A. The worship instituted in Scripture is that of the body.

• The worship of the Christian church is corporate. It is not the worship of a collection of individuals, but rather the worship of the church as a body. (We must first remember what the church is.) I Corinthians 12:27, “Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.” Christ instituted a church, the body of Christ, with a calling to preach, Mark 16:15, baptize, Matthew 28:19, and administer the Lord’s Supper, Luke 22:19. Christ instituted a church with the offices of minister (preacher), elder, and deacon, plainly set forth in the Word, (even to the qualifications for those offices) which are set in the body of Christ, the church, and are not outside it. I Corinthians 12:28

• The body of Christ, under the Word and by the Spirit, worships God. The very exercise of the offices given by Christ for the “edifying of the body” teaches this. Ephesians 4:1-11. By the exercise of these offices the body increases in the blessings of salvation. Ephesians 4:16.

B. The body worships organically, as a living body. Individual participation of the believer is as a member of the body under Christ, the head. This does not mean that everyone takes a public role in the worship service. Christ gave “some,” to be office bearers, Ephesians 4:11, 12; I Corinthians 12:28. All members of the body do not have the same office, function, or calling. Some are commanded to be silent. I Corinthians 14:34.

Worship is the worship of God, not about making people feel good. It is the body in its spiritual unity in Christ that worships, that working together by that “which every joint supplieth,” also labors “unto the edifying of itself in love,” in public worship, Ephesians 4:16. It is the body that preaches, not merely the minister. In congregational singing, the body worships God and edifies itself, Ephesians 5:19 Therefore, we worship as members of a specific body, that is, a specific local church to which we belong as members.

C. The body worships as a gathering of households. House churches mentioned in the New Testament reflect the fact that the church met in houses because they had no buildings. It does not mean that they had “house churches.” The church was gathering in public assemblies when they met in homes. Acts 2:1; Acts 20:8. The church also used rented buildings, Acts 19:9.

Family worship does not substitute for public worship. God sets His grace in households or families, and it is as families and households that we gather for worship. II Chronicles 20:13; Mark 10:13-14; John 21:15;Ephesians 6:4 Therefore to exclude the children from the public worship and the preaching is to corrupt the worship of the church of Christ.