.corporate worship.

Anyone who has read up to this point should realize that my view of worship does not stop at the traditional box of a Sunday morning music service before the preacher stands up to talk. I believe the Bible teaches a much more all-encompassing view of worship – more of a lifestyle than an activity in and of itself.

Nonetheless, corporate worship in an undeniably important part of our Christian walk. It is one chance for many believers in Christ to set aside time to come together in order to worship God as the entire body of Christ. The time that we have together is special, unique, and offers many opportunities to worship in a way that one cannot individually.

The most expected and universal “form” of worship in this setting is, as I’m sure you know, joining together in song. Whether you use instruments or not, whether you use electric guitar or organ, whether your congregation can clap on beat or they can’t even carry a tune (let alone pull off some of those amazing hymnal harmonies) – regardless of all these factors, almost every church, traditional or atypical, comes together to sing together.

Take a moment to step back and take a look at what music is. In music theory we learned that music was essentially the organization of sound. It is taking the chaos of sound vibrations that naturally exist in the world and putting them in an order that makes sense to the human ear in terms of time and pitch. Maybe that makes things a bit too technical for some people, but to me that process just screams of God’s handiwork. It shows me what a blessing creating music is – that He would give us the ability to create reason out of nonsense and order out of disorder… in a way that moves us deeply and emotionally… it’s mind-blowing.

Problems in a corporate worship service most frequently arise when we come with expectations. Either expectations on how God will move, expectations about how we will feel, or (perhaps the most harmful) expectations that we place on other people. Those infamous “Worship Wars” begin when two groups of people disagree on their expectations of what worship should look or feel like. It can be as simple as when we expect people to know if it’s appropriate to sit, stand, kneel, or lift their hands. It can even be passing judgement on someone when they are not as much into a song as we are, or they aren’t singing along or expressing themselves in ways that we normally would.

In order to worship together properly as a community, we have to learn to empty ourselves of those expectations. The way that I worship God (even specifically in a music setting) cannot and should not be pushed upon any other person. It is in our diversity as created beings that we are able to come together in unity. If we were all the same, Christ would have nothing to unify.