Part I of II: Rehearsing the Gospel: Corporate Worship

Unless you have either been or are currently a part of your church’s worship team, theology of worship is likely a scarcely addressed topic. What is worship? What does it mean to ascribe worth to God? How do we worship? Liturgical? Free and Spirit led? The heart of this topic is deeper than deciding between hot guitar licks or pedal tones from the organ and a robed choir. The heart of this topic has to do with the Gospel of Jesus Christ first and foremost. So before we talk about music styles or discuss charismatic movements (which I won’t do here), let’s establish what is foundational and what is necessary to communicate.

There has been a more recent (generationally speaking) Evangelical push to ensure the Gospel is preached as often as possible, especially in sermons. You may be thinking of The Gospel Coalition, a group of pastors, writers and theologians who promote the primacy of the Gospel in everyday life as well as church practice and devotion. You may have also thought of St. Francis of Assisi’s admonition, “Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.” Just for the record, words are indeed necessary, so please use them, wisely. Preach the Gospel with your words, and back it up with your actions lest you be mistaken for “the really nice one.” The point is: The Gospel (and necessarily confident and  unashamed use of Jesus’ name) should always be central, focal, made much of, and preached at all times.

So what does this have to do with corporate worship? Isn’t corporate worship just singing songs of how great God is? That is certainly part of it, but there is more. Mike Cosper wrote a book called Rythms of Grace. In his book, Cosper makes a case for a framework or template that informs the way worship is done in church. To summarize Cosper’s point, corporate worship should rehearse the story of the Gospel—God’s redemptive plan. As deep and dynamic as God’s redemptive plan is as it unfolds in Scripture, Cosper has suggested three over-arching ideas to guide the building of a worship set in order to capture the heart of the Gospel. These are: (1) Call to worship, (2) Call to confession, and (3) Call to assurance.

Call to Worship

Cosper writes, “Worship begins with God. It begins in the purity and perfection of his own being. It begins there because apart from his own creative action, there would be nothing else.” This first step is declaring the reasons to praise God—his character, his acts, his creation, etc. This includes corporately reading and/or reciting Scripture that inspires the congregation to think, “Wow, God is great! He is indeed worthy of praise!” From this flow songs of praise, adoration and worship of God.

Call to Confession

This is probably the most overlooked idea in corporate worship. For the sake of making visitors feel comfortable, and to avoid alienating members, pastors and worship leaders have sometimes underemphasized confession of sin. Talking about sin is offensive and confrontational, as it should be, but because of this too many people avoid it.

It isn’t easy for us to face our sin especially in a corporate setting, but it is a necessary step of experiencing God’s grace. Cosper writes, “As a community, our corporate confession of sin is a three-fold acknowledgement that (1) the world is not the way it was meant to be, (2) we as a church are not the way we were meant to be, and (3) I am not the way I was meant to be.” This includes Scripture and prayer that captures the brokenness of humanity and the corruption in the world, and lamenting over this brokenness especially in light of God’s holiness and perfection.

I often think of my own failure to obey Jesus’ call of righteousness on my life—both sins of commission and omission—and the reality of imperfect physical bodies. Many congregations can relate to the overwhelming presence of sick bodies, injuries, mental illnesses, cancer, etc. These things too can be acknowledged and lamented over as an act of engaging in the confession of sin.

Call to Assurance!

Blessed assurance Jesus is mine
O what a foretaste of glory divine
Heir of salvation purchase of God
Born of His Spirit washed in His blood 

Perfect submission perfect delight
Visions of rapture now burst on my sight
Angels descending bring from above
Echoes of mercy whispers of love

 Perfect submission all is at rest
I in my Savior am happy and blest
Watching and waiting looking above
Filled with His goodness lost in His love

 After the bad news, this Good News is wonderful. The Good News is that Christ and Christ alone has accomplished redemption. If you are in Christ, sin no longer reigns and in this we have assurance, and in this we rejoice!

One aspect of redemption is the “already-but-not-yet” (inaugurated kingdom) nature of God’s plan. Indeed Jesus has accomplished redemption. In John 19:30 Jesus said “it is finished.” But we can tell there is still brokenness, sin and evil in the world. We eagerly await Jesus’ second coming when all will be fully redeemed. Our bodies will be glorified and we will neither sin nor experience failing bodies.

This groaning for redemption causes us to rejoice when we are reminded of our hope in the future. Cosper points to 2 Cor. 4:16-18, “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” I encourage you to read that whole chapter, it evokes much hope and assurance!

This last idea includes corporately reading passages like the one mentioned above, along with songs and prayers that allow the congregation to rejoice in their assurance in Christ and bask in the hope of His second coming and full redemption.

Through this process the Gospel is rehearsed: our acknowledgement and declaration of God’s praiseworthiness, our acknowledgement and confession of sin and brokenness, and our affirmation of assurance that we belong to Christ.

Check out part II coming soon to see how this is employed in a personal devotional sense.