Horizontal Community, Not Just Vertical Worship - a podcast by Jonathan Michael Jones

A
growing concept, in recent decades, is that of vertical worship, i.e. worship
occurs solely as a dialogue between God and individual worshiping. I do not
deny that worship is vertical; nonetheless, it is not solely vertical, for
there is also a horizontal aspect. By horizontal, I do not mean that God’s
people worship each other or other earthly things; contrarily, I mean that the
church corporately worships triune God. In fact, God has covenanted with a
people more obviously than with individuals. While individuals comprise the
body of Christ, the church exists as one body. The connection between worship
and mission, corporate and personal happens in the sending; when the church is
sent from the corporate worship gathering, God’s people begin a process of
personal worship together. Thus, even in personal worship, there is a corporate
aspect. To neglect the horizontal relationships shared between the people of
God is to effectively become absorbed in self-seeking goals. Worship, however,
is not self-seeking but looks first to the glory of God and second to the good
of others. If worship were solely vertical, the ordinances would not only be
corporate; therefore, private communion is not Communion at all; there is
surely a horizontal obligation in worship. So as not to deny the vertical
aspect of worship, for the following, I will assume the truth of vertical
worship while concurrently providing a foundation for horizontal worship.

Further episodes of Act of Worship

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