Journal
Worship and Celebration
Posted on June 6th, 2006, in the small hours
I didn't lead worship or even play an instrument yesterday; instead I preached at the evening meeting: my first time preaching at Kings!
I'm not an experienced speaker, but my title was 'Worship and Celebration' and I spoke specifically about corporate worship, which is obviously a subject close to my heart. The whole thing definitely seemed to connect within me as I spoke, and I think it went well!
Here are my notes:
DISCUSS: How do I worship?
Think about the range of ways you worship God in a given week.
DISCUSS: What is the difference between my personal worship and worship together?
We will engage with this second question at length. To do so we need to set the question in the context of corporate-ness in the Christian life more generally:
Together-Life
Becoming a Christian is to become part of a radically new kind of corporate life in Christ, infinitely greater than my own individuality. This is Church.
In his letter to the Ephesians, a letter focussing on this subject, Paul has to invent compound words to try to express this new kind of corporate life. He adds the Greek word 'sun' (meaning 'together') to other words to form richly 'together-' concepts:
- Eph 2.5 - ‘together-made-alive’
- Eph 2.6 - ‘together-raised’
- Eph 2.6 - ‘together-seated’
- Eph 2.19 - ‘together-citizens’
- Eph 2.21 - ‘together-fitted’
- Eph 2.22 - ‘together-built’
- Eph 3.6 - ‘together-heirs’
- Eph 3.6 - ‘together-body’
- Eph 3.6 - ‘together-partakers’
Together-Worship
So, in the light of this intense together-ness of the Christian life...
DISCUSS: Why is it important to meet together?
Some thoughts on that question:
to express our together-life
The source, reality and destiny of the life we share is brought to explicit focus when we meet to worship.
to immerse ourselves in the story
Scripture constantly encourages us to remember what God has done, is doing and what he will do. When we gather to worship we locate ourselves within that story.
to engage with God together
We gather in the expectation that God will speak to us and lead us. He orientates us together like iron filings near a magnet.
So, if corporate worship is so important...
DISCUSS: What can I do to enrich our corporate worship?
Some thoughts on that question:
come prepared
Prepare for corporate worship by living lives of worship throughout the week, keep peace with one another and with God, pray for one another and pray for richness in our meetings.
come to contribute
Don't come demanding an 'experience', come ready to serve one another. There are all kinds of ways to contribute at a corporate meeting, both with content and with practical service.
come to respond
If God is amongst us as we meet together, we should expect to be challenged and inspired to change personally, corporately, in our community and even globally.
These things make for health and life in the church.
