12 Things I’ve Learned about Corporate Worship

Almost 45 years ago, I began pastoring my first church. I remember planning worship services, typing the order of worship, and praying the worship would go well. Since then, I’ve realized how little I knew about corporate worship at the time. Here are 12 things I’ve learned about worship since then.

1. Many believers have never considered/studied the importance of worship. They know worship matters, but that’s about all they know. No one’s helped them truly undertand the importance of worship, so the church family often unknowingly is only going through the motions. 
2. Worship is more than singing. For some wrong reason, I talked about the preaching event back then as if it were separate from the “worship.” I fear I inadvertently taught my church members the same error.
3. Yet, song choice matters. Of course, songs that teach faulty doctrine should not be options. Further, if a song is so difficult to sing that few people try, that song choice isn’t a wise one. We help believers worship when we help them sing. 
4. Worship can be legitimately expressive. I was in the Philippines the first time I ever raised my hands in worship (a LONG way from my Baptist church in the U.S.—for which I was glad at the time). I know expression can get out of control, but there’s nothing unbiblical with worshiping God with all our being.
5. The end of the service is just the beginning. Worship on Sunday that does not lead to worship on Monday is not real worship; it’s religious activity.
6. Sometimes the service simply gets us to a place of worship. Many of us need the singing and the Word just to get our life in a place where we can really start to worship. If we miss that reality, we’ll think we’ve worshiped when we really haven’t.
7. The announcements almost always get in the way. I’ve yet to figure out a way to include announcements in a worship service without diverting attention away from worship.  We must at least try to minimize distraction, though.  
8. Sin always gets in the way. No matter how hard we try to ignore it, our sin simply hinders genuine worship. Our worship should be circular: repentance prepares us to worship, and real worship moves us to even deeper repentance.
9. Baptism matters. For the early church (and many places around the world), baptism signified/ies inclusion in a faith that could be costly.  The act should be glorious for both the candidate and the church. All believers should worship then.
10. The Lord’s Supper must be more than an “add on.” Regardless of frequency taken (though I do think many churches take the supper too infrequently), we must allow the ordinance to take us back to the cross and forward to the return of Jesus. Flippantly taking the meal is sinful.
11. We give too little attention to a response time. I am not one who is opposed to a public response time or invitation, but nor am I particularly arguing for this approach. What I’m concerned about is that we spend too little time considering deliberate choices and changes in response to encountering God.
12. No response to God is still a response. I fear that too many people enter a time of corporate worship and then leave as exactly the same person. I don’t know how that can happen if you really encounter God. 

What have you learned about corporate worship?