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“Though we often conceive of corporate worship vertically, there’s a rich horizontal dimension too.” - TGC

Discussion

Wed, 02/01/23

We impoverish ourselves when we neglect the horizontal dimension of corporate worship.

I am glad I am not the only one who has been saying this. There are not many who realize that we sing to ONE ANOTHER is Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs, as well as in our hearts to God. When I think of all the special numbers I have heard where people in essence said, “I am not singing for you, I am singing for God,” I realize how clueless many Christians are about what the epistles say about why the church gathers. If they feel that way, maybe they have better keep their singing at home!

The whole Westminister Confession/New Reformed (and old Reformed for that matter) movements seem to ignore this horizontal element of worship, in MY experience (I realize this might not be true in everyone’s experience). The whole “the church gathers for edification and scatters for evangelism” concept was apparently a blip in the 1970’s. I am still stuck there with a few other Gene Getz survivors.

"The Midrash Detective"

Thu, 02/02/23

I often hear it said that worship has “an audience of one.”

This is true ultimately, and it’s usually said as a corrective to the tendency to turn worship music into an entertaining show, and to gather consumers for a “worship experience.”

But ‘audience of one’ isn’t the whole story. We gather to worship so we can teach and admonish one another (Col 3.16, Eph 5.19) … and also, I myself am an audience. The really good stuff teaches and admonishes the singer as well.

Factor in the Psalms, this huge chunk of the Bible full of songs… and cf Rom 15.4.

Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.