This week’s sermon answers an essential question: As believers in Christ, why do we gather on Sunday mornings? The importance of corporate worship, where people with a shared identity come together to worship an object in which they delight, is clearly demonstrated during college football Saturdays. Yet, when experienced with a biblical perspective, the gathering of a local church body of believers on Sundays to worship together our God and Savior is far more soul-satisfying.

Tyler’s Main Points

• Main idea: God calls for His church to gather weekly for meaningful corporate worship with hearty congregational participation to the great enjoyment of Himself and of one another.

• Here at Watermark Fort Worth, we believe that there are six 6 universal principles that apply to any church, at any time, in any place, that should inform and guide our facilitation of and participation in corporate worship on the Sunday gathering. With these in mind, we have implemented certain practices that we believe best foster meaningful corporate worship and hearty congregational participation to the enjoyment of God and one another in our particular body. 

• Principle #1: The Sunday gathering is, by its very nature, a corporate affair.

• Principle #2: God gathers us for His glory.

• Principle #3: God gathers us for our mutual good.

• Principle #4: God gathers us to reach the lost.

• Principle #5: Given that the Bible is the means through which God specifically reveals Himself and His will, the substance of corporate worship is found in the Bible.

• Principle #6: Corporate worship should be constructed to foster hearty congregational participation in our worship and fellowship with one another. 

Key Takeaways

• Corporate worship is part of humanity’s DNA. As humans created in the image of our communal God (who exists as Father, Son, and Spirit), we were made to worship—and specifically to worship together. 

• A central, primary means of your soul’s satisfaction is contingent upon your participation in the local body.

• The many metaphors in Scripture for the church illustrate our corporate identity—for example, body, family, household, and ecclesia (assembly). 

• The Sunday gathering is not a souped-up quiet time, a private portal of praise. 

• By shifting our perspective, in seeing corporate worship as not merely beneficial but essential and in evidencing an eagerness and readiness to fellowship with each other when we gather, we will foster more meaningful corporate worship, more hearty congregational participation, and greater enjoyment of God and one another in our local body. 

• Just as a father is glorified by his child’s delight in him, God is glorified when His church delights in Him.

• When we gather for corporate worship, God works through us to minister to and encourage each other.

• When a congregation sings, they preach a sermon to one another.

• God uses our gathering as a church to draw non-believers in. As the watching world looks on, our love for God and one another serves as a witness and helps make people eager to respond to the gospel when they hear it.

• At our Sunday gatherings, we aim to read the Word, sing the Word, preach the Word, pray the Word, see the Word (through the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper), and testify the Word.

• There are several practices Watermark Fort Worth has implemented to better reflect the 6 universal principles that should inform and guide our facilitation of and participation in corporate worship on the Sunday gathering: 
  • We read the Word of God before we sing.
  • We read the sermon text.
  • We read a benediction from Scripture at the end of our services.
  • We sing in an environment that makes prominent the faces and voices of the congregation.
  • We sing songs, new and old, that are saturated by the Word and filled with good theology, and are not contingent upon their source. We sing songs based on the merit of the songs themselves, not where they came from.
  • We continue to practice faithful exposition of whole books of the Bible, declaring the whole counsel of God to the congregation.
  • Preaching is an act of the entire congregation. Come to the Sunday gathering eager to receive and ready to respond to God’s Word, then continue talking about the sermon with your community to hide Scripture in your heart and apply it to your life.
  • We pray after the sermon, and we pray out loud together sometimes. Four times a year, we meet at Devoted to pray for our fellow brothers and sisters and the needs of our body.
  • We celebrate baptism and regularly incorporate it into the Sunday gathering, and we partake in the Lord’s Supper together each month.
  • We want to include more testimonies, both recorded and live, from members of our body of the amazing things God is doing in and through us.

Discussion Questions/Application

Personal application:

• How do I view corporate worship? Have I viewed the Sunday gathering with an individualistic perspective, focused on what I’m getting out of it and benefiting my own life, or do I view it as an opportunity to enjoy God and my fellow believers in Christ together?

• Are there any principles discussed in this week’s sermon that heightened or expanded my understanding of the Sunday gathering? Do I need to confess any insufficient or distorted views of this gathering and ask God to renew my understanding through His Word? 

Discuss with your community group:

• Consider the six principles in this week’s sermon: Where have we seen each other live out these principles? (E.g., someone in our group heartily participates in worshiping God through congregational singing each week, or someone in our group constantly encourages others during the Sunday gathering.) 

• Are there any ways in which a shift in your perspective regarding the Sunday gathering is needed? If we view corporate worship as essential, not just beneficial, do we prioritize being present in the room on Sundays regularly? Do we come eager to fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ, ready to be hospitable, to serve, to welcome, etc.? Do we come ready to edify one another through hearty participation in corporate worship? 

Passages Referenced

Hebrews 10:19-25; Ephesians 1:3-14; Colossians 3:15-16; Acts 2:47-48. 

Worship Set List

The Lord’s Prayer (It’s Yours), Jesus, Firm Foundation, Christ our Hope in Life and Death, Behold the Lamb, Doxology (Amen)

Corporate Worship Statement