A common question typically asked is "Where do you go to church?" The response is usually a certain location or name of a congregation along with directions or an address. One does not "go to church" as we may be so quick to think. Why? Because, as believers we are the church. We go to worship.
Unfortunately, our cultural frame of thinking does not necessarily align fully with the Scriptures. Could it be that our western culture, customs and traditions in the Lord's church about worship have limited us from enjoying the fullness of worship as God intended? Have we put worship in a nice and neat box of our own design rather than joining the Lord in the full purpose and enrichment of worship as He ordained?
Perhaps our thinking in this regard arises from the Old Testament and the purpose and place of the temple of the Lord.
"One thing I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple." -Psalm 27:4 (ESV)
Though He did not desire a temple to be built God did allow it. It seems man wants to copy things of the world around him. The other nations had a king so they wanted one. The other nations had temples for their gods so they wanted one of those too. Even in Jesus' day He confronted the human limitations of the place of worship. In John 4 Jesus encounterd the Samaritan woman at the well and the issue of the place of worship arises. Jesus responded that it is not the place that is so important.
"But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
-John 4:23-25(ESV)
Are we so different today? Have we been guilty of making the place of worship more important than the spirit of worship? Have we replaced the physical temple with our physical congregational facilities? It sounds like it at times. Many even refer to the room where corporate worship takes place as the "sanctuary", which sounds like that it is the only place one can worship or find God. Such limited thinking about worship robs us of the full purpose and benefit of worship as God envisions for us. Consider the following:
"Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple."
-1 Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)
"Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body."
-1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (ESV)
If we are truly the temple of the Lord then where do we worship? Wherever we are and the Lord is! I can worship at home, in the fields, in the car or even in the elevator. I don't have to wait until Sunday morning at a designated time to worship. Worship can be done anywhere and anytime.
We are encouraged to worship together with others of like precious faith. The corporate gathering of God's people to worship is well and good for all to participate in. It is a great blessing to worship with others, to hear the Word of God proclaimed and partake of communion together.
By holding to the understanding that worship must be at a certain time and certain place then we have robbed ourselves of what worship is truly all about. So... why not make where you are right now a place of worship? Everything we do is to be done to the honor and glory of God. That makes everything we do an act of worship. How's your worship today?
True, so often our man-made traditions get in the way of the church doing what it is supposed to be doing. However, in regard to the word "church" we must understand how it was used in the first century to better understand why it was chosen by our Lord to designate His people. We have always heard that it literally means something like “the called out” or “those called out.” But how it was used is just as important as what it literally means. It was used to refer to those who had been “called out” to attend a meeting. In the Greek city-states it would refer to the citizens who had been “called out” from the larger population to attend a town hall meeting. Likewise, we have not only been called out from the world to not be like the world but we have also been called out each Lord’s Day as citizens of the kingdom to meet God.
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