Worship Matters: The Gathered Church

Here's a passage from Bob Kauflin's book "Worship Matters..." where he talks about the local church. Very encouraging, and convicting!

Scripture tells us that the church is "God's building," God's "temple," the "body" of Christ, "the household of God." We are "living stones...being built as a spiritual house" (1 Cor. 3:9b; Eph. 2:21-22;1 Cor. 12:12; Eph. 2:19; 1 Peter 2:5). All those metaphors certainly apply to the worldwide church. But their most immediate and practical application is to the local church - the Christians I'm joined with day by day, week by week, year by year. And gathering together with them should be one of the highlights, if not the highlight, of my week.

On Sundays God wants us to do more than sing songs together and have wonderful worship experiences. He wants to knit the fabric of our lives together. For many, church has become all about me - what I'm learning, what I'm seeking, what I'm desperate for, what I need, how I've been affected, what I can do. We see ourselves as isolated individuals all seeking personal encounters with God, wherever we can find them.

Sadly, this reflects our individualistic, me-obsessed culture. Rather than seeing ourselves as part of a worship community, we become worship consumers. We want worship on demand, served up in our own way, at our own time, and with our own music...

...A worshiping community is made up of individuals whose lives are centered around the Savior they worship together each week. A worshiping community expects to encounter God's presence not only on a Sunday morning, but every day. A worshiping community recognizes that passionate times of singing God's praise flow from and lead to passionate lives lived for the glory of Jesus Christ.