The Beginning of Congregational Worship

Private or personal worship is the very beginning of corporate or congregational worship. When the body gathers, the intensity of worship depends on what each individual has brought to the table from their own personal worship. Then there is the "Gathering", the great processional as people leave homes, apartments, dorm rooms, and even hospital rooms to a congregating space for the specific purpose of worshipping God together. Imagine all the things that could go into that gathering: Holy Spirit using folks to invite friends and neighbors, using folks to touch and minister, bringing or inviting, newspaper ads, even internet and web, even some out of sense of duty or obligation. God uses all kinds of things to gather people unto Himself. And, imagine if we could stand on the edge of heaven and be able to actually see the gathering taking place - much as in the Old Testament when the trumpets blew and the people came from every direction to gather for worship of God. Calling to worship, first words spoken or sung, establishes the purpose of the worship event - reinforcing the vertical focus of worship between God and the gathered congregation and the horizontal aspect of edifying and encouraging one another. It is an announcement of God's presence, reemphasizing that God comes to us before we come to Him. Praise and Adoration are the first response to God's presence, which is not only affirmation but also shows strong opposition to anything that would try to stand in God's place. There is never anything routine about singing praise to God. Finally, Expectant Prayer is a part of the beginning of worship in both personal worship and in the corporate worship experience. For our worship to be authentic and effective, we petition God to work powerfully in our lives through the Spirit in and during the worship service. Sometimes those prayers are also in the form of songs and hymns as well as spoken prayers. Expectant prayer previous to and at the beginning of worship services expresses a longing for God and deep dependence and humility, acknowledging that power in worship is a gift from Him rather than any human accomplishment. mjm