Editor’s Note: This article is part 3 of an ongoing series by Pastor Jim Kang on corporate worship. Click the following links to find the previous articles: part 1 and part 2. 

by Pastor Jim Kang

Why Worship Corporately?

At the most basic level, worship is the duty of every creature to his creator by acknowledging that God is the sovereign creator and that we’re not. As his creation and as his image-bearers, we give thanks to God for creating us, providing for us, and protecting us from harms and from the world that is now damaged, rebels, and marred by sin and disobedient to their creator.

However, as a church we do not merely worship God at the most basic level – meaning simply because God is our creator. By the very definition of what a church is (i.e., the community of God’s redeemed), we worship God not simply because he is our creator, but more importantly, because God is our redeemer. Hence, for redeemed sinners, worship is the gospel-generated thankful expression of God’s redeemed, to their redeemer for exercising his sovereign grace and showing exclusive compassion for them.

In our individualistic American culture, many erroneously believe that worship is simply a personal and private matter. Hence, one can worship whenever, wherever, and however as long as the worshiper is “sincere.” However, the Bible points out overwhelmingly that one can worship sincerely, but be sincerely wrong. For instance, Cain in Genesis 4, and Nadab and Abihu in Leviticus 10. According to Westminster Confession of Faith:

The light of nature shows that there is a God, who has lordship and sovereignty over all, is good, and does good unto all, and is therefore to be feared, loved, praised, called upon, trusted in, and served, with all the heart, and with all the soul, and with all the might. But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshipped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture (21.1).

While one can certainly worship God individually, private worship is severely limited in many ways. For example, how can one fulfill “one another” directives in Scripture, such as, Colossians 3:16? The Bible is written predominantly for corporate body, not for mere individual edification. For those who say that they don’t need to go to church to worship God or obey God, I often point them to Hebrews 13:17. And then I ask how they can fulfill such command when they are “worshipping” on their own.

All that to say, just as we were not created to be alone, we were not re-created to worship alone.