Gathered and Scattered: Worship That Embodies a Right Relationship with God

Abstract

Clergy and laity as worship planners help the congregation to recognize the church as the gathered and scattered people of God who are called into a right relationship with God and all God's good creation through their intentionality in planning and implementing services of worship that emphasize the dialogical relationship of worship. The collaborative work in receiving and responding to God's gift of worship is central to the life of the congregation. Corporate worship can be informative, formative, and transformative. Paying careful attention to the framework of the corporate worship service's structure enables worshipers to learn what it means to connect the mechanics of the liturgy and the patterns of celebrations of worship with the deeper meaning of Christian worship. Shaping worship so that form and function work together from beginning to end helps the congregation to understand what it is doing during a time of gathering and a time of sending. When attention is given to the time of gathering and the time of sending forth in our corporate worship, worshipers are more aware that God invites them to gather as a community to worship and God sends them forth into the world to continue their worship with their lives. This connection with daily life is essential to what it means to be church.