Doves On Distant Oaks

There are many things I enjoy about going to worship services. Some people call it church, others just call it services. Here in the South, I’ve heard people call it preaching, but that puts critical limits on what worship service truly is.

I’m not speaking about the building where I go every Sunday morning, and other times as well. Though, thats where I do go for worship service. When I consider what I mean, I lean toward a Greek word, ecclesia, which the Encyclopedia Britannica defines as “a gathering of those summoned." Some would call this a congregation, which is basically “a group of people assembled.”

I prefer ecclesia because we have been summoned, called by God to be with one another. In other words, it's the people, not the place; and it’s the reason for being there, which is to worship God.

Worship includes many things—Bible teaching, singing songs, times of prayer, ministries, the “preaching” of a Pastor, and so on. I even love the potluck dinners … a lot. All are contained within that so-called “church” building.

If I were to miss one individual ingredient that church building offers, then I would miss out on the total spiritual experience of what we call worship. That's because everything we do when our mind is focused on God is worship. And yes, even potluck meals are a means of worship because it's breaking bread with our fellow sisters and bothers in Christ.

I recall the devastating impact that the loss of going to worship services had on us when COVID-19 hit. All worship services were cancelled by order of our Governor. Our ecclesia complied, but it was an agonizing time.

When talking to some of my non-churched friends, they couldn't understand why it was so troubling to us. The typical comment was to the effect, "Don't you 'people' say God is everywhere. So, you shouldn't need to go to church to worship Him."

Which is, of course, correct. God is everywhere and we can worship Him in the quiet of our closet. We did so. However, God intended his church to be a gathering of spiritual believers, and before Christ left us, He set it up that way. The author of the book of Hebrews exhorts us in that fashion:


I love that phrase, "stir up love." And an organization called Compelling Truth says it this way:


It's not just about listening to the worship music, listening to prayer, or even the teacher or pastor talk. It's about doing all those things together.

Yes, we can worship God as individuals in private, or in pieces of the activities available to us. But when we talk about how we worship God best, it's in the context of the total spiritual experience of the ecclesia—summoned by God, together as one.




Keywords: Church, Community, Family, Worship, Ecclesia


Comment publicly to Writing.com community below,
or comment privately to: ehwharton@Writing.com