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Does Corporate Sung Worship Build Community or is it an Insular Experience?
Someone recently mentioned to me that they find corporate sung worship to be a very insular experience. i.e. they find it strange that we spend so much of our time together on a Sunday singing but so little getting to know the people in our church. They find that singing is between you and God and almost don't see the point of singing together - or at least they think we spend too much time doing it?
I personally enjoy singing in church with other belivers and find it builds the body up as well as pleases God. However it's interesting that not all believers think the same on this!
Do you think we spend too much of our time together in meetings singing and not enough time actually getting to know those people in our church? Perhaps we need to look at the best way of using our time to ensure we are building community as well as using sung worship to praise our God?
What do you think?
I personally enjoy singing in church with other belivers and find it builds the body up as well as pleases God. However it's interesting that not all believers think the same on this!
Do you think we spend too much of our time together in meetings singing and not enough time actually getting to know those people in our church? Perhaps we need to look at the best way of using our time to ensure we are building community as well as using sung worship to praise our God?
What do you think?
Tags: community, insular, sung worship
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sally on -
Worship at church is not about each other. It's about lifting up and praising God. If we are to get to know our church family better, it needs to happen outside of our worship time. That time is specifically set aside to come into the holy of holies! There are sooo many ways to "get to know each other" and that should not be an excuse to shut the worship time down. Don't get me wrong, we should definitely have fellowship time, but when we are in a worship time, that needs to be God-focused. just my humble opinion...
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Permalink Reply by Junjie on -
It's always easier to connect with someone after worship. :)
You cannot unify the praises of the people without unifying their hearts to some degree. That is what makes congregational worship a powerful tool in any church.
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Permalink Reply by Tim Harmer on -
I love Praise and Worship. I could have an entire service of praise and worship and I think it would be awesome..
But I tend to agree with the original comments about it being a personal thing.. well at leaset it is for me.. I don't feel any closer to anybody but God when I Praise & Worship.
But I also love the fellowship with Brothers and Sisters in Christ...
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Permalink Reply by Mark F on
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Phil,
I think that 's it's a common mistake that people make; treating Church like a social event. Yes, fellowship is important, but we don't need to do that during the short amount of time that we're on the church grounds. That's what Small Groups and other church events are for. Our time in Church should be spent in biblically mandated corporate worship, not self indulgence.
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Permalink Reply by Acts7 on -
I agree wtih Tim on loving praise and worship. Having an entire service of p&w. Im down with it. We should daily be in the presence of God, entering the Holy of Holies in our worship closet. It should not be a time slot we pencil in on Sunday and say "okay music is playing , Im in church, cue the hollies. ready? lights camera. presence." It should NOT be like that. Worship is definately an integral part of most of our churches and I would have it no other way.
But lets not loose sight of the reason we are told to go to church. "Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together". If we forget the "together" part, we have lost a great cause.
We need to stop "showing up" on Sunday. And start asking God, "who can I minister today?". That spot is not reserved for the pastor. You as part of the body of Christ are commanded to minister to orphans and widows. To reach the lost, heal the sick, feed the hungry, cause the lame to walk and blind to see (by the authority of Jesus name- as Jesus said "greater works will you do in my name").
James 1:27
27Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
That my friends is why we should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Not so that our fancies can be tickled.
We need to stop going to church with the attitude what can I get and start with God what can I do for someone else. Let me disclaim that by saying we should certainly come to church expecting to hear from God in song and in word.
As to worship being insular. Well, I find that hard to see. I think that is part of uniting. to sing together. NOT singing is just rebelling.(unless there is a reason not to sing)
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Acts7,
While I agree with most of what you said, I'm not sure what it is that you think that you are responding to, or that perhaps that you misunderstood the premise of this discussion. I don't see anyone suggesting that we forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Nor do I understand with whom you're disagreeing when you said, "We need to stop going to church with the attitude what can I get and start with God what can I do for someone else." Again, I agree with the sentiment on it's own merits, but I don't see how that's relevant to this particular discussion.
You said, "As to worship being insular. Well, I find that hard to see." Though I'm not the person who made that comment, let me explain: People who've never been to church or have no experience at all with an evangelical style of worship walk into an evangelical church and suddenly find themselves in a room of people all singing song after song of tunes that they've never heard of before, and everyone except them seems to know them. They certainly don't sound like traditional hymns that one usually hears in church. Then there's all the 'Christian-speak' that someone unacquainted with the culture wouldn't be able to immediately grasp. So to the uninitiated, the perception is that of an insular club of people who all 'get it', and the newcomer feels like they're on the outside looking in.
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Additionally, I've been to a couple of churches where believe it or not, newcomers aren't welcome; or only newcomers 'of a particular pedigree' are welcome. For everyone else, the 'gates' are closed. They are in fact, very insular. I know that it's ridiculous and completely contradictory to scripture, but it exists nonetheless. A misguided church can turn a seeker against Christianity for a very long time.....
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Permalink Reply by Acts7 on
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"Nor do I understand with whom you're disagreeing when you said, "We need to stop going to church with the attitude what can I get and start with God what can I do for someone else." Again, I agree with the sentiment on it's own merits, but I don't see how that's relevant to this particular discussion."
Mark - I was disagreeing with Sally who stated
"Worship at church is not about each other. It's about lifting up and praising God. If we are to get to know our church family better, it needs to happen outside of our worship time"
I disagree. I think that getting to know each other should be part of church. Perhaps its just semantics. But worship is a way of life. And when we are at church. Indeed we are there to worship God. But we are there to meet each other's needs as well. Im not saying in the middle of a song we should be looking around for who we can talk with. But I am saying that we need to make responding to those around us just as important a part of worship. worship at church IS partially about each other and those around us. Because we aren't called to sit in a box. We are commanded to
GO
and preach the good news. We do of necessity need time in our worship closets. But that is in our own private time. Hopefully that clears up what I was saying.
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Permalink Reply by Doja Adun on
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I believe that everything has its place and time. The time of worship during a service should be focused on God which most times, is being restricted by time due to other activities. Whatever length of time we spend in worshipping God in church, outside church, we should endeavour not to be distracted in any way. I agree with Phil, fellowshipping with each other has it place and that is what the other activities and events are for.
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Permalink Reply by Mike Dwyer on -
Every church is different in it's make up, personality, etc. It's like every church has it's own DNA and will display congregational, musical worship in a different way. Some churches really enjoy and take full advantage of a long, unrushed, corporate praise time. Some, if the model is more "seeker sensitive" believe that an abbreviated corporate worship time fits the bill. It really comes down to the model and what the leadership wants the church to look like.
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Permalink Reply by TonyaMae on -
Good post Phil, and an interesting thought to ponder on.
I'm a visual person myself, so pardon the analogies here.....
When thinking about our corporate worship times I'm reminded of illustration of "Ark of the Covenant" that was carried throughout the old testiment times.
While in the Holy of Holies, The Glory of God would literly radiate from the mercy seat. The visual that strikes me is that this mercy seat lay right in the middle of these two angels statutes. Their wings touched as they faced the center. Not facing each other, but facing right where the mercy seat was. Almost as if they were in worship position.
I have seen personally many a time while in a corporate worship setting, God really made Himself known..I guess you can say that "The Lord inhabits the praises of His people".
Honestly, I think that if the attitude of our heart is one to worship God and not just "get together on sundays", then focus is therefore on GOD.
It would really give us time as believers to be healed, to be refreshed, to be equipped as a whole to be ABLE to reach out to our communities. Coming in from all different spectrums of heart attitude, some may be broken and in need of restoration. While others may be filled to the top and ready to just BURST out. When together, Our God has the ability to use each in the body to minister to the other.
I heard an awesome illustration the other day that said, "we may lead worship out of our brokeness, but what God wants is for us to lead worship out of WHOLENESS".
To put that into the context of "reaching out"....it would thus say, how can we as Christians minister to those in our community if we ourselves havent had the opportunity to be ministered to?
Tonya
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Permalink Reply by Junjie on
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I feel so silly now, but I just realized this: it all depends on the worship leaders. There are those who encourage a more communal kind of worship and those who go for a more individualistic kind.
Just had a conversation with someone who is an insular worshiper. When she worships it only about her and God. If you stand next to her during worship and she suddenly raises her hands to the Lord, you better duck or you'll get slapped in the face. :)
Anyway, she prefers the worship leading of those who bring the worship to a more individualistic direction. I suspect it's because she can then head off to another planet by herself and hear her own singing. In fact, oftentimes, when the worship gets to that point, she's the only one (other than the worship leader) singing.
Me? I prefer to go communal, so no one else other than God gets the attention. :)
"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. " (Romans 15:5-6, NIV)
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