The Gift of Corporate Worship
Every Sunday morning offers an endless variety of opportunities. To-do lists can be attacked. We can finish what we started or never got to on Saturday. Or we can sleep in and enjoy a lazy morning with a fresh brew while we binge on Netflix.
Or if you’re more adventurous, countless locations vie for our attention (and our children’s attention)! Beaches, lakes, sports, pristine golf courses, and hiking trails beckon us to enjoy life to the fullest.
With so many possibilities, it might seem strange that Christians take multiple hours every Sunday morning together in a building with a diverse group of people to sing, pray, read the Bible, listen, and talk to each other. Certainly, we can arrive more aware of duty and obligation than expectation and joy. But that’s only because we might have forgotten what makes the church gathering together so significant. How can we ensure that congregational worship is more than just one good option among many equally appealing options?
Who Is There
First, we want to remember who is there. Of course, we’ll see friends and family, members of our small group, other church members, and guests. But the one whose presence defines, shapes, and fills every meeting of the church is God himself. As we walk through the doors of whatever building this Sunday morning, we aren’t just walking into the presence of other believers but into the very presence of God, the Creator, Sustainer, and Lord of all things.
But isn’t God everywhere? Yes. God is everywhere, but he loves to make his presence especially and graciously known wherever his people gather together to worship him. As Paul points out, it is the Spirit of God that shows up through our speaking and through our singing, all for our good (1 Cor. 12:7; Eph.5:18-19).
In the late seventeenth century, David Clarkson, the co-pastor and eventual successor to John Owen, composed an essay on why public worship is to be preferred before private. He chose as his text Psalm 87:2: “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.” The gates of Zion, Clarkson explains, represent the place where God’s people assemble to worship him. Clarkson writes, “It was the Lord’s delight in aection to his worship, for which he is said to love the gates of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” God is everywhere, but he loves to make his presence known when his people come together to praise his name.
Devon Kauflin, Lead Pastor, Grace Church (Clarksburg, MD)
Reposted from the Sovereign Grace Journal, March 2023.