Dangers of Corporate Worship

Dangers? How can there be danger in corporate worship? Trust me, there are. There is usually no greater potential for conflict in the life of the church than in worship.

It makes sense. Corporate worship is the one activity we participate in together. Almost everyone is there, and we all have our preferences and opinions which we bring with us. I’ve been here four years, and that is the area which breeds the most negative feedback (and also positive as well – but even the positive can be a subtle way to express an opinion/preference).

A potential danger: Corporate worship becomes an idol. I worship the “experience” not God. I worship how I feel or “getting what I want” and when that doesn’t take place, it is frustrating. Someone else is to blame for ‘tainting’ my worship experience. Often this happens because the style of music is not what I like or we sing songs I don’t know (or don’t like) or the preacher talks too much or yells. I didn’t feel the way I wanted. I didn’t like ‘it.’ I wish ‘it’ were different. ‘It’ is my experience – positive or negative.

Worship is meant to be all about God. It is an opportunity for us to praise Him, honor Him, remember Him, love Him, glorify Him. It is all about Him.

Here is where I believe a great misconception lies. You may not think this misconception pertains to you, but when I see such strong emotion (especially negative) behind people’s “experience” in worship, I wonder if that frustration is because they believe this is their one chance at worship. “Worship only happens once a week and if it is not what I want it to be, if I don’t experience what I hoped for, than I have to wait until next week. My entire week is tainted because I didn’t really ‘worship.’”

I looked up all the places in the New Testament where worship is used. I don’t believe any of them pertain to a 1/week corporate (together) worship experience. Over and over, the use of the term worship refers to all of our life. It’s interesting isn’t it, that you find little at all in the New Testament talking about the specifics of the corporate worship experience. There is almost no emphasis on a once a week worship experience, because the NT and OT make clear that worship is what we are called to all the time.

Please don’t hear me wrong. I believe worshipping together with other believers is extremely important, but it is not important because I get what I want out of it. (I don’t know about you, but so often getting what I want in my life is not what I need.) It is important to join together in remembering who God is, giving Him praise, and seeking together to grow in our relationship and understanding of Him. We need help and doing this together reminds us that we are all in the same boat. Plus it is one hour a week out of approximately 112 waking hours the rest of the week.

The Church does not exist to cater to anyone’s preferences or wants. In fact, I cringe inside when I begin to feel like I’m expected to be the head of customer service.

My hope is that our corporate worship time encourages you in your faith, draws you into the presence of God with other believers, helps you to fall more in love with Him, and inspires you to continue in worship in all that you say and do throughout the week ahead. But only one person is responsible for you and your worship. Only one person determines what happens in those 113 hours a week of your ‘awake’ time.

Finally, please don’t hear this as an attempt to shut down feedback. Feedback, both positive and negative, is important for all of us to grow. But I hope our feedback will stay focused on how our corporate worship time encourages you (or not) to grow in your faith, draws you into the presence of God (or not), helps you fall more in love (or not) with Him, and inspires you (or not) to continue in worship in all that you say and do throughout the week ahead. And I hope we can look past just our own experience and recognize that we are a diverse body of believers with a vast array of preferences and wants. We need to love God and one another; this in and of itself in an important aspect of our worship.