book of the week
January 2, 2022
This week I read Scott Aniol’s helpful little book on corporate worship. At just 121 pages, it packs a powerful punch full of biblical truth on what a biblical church service ought to look like. This is most certainly a topic that has been neglected and we would be well benefited by thinking seriously about it.
Scott writes this book in five east to read chapters. Each chapter builds on the prior chapter. Chapter one looks at the authority of corporate worship. It answers the question, who or what determines the kind of church service Christians ought to have? The answer is simple of imperative. The Bible. The Bible is our supreme authority for determining what our church services ought to look like. Scott uses good examples from Scripture of what Jesus calls “vain… worship” (Mark 7:6-9). He shows from the Bible how God rejects any worship that is not explicitly sanctioned by himself in the Bible. The Bible is our authority for determining how we are to worship in church.
Chapter two looks at the goal of our worship in church. The goal of our worship in church is communion with God. Our goal is not to attract the world to our church services. “Our primary goal is not evangelism, though a gospel-shaped service will be evangelistic; our primary goal is not expression, though we certainly express toward God in worship; our primary goal is not an emotional experience, though we certainly feel emotions. Our primary goal is to nurture and cultivate a life of communion with God” (44). When you go to church, everything should be centered on communion with God.
Chapter three focuses on the structure of a church service. All church services must be structured by the Word of God, viz., the Bible. Biblical church services begin and end with the Word of God. The Word of God must permeate our services. Scott calls this “dialogical worship” (62). A church service must consist of the people of God listening and responding to the Word of God. It is a back and forth event.
Chapter four then takes us to the question of who participates in a church service. That answer, “The Whole Congregation.” This reminds us of how easily history repeats itself. And like the Medieval period and the Roman Catholic Church, some churches today have become sacerdotal. They have relied so heavily on professionalism that the laity do not participate in corporate worship. Yet, “For our personal communion with God to deepen and mature as God intends, we must gather with the church” (75), and participate in worship as a church. The church must not cause a division by dimming the lights on the congregation giving the church the impression that they are only spectators. We must sing Scripture together, prayer Scripture together, read Scripture together, and respond to Scripture together.
Chapter five wraps up the book with a look at the essence of corporate worship. Corporate worship demands that we involve our entire body. It demands that we sing together and activate our vocal cords. It involves our hands, and ears, and minds. It demands that we worship as a church together. We nevertheless live in an age when “Christians expect to be able to tangibly feel the manifest presence of God when they worship” (98). Thus, they expect something from church music which God never intended and did not sanction in Scripture. Instead of worshiping together, music becomes individualistic. Music then and not the Word of God becomes the primary means through which people expect to get closer to God. The result is that Christian emotions are artificial intensified. Yet, when we worship, we worship by faith and not by sight. The Christian knows that he is not yet worshiping in heaven. But one day, we will worship God together in his physical presence. Until then, we worship by faith and not by sight with full confidence that we can come to the throne of grace in the spiritual realm.
