The Highway Forums General Discussion Open Forum What is the difference

Eleanor,<br><br>Jack D. Kinneer wrote an interesting article discussing the topic of worship. In it he makes it clear that worship is Worship Is More Than a List of activities. <blockquote>Presbyterians have tended to conceptualize worship abstractly as a list of activities. That conception is then applied to various concrete settings, namely, secret, family, and public worship. This is the pattern of the Westminster Confession, Chapter XXI. For Westminster, most of the activities of the public assembly can also take place in the family assembly and in secret. Of the parts of "ordinary religious worship," only the administration of the sacraments is limited to the public assembly.</blockquote><blockquote>What Makes Public Worship Different?<br><br>The problem of distinguishing between formal worship and informal worship is the result of conceptualizing worship as a list of activities. Listing the elements of worship is fine in itself. But it is inadequate as a theology of worship. What is needed in our day is a rediscovery of the concept of the assembly of saints, as that concept develops from the meeting at Mount Sinai through the festal gatherings at the Solomonic temple to the general assembly of the heavenly Jerusalem. Christian worship--that is, the gathering of the church as church--is the culmination and completion of this ages-long pattern of God calling his people to his dwelling place. This biblical motif of divine-human assemblies has a special character that distinguishes it from other gatherings, such as Bible studies, prayer groups, and Sunday school classes.<br><br>There are four essential characteristics of this motif. First, there is the divine call. God comes to his people and summons them to meet with him (Ex. 19:10-11).<br><br>Second, the locale of the meeting is God's house, God's mountain, God's city. In the old covenant, the place of meeting was the mobile tent and then the permanent temple on Mount Zion. In the New Testament, it is the heavenly Jerusalem, the temple built without hands, where Christ is the high priest (Heb. 8:1-3).<br><br>Third, the gathering is of universal extent. In the old covenant, it was the whole congregation or, after the settlement of the land, at least the males who represented the scattered congregation. In the New Testament, it is the whole church, both locally (1 Cor. 14:23) and, since the locale is also heaven, universally (Heb. 12:23). It is the gathering of the church catholic.<br><br>Finally, the meeting was a gathering around the altar of the Lord in the old covenant. It was an assembly both for sacrifice and for feast. This forms the theological background for understanding the nature of the Christian assembly. The theological motifs of the Christian assembly are rooted, not in the synagogue, but in the temple. Now we gather around the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord. As the apostle Paul expressed it, "For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast" (1 Cor. 5:7-8).<br><br>So then, a biblical theology of worship begins with the recognition of the unique role of the assembly of the saints. The gathering of the church as church is to be distinguished from all other gatherings. It is not that other gatherings do not involve worship in the sense of giving homage to God. They do. They may include many of the elements also present in the assembly. But the assembly is not merely a list of elements. It is a conceptual and practical unity of elements, persons, place, and time. It is a reality where the whole is greater than the sum of all the parts. Yet it is a reality grasped in this world only by faith.</blockquote>In our society today people tend toward informal worship and call things worship that are more man-centered than God-centered. For example many churches put more emphasis on praise songs and drama than God's Word. God's Word needs to be central in a true worship service. The preaching and hearing of the Word should always be of primary importance. The Lord meets us and we enjoy union and communion with Him in worship.<br><br><br>Wes <br><br><br>