What Is Congregational Worship?

Seeing ourselves as the Body of Christ is not to demean personal experience, but a help to guard against allowing our focus to shift to “our” personal experience rather than on who Christ is and what He as done. If we are not careful the desire to achieve a “personal” worship experience becomes a goal in and of itself and misses the object for which the worship should have been directed. We can begin to desire the “experience” more than the “Savior.” Brian Wren put it this way in book, Praying Twice: The Music and Words of Congregational Song:

Oh, I’m thinking of me praising Jesus, and loving the feeling I feel. When I think of his touch I am feeling so much that tomorrow I’ll praise him for real. [page 225]

Congregational worship can help us avoid the “me and mine” mentality and can help us see ourselves as Christ sees us. Being mindful that we are part of the Body can also help us avoid delusions of our own importance before God. This is especially needful for those who are in positions of leadership in worship; it is just too easy to fall into the trap of self engrandizement. When our focus is on worshiping as the Body of Christ, we are less likely to define our worship experience by the limited standards of our own experience. Personal preference is surrendered for the good of the whole.

What is the role of personal experience? The responsibility of every believer is to maintain a right relationship with the Father, to confess known sin, receive forgiveness and continue to grow and deepen the relationship. As we come together in worship, we then come prepared to meet with Him who loved us enough to die to restore the relationship that He knew we so desperately needed. We come together as members of the Body of Christ, different in gifts and abilities, but all functioning for the good of the Body. As we worship, we reflect the “unity in diversity” that is His body.

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In congregational worship can we see the unity of focusing everything on Christ. In the same way that a wheel is recognizable as a wheel when each of its spokes is rightly related to the hub, so the members of the Body are recognizable when rightly related to Christ. Just as a wheel is more than a collection of spokes hub and rims, corporate worship is more than a group of believers in the same room at the same time.

So now what? What difference does all this mean in relation to what should happen on Sunday morning as we gather together? Glad you asked. For a start, let’s consider the following:

Observations on Congregational Worship

1. We must teach what biblical worship is and isn’t. There are still many people that believe that “the music is the worship…”

2. Personal worship is indispensable. We must feed daily on God’s Word; we must immerse ourselves in His presence in prayer. There are no substitutes for personal time with the Father.

3. Personal worship is not a substitute for corporate worship. We are baptized into the Body of Christ and are members of His body. There is no biblical idea of a member of the body existing apart from the body.

4. Congregation worship must facilitate worship that centers itself around Jesus Christ as His Body. The focus of corporate worship is not a focus on personal experience.

5. We must begin to learn what it means to live and worship as the Body of Christ. Personal preference is willingly subjugated for the good of the whole body

Ed Steele, a 20-year veteran as a music missionary with the SBC International Mission Board, is Associate Professor of Music at the Leavell College of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. His blog, Worship HeartCries, weekly encouragements and insights into biblical worship, can be found at www.edsteeleworship.com