How Corporate Worship Helps Us Live Lifestyles Of Worship

“If worship is a lifestyle, why is corporate worship so important?”

“If it’s all about our hearts, why do we need to sing songs together? Couldn’t I just stay home and worship God on my own?”

If you heard this before (or said this before) you’re not alone. Many people wonder about the purpose of corporate worship and why it’s so necessary.

I can understand the reasoning.

It can seem funny why we place so much emphasis on an organized, corporate worship gathering when we say Christianity isn’t about religion, rules, or following a checklist.

It can be funny to sing a bunch of songs when worship is an internal response of the heart and an outward act of obedience to what God commands.

10 Reasons Why You Need Corporate Worship

But in this post today I want to outline why corporate worship is important, specifically how it helps us and serves us in our pursuit to live a lifestyle of worship.

One of my favorite things to do in all the world is worship Jesus together with His church. In a moment, you’ll discover why. Let’s go.

1. Corporate Worship is a Healthy Habit – We all know that we need more discipline to become the kind of person we want to be. Discipline comes by building habits. Let me just say – there’s no greater habit than corporate worship. If following Jesus is your life’s priority – if you want to get good at it – you need corporate worship.

Coming together with your family each week to center your life upon Jesus and sing His praises is healthy for your spirit, your goals, and your life perspective. It puts everything in its proper place. It’s a weekly reminder that money is not your goal, prestige is not your goal, hard work is not your goal. The glory of God is the goal and highest aim.

2. Corporate Worship is a Unique “God Experience” – Something special happens when a collective of hungry hearts gather together with the purpose of encountering Jesus. He loves to pour out His Spirit and reveal His power. He loves to awaken dead hearts and heal the sick. He loves to bring revelation to a sin-tainted mind. In the presence of Jesus, anything is possible. But there is something even more special about the gathered, sacred assembly. God reserves a special outpouring for the corporate gathering.

3. Corporate Worship Helps You Walk Through Trial – When facing trials, corporate worship is often the last thing on our minds. We’d rather withdraw and worry. But what you need most is to declare God’s promises. What you need most is to believe that He is good. What you need is to sing in the midst of the storm. Corporate worship and strong Bible teaching puts your life in its proper perspective, giving context to your daily experience.

4. Corporate Worship Helps You Raise Your Family – Grown children don’t typically say to their parents, “I really wish you didn’t take me to church growing up.” Sure, early in life, you may have rebelled and hated going to church. Later in life, it’s common to look back and appreciate the discipline and the lessons it taught you.

Corporate worship is good for my family. It’s a great springboard for conversation. It’s a place where they can encounter God and rub shoulders with flawed, broken people on the same path towards following Jesus.

5. Corporate Worship is Part of God’s Plan for You – Not only is corporate worship appealing for its benefits, it’s also part of God’s plan for you. You are needed. I love Hebrews 10:24-25:

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Today, many are in the habit of giving up meeting together. But the corporate gathering isn’t just a consumeristic experience like going to the mall or the movies. You have a role and a responsibility to spur others on toward love and good deeds. You have a calling to encourage others. Worship isn’t just about “getting blessed.” It’s about taking your place on the team.

6. Corporate Worship Helps You Make a Difference – Encountering God in worship is powerful. It has been a springboard for many bold, faith-filled decisions to do big things. It helps you discover that God has an assignment for you in the earth. You weren’t placed here to be entertained, to survive, or to go through the motions of our culture’s broken systems. You have art to make, people to reach, beauty to unleash, and a destiny to fulfill.

7. Singing is Good for Your Soul – You may not enjoy singing or be much of a musician, but singing is good for your soul. Following Jesus isn’t simply about perfect doctrine and air tight beliefs. It’s about a heart ablaze. It’s about seeing the glory of God, knowing who He is, and responding with your heart’s full affection. This is where singing helps us. Singing helps truth go from head to heart.

8. Corporate Worship Helps You Create Margin – If your life is too jam-packed to attend a corporate worship service, you are too busy. Our lives need space in order to be healthy.

This can go in two different directions. Some are too busy to attend church because all available time is filled up with extra curricular activities. Others fill the space with leisure rather than gathering to worship. Make corporate worship part of your “breath of fresh air”. Use it as a way to remind yourself of the margin that your life needs.

9. Corporate Worship Keeps You From Wandering – I resonate with the hymn writer Robert Robinson when he wrote,

“Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, Lord, take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above.”

I have a tendency to wander, to doubt, to be negative, to wallow in self-pity. Corporate worship keeps me from wandering. It brings my heart back to it’s rightful place – centered on Christ. It’s a reminder of my identity as a child of God.

10. Corporate Worship Gives You Perspective – A skilled worship leader and worship team will help you realize your role in the story of God. You have a part to play. This is bigger than music and services and songs. This is about the glory and Kingdom of God on the earth. This is necessary for living a lifestyle of worship – knowing who you are, why you’re here, and what you’re assigned to do. Perspective – corporate worship gives you perspective.

The connection between lifestyle & corporate worship is essential. Otherwise we are prone to become, as Louie Giglio says, consumers of worship rather than being consumed by God.

What is your take on this post? How would you continue the list?

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