Community & Worship
God did not design you to live alone. We are all created for community. We are stronger when we are living with others and not trying to do life alone. This is especially true as a new believer. You need other believers around you to encourage, teach, pray and worship with you. Your decision to follow Jesus is an awesome event in your life but not one to keep to yourself.
Many new believers are nervous about getting connected to community and unsure why worship needs to be part of that. The Bible’s original Greek word for church is translated as gathering or assembly. The idea being that followers of Jesus would gather to live in fellowship with one another. They would be united by Jesus, study God’s word, love one another, encourage each other through difficult times, help each other grow closer to Jesus and live as a Christian family.
Another aspect to community is the concept of serving the “body of Christ.” The idea is that each follower of Jesus is part of the universal body and we each serve a different purpose that together makes us whole. We are called to care for one another and recognize that if one suffers we are all hurting.
We also see that the overall teaching of the Bible clearly calls us to worship and adore God. However, worship is easily misunderstood. Worship does not begin and end with the singing portion of our church services. Worship is also not limited to bowing in reverence before God. When we look at scripture, we see several concepts that factor into true worship.
True biblical worship must be reverent as we must understand who is being worshiped. God is holy, just, perfect, powerful, loving, etc. We are sinners saved by grace coming before a holy God on the basis of our Redeemer – Jesus. Worship also must be “in truth,” that is, our worship must be properly informed by God’s Word. We need to have accurate knowledge of God to worship Him as He is revealed in Scripture.
We must also know that God sees our heart and motivation. Worship is not about expressing ourselves or being prideful of our relationship with God. We revere, honor and adore God because of who He is and how He loves us. Lastly, worship should produce a change of heart. The true worshiper will have an ever greater desire to love and obey the Lord. Worship should propel us into greater obedience and loving others. Worship is to be more than a temporary, experience-oriented activity on Sunday, after which we revert to a “normal” life the rest of the week. True worship is constant, inner praise to the God of Scripture, expressed in prayer, in song, in service, in giving, and in living.
Portions taken from GotQuestions article – What is a biblical theology of worship? (gotquestions.org)
