Worship

I'm wondering how corporate worship today relates to it's original counterpoint. Why were we followers of Christ to meet together in the first place? It was to bring our individual gifts together to build each other up, thus building the church, the body of Christ.

Thoughts to pursue: the "order" of worship; style;

It no longer feels, for me, that I go to church to participate in the edification of the body of Christ. I don't go bringing my gifts for congregate encouragement. 90% of the time I don't even expect to be encouraged by the gifts of others. That isn't because others aren't using their gifts - they are and I almost always do leave feeling edified. It is because I don't go to church with that expectation. Usually I go because I'm supposed to go. You know, "Do not give up (forsake) meeting together" in Hebrews somewhere. Going to church has become a rule we have to follow instead of what it was intended to be. Even that passage in Hebrews is talking about us meeting together for mutual encouragement - because Christ has made this great sacrifice for us, because we have this access to the holy of holies, because we have this great high priest we should draw near to God. And we should do it together, because the body is stronger than the individual parts. We can strengthen each other. When did this gathering together become synonymous with Sabbath-rest. We are commanded to rest, we are promised Sabbath rest (Hebrews 3-ish). Does it ever say this rest and the gathering together are the same thing? I'm almost inclined to think the Sabbath rest more instrospective, more conducive to quiet and solitude. Where we rest in God's presence. Is corporate worship, then, to be filled with times of reflection and silence? Is it for the individual to sit at the feet of God and listen? Couldn't we do that at home? Shouldn't we? Or is corporate worship a time to worship together, praise together, share joys and sorrows, share teaching and prophecies, remind each other of God's promises and His commands, work together to build and strengthen this body we are all part of? If it is the latter, then many of our discussions over worship "styles" and congregational "needs" would be affected. Is the church leadership there to provide an opportunity for Sabbath rest to the other members? Or do we all come as fellow believers bringing our gifts to bless each other? Leadership provides administrative support, pastoral support, connection, vision among many other things. Leadership provides this in order to nurture the gathering, to give it organization and direction. We are selling our church leaders short if we believe they are only there to give us our Sunday fix. Individually we need to seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness and we need to enter into Sabbath rest, so that when we meet together we can bring our anointed gifts to the mutual blessing and encouragement of our congregation.