This Tuesday our Home Gathering was studying Nehemiah 12 and I was struck by the corporate worship in this section. Basically, the worship starts in the city when Nehemiah appoints two choirs. Then the choirs walk along the walls of the city, through every neighborhood worshiping, and end up in the house of God.

What struck me about this scene is that the worship didn’t start in the house of God, and might not have ended there either. But when the two choirs came together as one the worship crescendoed (increased in volume and intensity).

I think this is the best picture of what corporate worship should be that I have ever seen. When we come together to worship, the worship doesn’t start there, but rather it is the time that my personal worship joins with the worship of other believers and gains volume and intensity. It crescendos. Then, as we separate from corporate worship and go our own separate ways, the worship doesn’t stop, it just fades back to my personal worship.

One of our core team members, Scott England, described worship as a great symphony. Sometimes our worship is soft and low key, with lots of silence and prayer before the Lord. Then, sometimes we come together and the symphony of our worship crescendos into a great and loud song of praise. Later if fades back down to our attitude of worship and our love toward God. The worship symphony never stops, it just ebbs and flows getting louder and softer, more intense and more delicate. It is a continuous work of art, given continuously to a great God.