Corporate Public Worship is a means of grace. Another way to say it is that what we do together each Sunday morning is spiritual formation. Still seem like a fuzzy idea?

Try the following: Sunday morning service (Corporate Public Worship) does something to us. Week after week as we gather and praise the Lord together, God uses our time to shape us through all the different things (also called "means") - through music, prayer, the Word read and preached, and even through our fellowship before, during, and after the service. The Holy Spirit superintends all these thing in our lives each time we gather. The Bible says in 1 John 3:1-3 that when Jesus appears we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is. Getting a glimpse of Jesus changes us. It changes us for the better, and not only someday when He returns, but today as we see Him in all the means of our corporate public worship. This transformation will be complete in heaven, but it begins for the believer to take place now.

One pastor writes the following about how many people simply divide corporate public worship into two parts: sermon and "opening stuff." He opines, "That 'opening stuff' is in most people's minds the requisite assortment of hymns and prayers that we need to chug through prior to the 'real thing'--the sermon. The 'stuff' that fills the time early in the service is considered only the prelude to the sermon, the opening act to the main event, or the pleasantries we need to get past so that we can get to the 'meat of the matter.'"

How does that view of worship form people over time? What are the implications of that view? First, if someone is too young or too immature to understand the sermon then the rest of the service must seem even more pointless unless it is entertaining. Second, this view of worship makes much of God's Word preached, but it neglects how God's Word shapes every other part of worship, too. Third, it paints a picture of worship as a very individual act - something that is mainly between the preacher and you. In other words, it doesn't take into account that there are a room full of people gathered together for the purpose of entering into dialogue with God who has called them together.

So what is a more Biblical view of worship that will indeed form us spiritually to be conformed to Christ? Imagine Jesus sitting with us at Grace Community Church on Sunday. Imagine Him there in the middle of the section where you sit singing, and singing loudly!

Is that Biblical?

It's strongly implied in Hebrews 2:11-12. The author of Hebrews quotes Psalm 22:22 and says that it refers to Jesus saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers, in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." Who has revealed the fullness of God to us? Certainly it is Jesus. Who helps us in our every need? Again, it must be Jesus. Jesus sings in the midst of the congregation! Here how Dr. Mark Dalbey, president of Covenant Theological Seminary has said it: "As the uniquely qualified and now ascended God-man, Jesus is to be at the center of every element in every worship service in every local church where God, in a glorious dialogue, meets His redeemed and adopted children, of whom He is not ashamed. It is Jesus who declares everything in the service that comes from God and is spoken to His people."

Worship on Sunday is a dialogue between God and his people. God calls us together. Jesus sings to help us respond. God is the author and audience of our praise. Over time, this relational interaction shapes and changes us as individuals and as a community. How?

First, it reminds us that we are not alone in anything we do. We draw on the glorious riches of God that are ours in Christ (Philippians 4:19). Second, it reminds us that each and every week we gather is important - in the same way that eating each day is important for our physical health. Third, it reveals God as a God of relationship. He wants to spend time with us. He wants to have a back and forth with us. That implies one other wonderful truth--He loves us!  Love is relational. Our God is relational and He loves us.

And the more we consider that together each week in Corporate Public Worship, the more we will live in the light of that truth, and the more we will be transformed together.

In Him,

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