they were bringing people together that believed what Jesus Christ said and did fulfilled the prophecies of the Old Testament, and that He was God in human flesh. Acts 2:42-47, talks about the fellowship of the believers. These people had committed themselves to the teaching of the Apostles and they witnessed many miracles being done by them. 

In verses 46-47, it says, "And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people." The people were coming together not only on Sunday services, but they were gathering together in homes to share meals and praise the Lord throughout the week. We need to follow the examples of the apostles and the early church. Although they were young, their lives were great examples to us.

Defining Our Liturgy

The church service starts around 10:30, somebody will step up to the microphone and welcome the congregation and new guests. They will pray, and during the prayer the worship band will come onto the stage. When we open our eyes from prayer, the band is ready to begin. They will play an up beat familiar song to get people excited. Then there may be one or more familiar and depending on how things go, they might even play a new song. After that, there will be a break and the band will play an instrumental of the first or second song. While they're playing the congregation fellowship and greet one another. Then as everyone finds their seats again, the worship team may pray and then play a few slower songs. When the music portion of the worship is concluded, the pastor or speaker will come up and deliver the message. His time will usually last from about 11:00 until 11:45. After the message, the worship team will come back up and play one or two more last songs. (Usually songs people have sung many times)

This is what is called our liturgy, which is a description of how our church service runs. Perhaps this looks like your regular church service. Most of the time, not always, this is the structure of the Sunday service at my church. It can become a little mundane and rather predictable. But we need to ask these questions: Are we doing what we don on Sundays because it is biblical, or is it just our preference or simply what we've always done?

These are important things to consider as we organize a church service. We tend to hold to a few concepts in our thought processes. First is a principle practiced by John Calvin and others, it was called the regulative principle. This is the conviction that anything we do in a public meeting of the church must be clearly commanded or implied in Scripture. So if it couldn't be found in the Scripture, it was not a part of the service. Another principle is called the normative principle, which was practiced by Martin Luther. The normative principle said that whatever Scripture doesn't forbid is allowed. So this idea kept room for lots of things to still be done during the service. For centuries, churches have split and new denominations have formed over what our meetings should look like. And the fights continue to this day.  But why is it so hard to figure out how God wants us to come together when we worship? There are a few reasons for this.

First, though every generation and every church is responsible to weigh how it does things against the unchanging authority of God's word, but God hasn't been quite as specific in this area as one would hope. The Bible doesn't give us a structure that best serves all cultures and environments. Although both the Old and New testaments say some things, they aren't as culturally relevant or clear as we'd like.

Secondly, we have a tendency to read the Bible through the grid of our own practices and preferences. Different denomination may read what is in the scriptures differently. The Charismatics will open up the Psalms and find commands to clap, dance, shout, and sing. Presbyterians believe that scripture should only be read by ordained ministers. Others might emphasize holistic worship, cultural relevance, and ministry to the poor. These may be very old traditions, but we tend to start with Scripture but eventually invest ultimate authority in our own ideas and views.

Third, we have what is called the “Whatever principle.” It says that God hasn't said anything about how we should worship, so we can worship God however we choose. It relies greatly on personal ideas and expression. This idea overlooks the examples of what God actually does command us to do in times of worship. We are to pray together, pastors are to preach God's Word, and we’re to sing praises to Him. So maybe God hasn't told us everything, but he hasn't been completely silent on the subject.

Jesus as a Worship Model

            The Son of God was the greatest example of what a true worshiper should be. Jesus' life and ministry was one-hundred percent devoted to the worship of God the Father. His entire was purpose was to worship God, and ended up performing the greatest act of worship in history. When Jesus hung on that cross, He took every sin upon Himself in order for us (the future) to have access to God.

There were many great examples of Christ's worship throughout the Gospels, but in John 4, Jesus comes into contact with a Samaritan woman and talks to her about worship. 

The woman said to Him, "Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where on ought to worship." Jesus said to her, "Woman believe Me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, worship the Father. "You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father is spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4:19-24). 

The woman had a view of what worship was. She believed that worship had to happen in a certain place and there were these rules and regulations. But Jesus totally blew that to pieces when He told her what was to happen. In verses 23-24, "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father is spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" Jesus was telling her that everything was about to change soon, soon the Son of God would come to destroy the temple and raise it up in three days.

There are five lessons we can learn from this interaction. First, Jesus teaches us that true worshipers will have to go to places where most people will not go. True worshipers will go to the temples, to the mountains, and to the ends of the earth to proclaim God's name. Secondly, true worshipers will interact with people that some people wouldn't want to be around. Jesus hung out with the outcasts, sinners, and the diseased. These were the people who had no place in society. Third, Jesus has taught that true worshipers how to recognize lifeless non-thirst-quenching approaches to worship. Fourthly, true worshipers need to understand that they must approach the Father on His terms and not our own. Finally, we learn that true worshipers cannot be silent about their encounters with Jesus. So Jesus had so much to teach us about what true worship is.

When Worship is Fake

It is a sad thing to see when our worship seems fake, or at the very least forced. This can happen in many ways. It happens when you aren't not giving it the preparation time it needs, if your heart is in a selfish place, or it can happen when you are rushed and have a very limited time. For me personally, I struggle with all of those things. I find stressful and I become overcome with anxiety when I am being rushed to bring worship to a close. I feel we must give it the time needed to truly come into the presence of God. But I feel that our hearts can become hardened towards other speakers who may be eating into the music time. The only thing that will do is lead our hearts into a selfish place where the worship becomes about us and the speakers are taking away fro OUR time. 

In that sense, we can be lead into a self-serving downward spiral into sin. As Worship leaders, God has given us many responsibilities. We have the responsibility to sheperd people into the presence of the Lord. And when we give a false impression or a bad example of how to do that, we are doing more damage than we know. As we lead, we need to give the worship everything we have and everything God deserves. When we become selfish, we steal attention from the Lord and hoard it all to ourselves. Fake worship can come from us being fake, us just going through the motions. That is when we have really blown it.

There are many other things that can cause our worship to become less of what it should be, but in order to avoid them we must know what real worship looks like. The best example of what a true worshiper looks like is Jesus Christ. Maybe He didn't lead worship in the way our modern minds want to label it, but He was the greatest at worshipping the Father. His entire life and ministry was completely devoted to worship, worship that brought honor to God. It would have been easy for Jesus to become prideful and take all of the credit for everything miracle He did, but He didn't. This is the example we must follow in order for our worship to be genuine.

Building a Theology of Worship

Our worship needs a strong foundation in theology. When we build up a theology of worship, there are a few key ideas we need to use as building blocks. This theology should be built on seven concepts: spirit, truth, balance, theology, community, culture, and excellence. These are all very crucial ideas that are needed to provide a strong foundation for your beliefs on worship.

Worship should be pleasing to Him. When it is, we know that we are worshipping in spirit. We know it pleases Him when we encounter and feel His presence. It is equally important to worship Him in truth. To worship in truth is to worship in the word of God. Stick to what His word, the bible says. When we start to divert in our own thoughts and ideas, we can drift away from the Word and our worship becomes superficial. It is important to know theology in general when building a theology of worship. We must have an accurate view of who God is. If we are ignorant to the massiveness of God, then our praise to Him isn't all of what it could be. We must know about the theology of God so we can praise Him knowing why He deserves our praise.

Community is essential to true worship. Throughout the bible people have always been praising God while in community. 2 Chronicles 5:11-14 tells us of the people coming together to worship and praise God. Real worship that causes people to encounter God happens when we gather in community. We must be connected to each other in order to truly love and lift up God's name. Throughout Paul's ministry, we always wanted whoever he would be writing to, to be in community and worship together. Not only with music but they were to also look after one another in love.

We must immerse ourselves in the culture we have been placed in to build our theology. When we can't relate to the culture that we are trying to commune with, then we are walking in circles. We must understand how the people around us live, so we can love them the way they need to be loved. Dr. Pete Sanchez said, "If we want to reach the world, we may have to sit in the smoking section."

The final concept is excellence. In Philippians 4:8, Paul writes the church, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things." When we worship Him, in a way where we come into His presence, we have brought Him excellence. We can find excellence when we find peace in our offerings to Him. These are how we build a strong theology of worship.

I wanna live real life

This has definitely been a year of change for those around me and myself. I feel as though everyone I know is having some life-changing event. I have friends who are finding out how fun it is to have a newborn baby girl, friends who have ended girlfriend relationships, and just seeing lives change. In the past ten years, I have had a great deal of change in my own life, but this season is going to be a rough one.

Recently in my life, my job situation has changed in a manner I not happy about. Due to cutbacks and schedule changes, I have lost my position, taken a pay cut, and been force into joining a union that I never agreed with in the first place. I feel that these happenings were somewhat unjust and seem quite shady, but that is another story. Through this situation, my pride has been very active. I keep having a sense of "I don't deserve this." 

The more I take a second to step back and talk to God about this, the more I realize how foolish I am being. I am not close to being happy with these decisions, but I know God is a just God and He will use this for His glory. I found great encouragement today in reading a verse that I have read numerous times before, Romans 8:28, "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good..."

I have heard that verse a million times in my life. But today I just needed to read it again. Further down in verse 31, "What then shall we say to these thing? If God is for us, who can stand against us?"

I have heard and sung a song with that line so many times, but right now, it was what I needed.

I lead worship for a Jr. high/ high school Sunday school class. Through out the week, I knew what songs I was going to play this Sunday. It wasn't till Saturday night, I really sat down and prayed about what I was Going play. I was only doing two songs but the second song wasn't really working for me. I was distracted when I practiced it. So instead I decided to play the song, Grace Like Rain. The verses are the verses of Amazing Grace, with the chorus, "Hallelujah grace like rain, falling down on me. Hallelujah grace like rain, all my stains are washed away, washed away." 

Personally, I really needed to hear and sing these words because I feel I had so much weight on my heart. When the class started I prefaced my music with saying that I chose these songs because I needed to hear them and I hope some of them need to hear them as well. When I started singing Grace Like Rain, I almost began to tear up. Just singing those words broke me and made me just cry. I needed to God to tell me that His grace is amazing and He will take care of me like He always has. I felt the weight on my heart just be lifted up to Him. 

Gratitude is the password into God's presence

            Gratitude is such a key concept of our worship to God. If we don’t thanksgiving into our worship, our worship is empty and dead. The psalmist in Psalms 100:4 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!” When we come before the Lord and seek to enter His manifest presence, it is essential that we enter His gates with thanksgiving and gratitude.

            Without gratitude, what can our worship even mean? It means nothing. If we go up to lead worship with music, but our own hearts are filled with ingratitude, we are just putting on a mask. Our worship is supposed to be pure of heart and bring nothing but glory to God. If it is anything else, it is just meaningless. Dr. Sanchez phrases it nicely, “Gratitude is the ‘True North’ of biblical worship.” Like a compass has a true north and will always lead us in the northern direction, gratitude will lead us in the right direction of what our worship needs to be.

            When we try to worship with our hearts full of ingratitude, we are not only deceiving ourselves, but the ones we lead, and more importantly God.  If our worship is full is not grateful, it will spread like a cancer through our entire worship lives. Everything will become tainted by it because we aren’t thankful for God’s blessings. We will open ourselves to being lead astray from God, and since we are in leadership positions, we will also leave ourselves open to lead others astray.

             Dr. Sanchez says that gratefulness is the key to God’s presence. He has an amazing definition for gratitude, “The redeemed heart’s inability to easily recover from a deep sense of amazement at the grace of God.” Psalms 30:11-12 says, “You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!” Our worship is supposed to be filled with this kind of gratitude. The kind of gratitude breaks our pride and causes our hearts to sing. There is a saying that says, “Faith is hearing the music. And hope is dancing to it.” This can be applied to gratitude in worship as well. Grace is hearing God and gratitude is dancing to it.