Gathered Worship and the Mission of God

I've mentioned that I went to a worship conference last weekend, led by Maine blogger Josh Otte and Gordon-Conwell prof. Gary A. Parrett. I wanted to share a little of what I heard there, partly because it definitely plays into the recent discussion (here) of the ideas surrounding being a "missional" church.

Josh's presentation was called "The Value of Gathered Worship." One of the concepts he spoke of was the way that "gathered worship" informs and strengthens "scattered worship." Under this heading he said, "We gather for encouragement, we scatter for mission." Ah, there's that word again. Mission. It's clear that Josh is one of those who believes that the Christian life is more than getting from God.

At another point Josh said that "gathered worship motivates a Spirit-empowered mission." As you can see, Josh was looking at worship in the greater context of the mission of the church, or perhaps we might say the mission of God, which is worked out in and through his people.

Josh spoke of "being the church instead of merely going to church." For me, one significant implication of all this is that church re-focuses our attention from what we can get from God at church to how we can be God's people out there "between the stop-signs of life."

But that will not happen if worship does not help to focus our attention and affection on God and his purposes not merely for me personally, but for his world. Josh said, "Gathered worship shapes a Christ-centered, gospel-driven community." And here he quotes Tim Keller:

"The deep problem, then, in the Christian life is that we have not thought out the deep implications of the gospel; we have not 'used' the gospel in and on all parts of our life."

Therefore Josh recommends that we know, read, study, sing, pray, and celebrate the gospel from day to day. Our doing so in gathered worship will strengthen and motivate our doing so in "scattered worship," in our homes and workplaces, etc., the other six days of the week.

You can see how all this is closely tied to this idea of being "missional." I've been using that term as a corrective to the sense, so widespread in this country, that church is nothing more than a place where we can our needs met by God. But to be "missional," it seems to me, is to align ourselves with the purposes of God. This amounts to a revolution in the me-centered focus that we always trend toward in the flesh. It is to focus instead on what God is doing, rather than what we need from him. Our gathered worship can help us with this, Josh said, because it "fuels a God-glorifying passion in all thing." Such worship can help us to share in "God's passion for His glory," Josh said, while at the same time exposing our many idols, which compete with God for our praise and honor.

I think the most memorable "take-away" I brought from Gary Parrett's presentation was his use of Isaiah 6 as it relates to worship (and, need I say, mission). Isaiah is given a vision of the worship in heaven. He sees, in other words, perhaps as no man before him, the glory of God, and his response it to see in turn his own unworthiness. How an earth can I be here, seeing this. It means my death, for sure.

“Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

But after seeing the glory of God, Isaiah receives the mercy of God. What was unclean is now made clean, entirely by the grace of God.

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."

The next words we hear from Isaiah are quite different. The Lord Himself asks, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And now Isaiah's "woe is me" is replaced by an eagerness to be sent! He cries, "Here I am! Send me!"

This is quite dazzling, don't you think? Isaiah returned from his awed participation in the heavenly worship of God with an eagerness to serve that God, for the purposes of God, on a mission of God's. Professor Parrett said, "wouldn't it be something if our congregation ended their gathered worship with these same words on their lips. "Here I am! Send me!"

What Josh helped me to understand was that worship is not just a pleasurable activity at the start of the Sunday church service, but a crucial aspect of the fulfillment of my mission as a "God-sent" believer.