The Theology Behind Corporate Worship

The following is an excellent article entitled “Theology and Corporate Worship” by Samuel G. Parkison (original source here: https://credomag.com/2019/07/theology-and-corporate-worship/

What hath theology to do with worship?” Being tasked to answer such a question is, for me, a bit like offering a dog a mountain of bones. Not bone. A mountain. Exciting—overwhelmingly so. Where to begin? Though a measly essay can scarcely explore the relationship between these foci exhaustively, I scratch the surface, first, by narrowing “worship” in general to “corporate worship” in particular. And with that, I offer the following four aspects of relationship.

Theology Creates Corporate Worship

Theology creates corporate worship in a number of ways. At the most basic level, theology creates corporate worship because theology creates corporate worshipers. That is to say, Christian theology creates Christians. Never has there ever existed an a-theological Christian. When God effectually calls his own to himself (Romans 8:28-30), it is himself—God, Theos, the subject of theology—to whom he calls them. When God vivifies the spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1-10), and they, with their freshly inflated spiritual lungs, cry out like a newborn infant with faith in Christ Jesus, they are, in so doing, crying out to the God-man (John 1:14; 1 Timothy 2:5). They are crying out to Jesus, he who was sent by the Father (John 5:36), empowered by the Spirit (Luke 4:18), incarnate (Philippians 2:5-8), crucified and buried (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), resurrected (Romans 6:5-11), ascended to the right hand of God (Romans 8:34). To become a Christian—to become a worshiper of the Triune God—is to grasp theology at some level. To put it starkly: one cannot become a Christian without theology. So, theology creates corporate worship because theology creates the worshipers who gather corporately.

But theology also creates corporate worship in the sense that theology occasions the corporate worship itself. That is, theology motivates corporate worship. This is unavoidably true, whether corporate worshipers are conscious of the fact or not. Indeed, Christians—that is, those saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone (note the theological concepts to which I have to appeal in order to even define a Christian)—are the only kind of people who can worship the Triune God of Scripture because they are the only ones who want to (Romans 8:7-8). When theological truth gets inside the hearts and minds of individuals, and God thereby redeems and sanctifies them, worship is the natural outflow. And that is the only way that Christian worship occurs. It cannot be manufactured.

I was reminded of this dynamic in a striking way recently, in a Bible study I lead for a small group of college students. One morning, we were reading through the gospel of Luke and discussing the incarnation. In this small Bible study, made up of new believers still wet behind their spiritual ears, our conversation spanned from Mary’s virgin conception, to the Trinity, to the hypostatic union of Christ’s two natures. This occasioned, believe it or not, a brief discussion on the extra calvinisticum—that unfortunately anachronistically named doctrine that emphasizes Christ’s uninterrupted divinity in the incarnation. “So in some mysterious way,” I said, “the same person—Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity—in his divine nature, continued to uphold the cosmos by his powerful word even as he took on human flesh. The Son was causing the existence of the manger in which he lay.” One young woman at the table simply blinked at me. Misty-eyed, she gulped, and said, “That is so beautiful it makes me want to cry.” I smiled. She continued, “It makes me want to sing.” Amen. If this is true on the individual level, how much more on the corporate? This is why we begin our services with a biblical call to worship. We sing because we want to sing in response to who God is and what he has done.

Theology Informs Corporate Worship

Not only does theology constitute and create our corporate worship, it also informs our corporate worship. This is a subtle but important difference. After theology motivates corporate worship, we do not leave it at the door: it directs our worship. Think, for example, of singing. After being gripped by some theological truth, the natural Christian desire is to sing. But what should we sing? If it’s in any way about God, it is theological. As it turns out, theology is still needed.

Not only does our theology inform the content of our corporate worship songs, but it also ought to inform the structure of our corporate worship. What do we do when we gather together as the church for corporate worship? How we answer this question will reveal our theological convictions, stated or implied. For example, my church subscribes to the regulative principle of corporate worship—which is to say, our corporate worship is comprised of what Scripture commands and only what Scripture commands. This means that the structure of our services is made up of five elements: public reading of Scripture (1 Timothy 4:13), teaching and preaching of Scripture (1 Timothy 4:13; 2 Timothy 4:1-2), corporate prayer (1 Timothy 2:1; Acts 2:42; 4:23-31), corporate singing (Colossians 3:12-17), and the practice of the ordinances (i.e., communion and baptism, 1 Corinthians 11:23-34; Acts 2:38; Matthew 28:19). Why do we subscribe to this principle? Our motivation is expressly theological—our use of the regulative principle is a direct expression of our embrace of Scripture’s sufficiency.

Along these lines, theology can also inform the flow of corporate worship. For example, after settling on the building our corporate services with only the five materials mentioned above, we were still left with their order. These activities must be organized into some order. What better governing principle than theology? For our own part, our order of worship roughly corresponds to the gospel narrative (i.e., Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration, Consummation). Our Call to Worship corresponds to “Creation” (Genesis 1:1), Corporate Confession to “the Fall” (Genesis 3:1-24), Assurance of Pardon to “Redemption” (Galatians 4:4-7), Song of Thanksgiving to “Restoration” (2 Corinthians 5:16-21), and Communion to “Consummation” (Revelation 21:1-27).

Corporate Worship Teaches Theology

This is a crucial and often overlooked relationship between corporate worship and theology. Corporate worship teaches theology. There is a reciprocal relationship, therefore, between theology and worship. Theology creates and informs worship, worship teaches theology, which then creates and informs more worship. The psalter reinforces this very point: it is theological content that occasions the psalmist’s writing, and his writing itself becomes more theological content!

This is why we cannot underestimate the importance of our worship’s theological content. The songs we sing teach us to view God a certain way. They teach us to view our circumstances a certain way. They teach us to view ourselves and one another a certain way. They teach us how to pray. They teach us to whom we pray. Our corporate worship—our prayers, sermons, and songs—must be theologically substantive. A church that preaches Trinitarian orthodoxy may still unwittingly harbor Trinitarian heretics by butchering the doctrine of the Trinity with its songs and prayers. A church that preaches hard against the false gospel of prosperity may still unwittingly invite its members to name-it-and-claim-it with its songs and prayers. A theologically strong church is strong because it sings and prays and eats and preaches with corporate theological strength.

Corporate Worship Reenacts Theology

Doxology is theology consummated. Theology hasn’t truly worked its way into a people until it has worked its way out of their fingertips. As a local church gathers for corporate worship, she is reciting her lines. She is playing her role. She is aligning herself with her reality in Christ—therefore corporate worship is nothing other than corporate theology practiced. This is illustrated in perhaps no greater way than in the corporate worship act of communion. That little meal of bread and wine contains worlds.[1] It is a battering ram against the forces of darkness, declaring the Lord’s death until he returns (1 Corinthians 11:26). That is, in taking communion, the local church raises a wide-grinned face at sin and death and hell and says, “Guess what? Your reign is through! Your expiration date has been written by the blood of Jesus—there’s no turning back. Your time is running out!” It is also a meal of horizontal and vertical fellowship—the church as a church enjoys the one meal, sharing in one cup and one bread (1 Corinthians 10:16-17), and communes with its Savior who has promised that he will never leave nor forsake her (Matthew 28:20). And it is a meal of anticipation, hoping with eager expectation for the cosmic feast of the ages: the banquette of the Lamb of God and his holy Bride (Revelation 19:6-8). Who would have imagined a feast of theological truth could be contained in such meager portions of bread and wine (or juice!)?

In these ways and more, we see that theology and corporate worship are essentially intertwined.


Endnotes

[1] An excellent work on the variegated dimensions of communion is Todd Billings, Remembrance, Communion, and Hope: Rediscovering the Gospel at the Lord’s Table (Eerdmans, 2018).

Worshiping Together?

https://founders.org/2018/12/29/to-worship-or-not-to-worship-that-shouldnt-be-the-question/

Article by Tom Ascol (original source here: https://founders.org/2018/12/29/to-worship-or-not-to-worship-that-shouldnt-be-the-question/ )

Summit Church in Durham, NC (where SBC President, JD Greear is pastor), announced that they are not holding any worship services this last weekend of the year. Instead, they are encouraging their members to #worshipathome. In the video prepared for their people to watch as they #worshipathome there is a repeated reference to being “gathered together virtually” (I did note that there was no corresponding encouragement to “give virtually;” on the contrary there was a very explicit appeal to give actually before the year ends). This was said even though Psalm 34:3 was quoted: “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name virtually together.” No wonder irony is so hard to do anymore.

Later in the video (around the 19:00 mark) JD Greear explains Summit Church’s “semi-tradition” of not worshiping together on the last Sunday of the year, partly because of the intensity of their Christmas at DPAC production (complete with a “Angels We Have Heard on High”/“Let it Go” medley; it starts at 15:05, but keep watching) and partly because they know this is a “busy travel time.”

Thinking Christians know intuitively that something is just not right about a church canceling its worship service because people are tired. But when good, respected church leaders do it, it can tend to be a bit disorienting. Make no mistake, JD Greear and the Summit Church he pastors are both highly respected, and for good reasons.

From all indications JD is an amazing leader. Former missionary. Author. Church revitalilzer. Denominational unifier. And, as I already mentioned, current SBC President. Still not convinced? Then let Momma Pop persuade you (this remains my all-time-favorite SBC campaign videos—if you didn’t like JD before, you can’t help but like him after watching!). I admire JD and rejoice in all the good that he is doing for the kingdom. Which is why I am disheartened by the decision of Summit Church to cancel their worship services on Sunday.

I am concerned because as such a prominent and influential leader, JD’s public reasoning on this will inevitably lead other pastors and churches to think similarly, which is to say, to think unbiblically about a church’s gathered worship.

Why do Christ’s churches meet weekly? Because Scripture convinces us that is what Christ would have us do. God worked six days in creation and rested the seventh and calls His people to follow His pattern (Exodus 20:8-11). Under the old covenant, that meant resting and worshiping on the seventh day of the week. Under the new covenant, with the resurrection of Christ on the first day of the week, the pattern was kept but the day changed (John 20:1; Revelation 1:10; 1 Corinthians 16:2). You may not be convinced by these reasons but you will at least be compelled to admit that they a biblical argument rather than a pragmatic one is being employed. The same cannot be said for the very public cancelling of Summit RDU’s worship services.

That, brothers and sisters, is what makes this a serious problem. If it is legitimate to cancel services because of being tired one Sunday a year, why not two Sundays? Or 12? Or 52? Once you leave the authority of Scripture behind, anything goes.

What a contrast we are given with the attitude and actions of our persecuted brothers and sisters in China. If you have not been following the Chinese government’s crackdown on Christians over the last ten month, let me encourage you to get up to speed post haste. Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant Church has, along with more than 100 of his fellow members, been arrested, harassed and worse in recent weeks. Pastor Yi made sure to prepare written documents in advance of the persecution he saw coming. He wanted to make sure his church would be properly instructed about how to think and react to persecution if he were no longer available to teach them.

I particularly want to call to your attention his “14 Decisions: In the Face of Persecution, What Will I Do?” The very first decision is this:

Do not stop gathering together

Under no circumstances will we stop or give up on gathering publicly, especially the corporate worship of believers on Sunday. God’s sovereignty is higher than any secular authority and the church’s mission and the Bible’s teaching on not neglecting to gather together is higher than any secular law. Regardless of whether the Religious Affairs Bureau and the police take administrative and forceful measures toward Sunday worship, whether or not their enforcement follows due process, I will resist by peaceful means. I will not cooperate with the police banning, shutting down, dissolving, or sealing up the church and its gathering. I will not stop convening, hosting and participating in the church’s public worship, until the police seizes my personal freedom by force.

Our Chinese brothers refuse to give up under persecution what so many American Christians voluntarily neglect or dismisses under ease. Could it be that we enjoyed gospel privileges so long that we have taken them for granted? Could it be that we have affirmed the authority of God’s Word so long that we have come to assume that we are submitted to it, when in reality we don’t think much about it at all?

Modern evangelicals in general (and Southern Baptists in particular) are not in any danger of rejecting the authority of Scripture out of hand. Our danger is losing the authority of Scripture by assuming that we are being submissive to it when we go following our own whims. May God deliver us from such a deadly mistake.

Features of Reformed Worship

  • God-Centered

Worship is the expression of praise, glory, thanks, honor, submission and devotion and is to be given to God alone. All else is idolatry. Therefore, Reformed worship is intentionally God-ward, celebrating all that He is and all that He has done in creation and redemption. Worship is not about our feelings or ‘worship experience’ and therefore is not devised according to what will attract or satisfy the sinner. God alone is our target audience in worship. It is for God,about God, and focused solely upon God. We recognize that if God is pleased it does not matter who is displeased, and if He is displeased, it does not matter who is pleased.

  • Triune in Orientation

God has revealed Himself in creation and especially in the Bible. Biblical worship recognizes we worship the one true God who is eternally existent in three Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All of our worship is shaped by this revelation.

  • Covenantal

Biblical worship is based upon a covenant relationship. Not everyone can legitimately call Him ‘Father’ but only those in covenant relationship with Him. We also recognize that this relationship is made possible only by the sin bearing, atoning cross-work of the Lord Jesus Christ in His death for us, and the perfect obedience and righteousness He achieved for us in His life. Based on the sure foundation of Scripture alone, justification is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.  

  • Regulated by Scripture

God determines how He will be worshiped and He has not left us to guess what that involves. The Regulative Principle of Worship acknowledges that we are to do only those things in worship which God has commanded in His Word. We are not free to innovate, revise, or supplement the elements of worship commanded by God in Scripture. We are to be careful to do according to the mandates laid out for us.

  • Sober, Yet Joyful

The Bible makes it clear that worshiping God is a highly serious matter and yet Christians ought to do so with reverent and overflowing joy. Worship is not a concert for man’s enjoyment. Preaching is not a public speech to dispense information or to entertain. Preaching is a central component of our worship. God addresses His people through the reading and proclamation of His word, and His people respond in faith, thanksgiving, and praise.

  • A Holy Dialogue

Worship in the Bible was a dialogue between God and His covenant people, and so should it be in churches today. Our service begins with God addressing His gathered people in His solemn call to worship. Hearing His call, we respond with joy.God reveals His holy Law and we recognize our guilt and confess our sins. God, through the preacher, makes proclamation of His word, and we believe and renew our commitment to Him. He serves His people a family, covenant meal at His Table and we believe His gospel promise and feast on Him. As we turn from sin and trust the finished and perfect work of the perfect Savior alone, He assures us of His full pardon. We respond with thanksgiving and praise. Our worship ends with God addressing His children with words of benediction. This dialogue between God and His assembled covenant people is the rhythm of worship in Scripture, and it shapes the structure of our liturgy every Lord’s Day.