Be the Change
In a world where individualism and the consumerist mindset have become the trending attitudes of Christians toward the church, how can we facilitate transformation in our own lives and in our congregations? Let’s look at two types of worship to answer this question: corporate and private.
Corporate Worship
Corporate worship is a time of teaching and admonishing by believers in the church (Col. 3:15–16) and responding to truth about God as a unified voice. So whether in singing, preaching, prayer, confession, or taking up the offering, the congregational worship experience should be one of exhorting, teach and responding to truth about God.
VALUE IN CORPORATE WORSHIP
We, the believers, are the ones who benefit from corporate worship, not God. He is self-sufficient and therefore in need of nothing (2 Cor. 3:5). We are the ones in need of teaching and admonishing and it is once we recognize our need that we find sufficiency from God in corporate worship experience.
HOW IT AFFECTS PRIVATE WORSHIP
So once we receive all this teaching and admonishing what do we do? We go out and practice it!
It is from the corporate teaching that we are equipped to facilitate our private devotional times and it is through corporate admonishment that we as believers receive encouragement from others as we go out into the week.
Private Worship
Private worship should be time dedicated to storing up God’s commands (Prov. 2:1; 3:1–3) and time personally responding to those truths and commands. This response will look different because the forms of worship we use can be more broad that forms within church liturgy: prayer, singing, offering, public reading of scripture or preaching.
VALUE IN PRIVATE WORSHIP
Proverbs repeatedly tells us to remember, listen, and store up God’s commands in our hearts as we grow in godly wisdom. Luke tell us that whatever we cultivate in private will express itself in public; he uses the illustration of a tree and the fruit it bears (Luke 6:45). Paul tells us in Galatians that whoever sows evil will receive evil and the one who sows to please the Spirit will receive eternal life. Therefore as we grow in wisdom we will begin to bear fruit in our lives and progress in our godliness by the power of the Holy Spirit.
HOW IT AFFECTS CORPORATE WORSHIP
Spiritual leaders have been commanded, as minsters of the Word, to “disciple and to teach us to observe all that Christ commanded of us (Matt 28:20).” It is our job, as individual believers, to work out our salvation in fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12–13) with the tools that leaders have equipped us with in a private worship setting: methods of praying, songs to sing, scriptures to read, etc. Then, when we gather together we are able to further teach and admonish one another in the wisdom as it is cultivated.
Transforming Culture in the Church
Our cultural behavior cannot be divorced from our religious beliefs. Therefore if we want to change the culture around us, it must begin with us. If we are going to change our orthopraxy (what we practice), we must address the orthodoxy (what we believe and worship) and the orthypathy (what we love) along with it. So how do we do this?
For example, if church leaders wanted to include corporate confession into the Sunday liturgy it could seem a bit foreign. One could begin with introducing a familiar song with lyrics (orthodoxy) that encompass a corporate confession (orthopraxy) that has music that will communicate the affections (orthopathy) we should have in regards to confession. Another practical method might be using a classic hymn like Amazing Grace and praying the lyrics. For example:
Dear Heavenly Father, You are a mighty and gracious God, worthy of all honor and praise. You are the Giver of every good gift and completely sufficient within yourself — in need of nothing in this world. O Holy Father, we confess that we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23) and we come before you, as sinners saved by grace, needing your forgiveness. Most Gracious Father we thank you for Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made on the cross for our sins and for delivering us from eternal separation from You. Almighty Father we love you and we adore you. We ask all this of You, Father God, through Your Son and by Your Holy Spirit, Amen.
To build new habits we must be consistent, disciplined, and patient. If we want to see change, we must be the first to change. If we are to see transformation in our services, we must recognize that it only comes by the power of the Holy Spirit and through our trust and obedience to His direction.
