Building Up the Body When We Gather

When we gather for worship it is different than when we are in our private worship time.  Just the fact that we gather together for corporate worship indicates that in the midst of our worship, edification (the building up of the Body) takes place.  In fact, encouraging one another in the building up of the body is actually God working in our midst.  Prayer, Praise, and Proclamation should be done in such a way as to build up the Body.

When we gather together we encounter Christ in one another, meeting the Lord and engaging Him in worship.  Our work of worship must be seen as spiritual worship described in Romans 12: 1 and 2, which embraces the whole of life. 

We should not gather for worship as a means to an end - such as preparation for worship and witness in everyday life.  It should be about the wider worship of the congregation continuously repeating and rehearsing total self-surrender as a believer in our daily walk, our lives. When we minister to one another in love in the Body, we are seeing the Spirit's transforming power at work -  demonstrated right in front of us, which is an important way of worshipping and glorifying God.  The unbeliever in our midst actually potentially sees this also.

We should never separate the vertical and the horizontal in our worship when the church gathers.  We don't look at prayer and singing praise as the worship time and the teaching-preaching as the edification time. Paul's teaching encourages us to view all activities as both vertical and horizontal.  Ultimately, it all is for the glory of God!  mjm