On Corporate Worship

One of my favorite books of late is This Beautiful Mess from Rick McKinley, the pastor of Imago Dei in Portland. I love Rick’s teaching style and have enjoyed his writing as well.

His writing on the purpose of the corporate togetherness really struck a chord with me. Here are his main points:

1. To listen to God

2. To confess our sins

3. To stand in solidarity with sinful people at the table, recognizing that we all need God’s grace

4. To worship Him

5. To receive His Spirit

6. To encourage each other

7. To be sent out again

I struggle sometimes with the idea of Sunday morning designed primarily as an outreach time. I don’t think we need to paint ourselves into the box of trying to operate “church” exactly as they did in the New Testament time, but the organic formation of that first church was very different from what we see today.

In the model of Acts 5, the believers would perform miracles and wonders among the people, meet together in a place where no one else dared come, and then go out to heal people and drive out demons in the streets.

In I Corinthians 11 the believers waited on each other during the Lord’s Supper and shared. There are some other teachings on appropriate head coverings and hair cuts during worship, but even Paul admits that is the custom of the day and they don’t have anything better to go on than that.

In I Corinthians 14 it says that if an unbeliever comes into your meeting while someone is prophesying, their heart will be laid bare, that they will be convicted, and that they will fall down and worship God. So now we finally have some mention of an unbeliever coming into a meeting, but that whole prophesying part freaks most of us out. It goes on to say that one should teach, one should give a special revelation, one should speak in an unknown language (also referred to as tongues) provided that there is someone there to interpret, but that all must be useful to all and build them up. I think it is safe to say that this makes many people uncomfortable.

Ephesians 4 gives us some instruction on the gifts that God gives to believers, the body of Christ, for the purpose of building us up and equipping us to do His work. Those gifts are given to people to operate as Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers. I think we do a great disservice by trying to cram one or two folks in a pastoral staff into fulfilling all of these rolls. The BODY of Christ is given these gifts; that is the body, composed of us all. In that day there were no professionals, just ordinary people who found true the message of Christ, operating in the gifts given by God. The struggles were as huge as they are today. A deficiency we have today may be that Paul-like overseer who instructs and mediates as he travels from church to church imparting the wisdom of God.

An even different paradigm is presented in I Timothy 2 where the believers prayed together for all people, thanking God and pleading for mercy. They were instructed to pray for anyone in authority with the goal of living in peace, quietness, godliness, and dignity. That sounds a whole lot like much of the action in social activism today. If that prayer foundation were with all groups today, the world would be a very different place. The writer says to pray with holy hands lifted high to God. Women were to take a backseat in this culture through modesty and learn by receiving teaching in submission.

Hebrews 5 says that we should be past the “milk” or baby food of our faith and onto spiritual growth, but that milk is teaching that escapes many longtime Christian in our culture. The “milk” is turning away from evil deeds, having faith in God, and instruction on baptism, the laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. We are so afraid that we will turn somebody away from God that we skip these uncomfortable truths which are the milk, the sustenance of our faith.

So what do you pick, how do you do them all? It seems clear that we should be relevant to our culture. I love the story of Paul sitting with the philosophers, talking their language, relating God in their terms. It seems to me that most really effective evangelism happens outside the walls of the Sunday morning “church.” It happens in relationships, in God appointed meetings, but it is happening in “church” too. People are inviting their unbelieving friends and the culturally relevant message is effective.

And so my struggle is in the corporate body meeting to developing the deep Holy Spirit filled life that we are called to as believers, beyond the milk, operating in our gifts; with the delivery of the message of the love of the Father that is our highest calling.

I am not settled in this. I love the creativity that is God imbued, that gives liberty to the believer, where some are called to build up believers in order that they will be sent out and were others are called to go.

So back to Rick’s list. When we gather as believers, may we listen to God, confess our sins, stand together as sinful people in need of God’s grace, worship Him, receive His Spirit, encourage each other, and be sent out to spread His message of love.

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