Scripture Supporting Corporate & Personal Worship

[maydavidj]

Hey everyone. I'm looking for some scripture to support the idea of corporate worship (services, gatherings, fellowships) and personal worship (quiet times, reading the Word & spending time in prayer alone). Romans 12:1 obviously supports the worship with our lifestyles part of this.

I've got a verse for the corporate worship, Psalm 68:26, but I'm not sure how well it applies. And I'm having trouble finding one that suggests anything specific about personal worship. I guess I should think along the lines of verses about constant prayer and hiding the Word in your heart.

What do you think?

[milepost13]

I'm interested in this as well. I've been given the opportunity to lead our services in a few weeks and have been asked to focus on both personal and corporate worship.

Nate

[twc_admin]

Hey Gang,

Great thread ... nothing like digging into God's Word for some answers. I can't wait to see this thread develop, but I've got to shower and head off to a soccer game w/ the kids .. but will check back later!

[Stevie Nature]

Well, here are two just off the top of my head.

Personal worship: Joshua 1:8 "This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success."

Corporate worship: Acts 2:42-44 "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common."

For corporate worship I'd just go to esv.org and type "assembly" in the search section. there's like 100 verses. I'd guess about 75% of them have to do with the people of God meeting together.

Same with prayer, or worship. Actually there's several verses I can think of, but what specifically are you looking for?

[maydavidj]

The ones you just posted are pretty much right on the dot. I'm looking for them to put together my philosophy and vision for worship ministry. I know there is corporate and personal worship, but I wanted scripture to base it on and tell why.

Thanks!

[Stevie Nature]

Wow. :eek: An entire philosophy of worship. That's a huge undertaking. I'm at work right now so I can't take a ton of time to reply, but I'll try to get you some stuff in the next couple of days.

[MarkSooy]

Let me suggest that developing a philosphy of worship, or a theology of worship, should be grounded in a broad understanding of the scope of worship within Scripture as a whole. The modes and forms of worship as found in some Old Testament passages are unique to the nation of Israel, and trying to apply them to the Church, the body of Christ, would be misguided. This is not to say that there are many principles of worship found in the OT that apply to our setting -- because there are!!

You identified Romans 12:1ff, which seems to me to be the central starting point for considering worship in the New Testament -- and for the Church today. It is, however, a balanced text of how our personal worship is connected to the worship of the community. Be sure to read vss 1&2 in the context of the rest of Paul's treatment of spiritual gifts in the rest of the chapter. Our worship, personally and corporately, is intimately connected to spiritual giftedness. Spiritual giftedness is inherently an aspect of the body of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 12). The reality is that individual worship and corporate worship are inseparable. One does not flow from the other, but both are vital to the health of the believer and the Church.

You can find many priniciples of individual responsibility in worship in the overlooked but key OT passage of Deuteronomy 10:12-21. Note how Moses speaks to the Israelites in regards to what worship looks like communally and individually. This is another fine example of how the individual and corporate aspects of worship are linked.

There are, of course, many others and there is a lot of detail that would be difficult to post here. I've worked on my own Philosophy/Theology of worship for around 25 years -- and it continues to expand and clarify. (You are welcome to check it out more directly at my links below.)

I think it is also important to study carefully some of the more common ideas swirling around concerning worship. There are many ideas out there that don't hold much water once they are considered carefully. One case in point would be the often mis-interpreted John 4:24 passage ("God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth"). Christ is not suggesting that Christians are to look for a certain method or form of worship that would please God better, and therefore fit in the category of "in spirit and in truth." Read the entirety of John 4 -- and 5, 6 and 7. A fuller context reveals similar thoughts of Christ that lead one to understand He is discussing the differences between believers and unbelievers.

I hope this broadens the exploration on this topic. I suppose I could go on and on, but I'd rather allow the conversation to continue from here and I'll pipe in when I can.