Every Sunday, for thousands of years, Christians have gathered on Sunday for worship. And when they do, the service shares common elements like songs of praise and the reading of Scripture. This four-week series, Church Explained, will look at the practices of worship and seek to understand why we do church in this way.
On any given Sunday, 67 million people attend church for worship. What are all those people doing? What is the church, and what does the church do during worship services? While there are significant stylistic differences when those 67 million people gather for worship, we also find core elements that reflect the unity of the church.
As we have already alluded to in the prior messages, what we do in church is not something new. Its roots come from the tradition of Israel and the Scriptures. During church services there are two important actions, and both have a corporate descriptive. The word corporate doesn’t refer to capitalism or business but to the congregation simultaneously participating in something. Corporate prayer means either praying together as a body (corpus), being led in prayer by an individual or group of leaders, or a combination of both. Corporate actions during worship matter because they reinforce the unity of the body. When Israel fasted together, confessed sin together, and prayed with the Levitical leaders, they made a statement: We are one.