Biblical Church Essentials – Part 3/4

Spirit Led Corporate Worship

The second thing that the Church does when gathered together on the Lord’s Day, is to participate in Spirit led corporate worship. In a Biblical church gathering all are free to contribute and participate as they are led by the Spirit.

During this time of worship together each person can be talking with the Lord and allowing their gifts, given by the Spirit, to edify and strengthen the Church in an orderly way. Each is able to contribute their various gifts as described in 1 Cor 12,14 and Rom 12.  Order and appropriateness are easily maintained because each member is able to make discernment by the same Spirit. The diversity of gifts and roles that exist in the Church makes for a dynamic and exciting time in the Lord, where the whole family of God can participate in the time of worship.

Now of course, some would imagine that this could potentially break down into chaos, which is absolutely true if the Spirit of God is not present and governing the hearts of all believers. But isn’t that the point…that we need God to be present and teaching us how to worship him properly. If something is out of order, or damaging to the Church, it becomes apparent quite quickly. When that happens, the gathered Church is able to stop, pray, and address the issue as it occurs. Because of their past traditions, some may feel that this is too awkward or uncomfortable. But, who can deny that it is a good and normal thing for families to work through and address issues as they happen. We can be encouraged in the difficult conversations, because they are precisely where the greatest growth occurs. Love is what holds the Church together and a Biblical format for meeting provides opportunity to practice being patient, kind, humble, and hopeful with one another as we interact face to face.

Now in contrast, traditional church formats that are “led from the front” have a controlled or preset order. Compare that with the Biblical instruction found in 1 Cor 14 where Paul even states that the format he prescribes is a command from the Lord, and that we are not even to recognize those who ignore what he is writing. Even the hierarchical structures of the synagogues in Jesus’ and the apostles day allowed for visitors to address the entire assembly. If Jesus walked into a traditional church today he wouldn’t even be allowed to address the congregation without pre-approval.

Of course pre-approval means that nobody gets to say anything that the leadership doesn’t want the people under their authority to hear. Can you imaging if I could just walk into an assembly and begin presenting the things that I have been saying in these blog posts? Now that would be a riot. Perhaps quite literally in some cases.

.

Tags: corporate worship, difficult conversations, family of god, patient kind, spirit of god

Related posts

• Biblical Church Essentials – Part 4/4
• Dan Miller
• Before the Lord places His Spirit