What is corporate worship
As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God? My tears have been my food day and night, while they say to me all the day long, “Where is your God?” These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I would go with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with glad shouts and songs of praise, a multitude keeping festival. (Psalm 42:1-4)
There has been a drought. Church has not stopped, but we have gone two and a half months (10 Sundays + 4 Lenten Services) without meeting for in-person worship. During this time, there have been two big questions swirling in my mind: (1) What is corporate worship? (2) Why do we long for it?
What is corporate worship?
At the time of this article, our church leaders are working to determine the steps that we should take to come back together for our Sunday morning worship service. Until our community was rocked by COVID-19 induced changes, we probably would have defined corporate worship based on the pattern of our Sunday morning worship service at 10:30am in the sanctuary. But what is corporate worship?
First, let’s look at the idea of worship. The term worship is used frequently in the Old Testament. The Hebrew and Greek words literally refer to the act of bowing down. The Latin word (from which we get our English) literally means to show worth. In the case of a Christian, worship is ascribing worth to our God, our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer. When Jesus spoke of worship to the woman at the well, He clearly defined worship not as a location (the temple in Jerusalem), but an attitude of the heart. He said, “God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Luther understood this when he said: “The worship of God . . . should be free at table, in private rooms, downstairs, upstairs, at home, abroad, in all places, by all people, at all times.” (What Luther Says, vol. III, ed. by Ewald M. Plass, [St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1959], p. 1546)
Second, if worship is an attitude of the heart, why do we come together on Sundays? The word corporate literally refers to a body (think corpse). The church is the living body of Christ. This body of Christ is comprised of corpses that Jesus has brought back to life. A large part of the body’s function is to join together for mutual praise to the Savior and encouragement. Our pattern for how this takes place is found in Acts 2:42 where the first church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
Corporate worship is central to the function of the body, the Church. The Holy Spirit inspired the author of Hebrews to write: “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” (Hebrews 10:25, ESV)
Why do we long for it?
Many of us grew up going to church “just because.” I distinctly remember my parents loading me up with my five siblings into our van and driving us 45 minutes to church. It was a family tradition. It was an expectation. In a way, it was an obligation. As I grew older, something began to change. Obligation turned to anticipation. Why?
Go back and read Psalm 42:1-4 at the beginning of this article. The soul of a believer longs (yes even thirsts) to be in the presence of the Lord. When we gather with other believers to hear the Word of God and sing praises to His name, our spiritual souls are filled. Just like our body longs for food each day, our soul thirsts for the spiritual nourishment of joining together with others under Biblical teaching and fellowship.
There is no replacement for corporate worship. We need the Lord’s presence in our lives. We need each other. As long as we are spiritually alive, our soul will “thirst for God, for the living God.”
Thirsting for God,
Pastor Matthew