As Christians, we often think of church as where we worship. We view the Sunday service as our weekly appointment with God, where we sing songs of praise, hear teaching from the Word, and spend focused time in worship. However, this perspective can be limiting and even problematic. Rather than seeing church as the place we go to worship, we should see ourselves as worshipers who bring the spirit of worship with us wherever we are – including church!
Our mindset and approach to church shape our experience and spiritual growth. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus says, “For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.” God’s presence is not limited to a building or service time. The Holy Spirit resides within us as believers, making us tabernacles of divine worship at all times and places.
When our mindset is that we come to church to worship, we become dependent on the environment, songs, sermons, and programs to facilitate a moving worship experience for us. Our posture can become passive, only engaging in worship when Sunday morning arrives. Worship is confined to a single place and time.
However, Scripture calls us to far more than this! Romans 12:1 urges us to offer ourselves as “living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship.” Worship is meant to be a daily lifestyle, not just a Sunday morning activity. Revelation 4 depicts heavenly worship surrounding God’s throne at all hours, a powerful picture of the pervasive praise meant to define those who follow Jesus.
What if we approached the church as worshipers ready to ascribe glory to God instead? This fundamentally different mindset understands that worship starts in the heart, not the atmosphere. We come not to receive an experience but to give worship freely to our King. In this mindset, the church becomes a place where our internal fires of worship find unified expression in corporate worship with other believers.
When we gather as worshipers rather than attendees, participation in sung worship and attentiveness to preaching come from a heart already prepared to meet God. Our focus shifts from passively listening to actively building up others and giving out of the worship already stirring within. We don’t only worship through song but through fellowship, giving, and service.
Seeing the church as a place we go to worship can lead to stagnant faith between Sundays. But recognizing we are worshipers transforms our weekdays. Acts 2 shows the early church worshiping together and living out worship through caring for each other and spreading the Gospel. This vibrant lifestyle of worship flowed 24/7 because they saw themselves as worshipers first and foremost.
Approaching Sunday service as worshipers change church from an experience we consume to an opportunity to honor God alongside others. Our spiritual growth becomes steady rather than peaking and plummeting each week because worship is our unceasing identity. Biblical community reinforces this posture of worship as we encourage each other to live all of life as an act of praise.
Next time you walk into church, don’t view it as an entrance into your weekly worship appointment. See it as the coming together of worshipers with the immense privilege of magnifying our God. When we gather as worshipers rather than attendees, the church becomes much more than a service to spectate. It becomes a divine collision of lives transformed by the splendor and majesty of Jesus, overflowing with Spirit-filled worship every day of the week.
Josh Cehulik 