Don’t get me wrong. Private worship times are vital to a growing relationship with the Lord. In Psalm 1:2 the writer describes a blessed person as one who “meditates” on the Word of God day and night. Psalm 119:11 explains the reason one does this is to “hide God’s Word in my heart that I might not sin against you.”
Both verses extol a value of private devotional times for Christians.
Jesus emphasized the value of private worship during the famous Sermon on the Mount. There He urged listeners not to make a show of their personal devotion to God but to “go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matt. 6:6).
Private worship is important. It is an indispensable part of a vibrant, growing Christian life.
Unfortunately some people seem to think private worship where one is alone with God is the only worship experience a believer needs. This idea is reflected in such statements as “I don’t need the church. I worship God by myself.” Sometimes that misconception even penetrates corporate worship experiences when believers are urged to ignore everything and everyone around them and be alone with God.
Pagan worship
In pagan worship people still go to their temples as individuals. They take their offerings to get the attention of the gods. At temples and shrines in many parts of the world one sees worshipers oblivious to those around them because their worship is all about the individual.
New Testament believers chose a different path for Christian worship. The Book of Acts and the letters of Paul are filled with references to public worship activities. “They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in prayers” (Acts 2:42). At Antioch, Barnabas and Saul “for a whole year assembled with the church and taught a great many people” (Acts 11:26). In 1 Corinthians 14:23 the apostle Paul wrote about the whole church coming together in one place.
Early Christians adopted the method of the synagogue instead of the pagan temple. Meeting houses became places where individuals were built up in their personal faith and where the corporate body of Christ was nurtured.
Both elements are important. Christianity requires a personal relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ. At the same time, believers are incorporated into a larger Body of Christ (the church) that is greater than any single individual. Christian worship is supposed to reflect both aspects. One is to be in relationship with God and in relationship with fellow believers at the same time. After all, that is what God purposed at creation.
Corporate worship benefits the individual, to be sure. The most obvious way is through expanded knowledge and increased understanding. Preaching and teaching were essential parts of early church gatherings and they still are today. In Baptist churches this usually takes the form of the sermon but it can happen in other ways such as Bible studies, personal sharing, hymn singing and observing the sacraments.
Corporate worship helps renew one’s joy in the Lord. The Christian faith is built on the love of God expressed in the atoning death of Jesus for the sins of the world and on God raising Him to new life through the resurrection from the dead. Every time one hears that story joy is refreshed. Every time one witnesses an individual embracing the atoning death of Christ as their personal hope of salvation, personal joy and hope are renewed in a way not possible in private worship.
Personal holiness
A result of worship, whether corporate or private, is to be increased personal holiness — being conformed to the image of our Savior Jesus Christ. Corporate worship provides the opportunity for accountability in the journey toward holiness that private worship cannot. Being accountable to fellow believers for one’s actions and attitudes is far different than being accountable only to one’s self.
Participation in corporate worship also builds up the Body of Christ. When one participates in worship one is identifying with the church. One is connecting to the teachings proclaimed by the Christian faith. One is joining the corporate witness of the Body of Christ to a world that does not acknowledge God as Savior and Lord. The witness of the whole Body of Christ becomes more than the sum of the witness of its individual parts.
Corporate worship encourages the disheartened. Every week in practically every congregation believers bring their grief, pain, disappointment and confusion to the Lord. Life has a way of attacking all who live very long on this earth. But amid fellow believers, hurts are healed and hope is renewed. In part, this is through commitment to a risen Lord who makes believers “more than conquers” in this life. In part it is through the testimony and support of fellow believers who have traveled similar journeys and found the Lord “a very present help in times of trouble” (Ps. 46:1).
As one who has traveled the road of grief and loss I know it is difficult to overestimate the value of ministry from fellow believers who demonstrate the abiding love of God that will not let us go.
Those who share corporate worship develop bonds of love that are difficult to break. They have grown together in their understanding of God, have shared the refreshing presence of the Spirit of God, have helped one another in the journey of Christian discipleship and have been strength for one another in times of trouble. Such experiences make people more than acquaintances and more than friends. They become family — brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Perhaps that is one reason many observers say churches are at their best in times of crisis, for that is when bonds of love fortified by years of nurture and care can really be seen.
Corporate worship also opens doors of service. The writer of Ecclesiastes expresses this idea in chapter 4 when he writes that “two are better than one” and that “a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.” Believers working together can provide more Christian service than can be offered by a single believer. When Christians cooperate together in the service of the Lord, the whole Body of Christ benefits.
Again private worship is important but Christian worship is more than a Lone Ranger-type experience. True Christian worship includes participating in the body of Christ through regular corporate worship.
This week make it a point to participate in corporate worship.
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