參加集體崇拜Attending Corporate Worship
作者: Jared C. Wilson 譯者: Maria Marta
有許多好的理由促使你聚集你的兄弟姐妹參加每周的神聖崇拜。你可能輕而易舉地想出所有主要的理由，那怕你在苦苦掙紮著固定參加一間教會。而「這是上帝的命令」是最重要的一條（來十24-25）。假若這是我們必須參加集體崇拜的唯一理由，那就足夠了。
你可能也毫不費力地從聖經了解到，參與當地教會對你在信心中成長是何等的重要。教會是基督徒運用他們的屬靈恩賜榮耀上帝，彼此服事的地方。我們是個人蒙拯救，但卻並非被救入個人的信仰中。基督徒參加集體崇拜為何重要的理由還有很多，包括一些不常討論到的理由。
以下是基督徒應該參加主日聚會的四個重要卻被低估的理由。
對其他人來說是一種鼓勵
你參加教會聚會，對其他人來說是一種鼓勵。對中小型的教會來說尤其真實，甚至對大型的當地教會來說也是如此，你可能受試探以為大家對你的缺席毫不察覺。 而實際上你的出現令人印象深刻。 聖徒聚集在一起，弟兄們的實體接近，甚至聖所的相對滿座，都有助於會眾的屬靈成長。
哪怕你犯了不與任何人交談的錯誤，哪怕你認為自己從教會所得甚少，或者他們從你身上所得甚少，但你的實際出現會向你周圍的人傳達一種信息：「聚會是值得的。 對你和對兄弟姐妹來說都是值得的。」 我可以告訴你，在牧養教會的過程中，盡管我不是每個星期天都和所有出席者說話，但我看到大家周而覆始的忠心出現，我很受鼓舞。我敢說，你的出現也同樣鼓勵著你的牧師。
更不用說你用友善意的說話，或伸出援助之手去幫助你每周相見的兄弟時，那種巨大幫助和鼓勵。
是一種自我釘死在十字架上的行動
你參加教會聚會，是對你的自治主權(self-sovereignty)的反抗。 是的，我知道有時證道比你喜歡的長一點（或很多）；歌曲不適合你的品味；大家太含蓄，以至不能適當地接待你；或者太熱情，以至你感到不知所措。 但我知道有時候假若你負責這些工作的話，你會有一大堆會不同方法，並做得更出色。 所以試想想，上教會是多麽的神聖！
各式各樣、被賦予聖靈能力的聖徒的聚會，是一個有組織的團體，其部分作用是抑制人類自治的自私欲望。 在一個太過迎合我們的自我主權感的世界，上教會可能是背起十字架的一種方式------不是憑我們的意志力量完成，而是出於天父的意願，首先不是出於我們的利益，而是我們兄弟的利益 ------從這方面說，有助於我們越來越像基督。
是你鄰居的基督見證人
你可以做的最反文化的事之一，就是星期天一早起床，穿上整潔的衣服，然後開車去教堂。在當今的美國，參加教會聚會已非一種文化期待。 在西方世界的許多地區，教會的出席狀況完全是不正常的。
所以在主日早上，街坊四鄰的花園都響起割草機的嗡嗡聲，所有其他的孩子都在遊泳池嬉戲，咖啡店的老顧客穿著運動服悠閒自在，在那一刻你展示出你家人所屬的另一個世界，和你獻身於上教會的反文化傳統。
這並非說你比其他人更好。反而是因為你意識到你實際上可能更糟糕。星期天早上，當你倒車出停車道時，你告訴鄰居你需要耶穌，怎麽再多的閒暇也不如祂那樣滿足你，沒有比在耶穌裡找到更好的安息了，當世俗之樂事的瑣碎脆弱飾面顯露出裂縫時，你可能是他們可以談論的，關於跟隨耶穌的「另類生活方式」的那種人。
是天堂的預嘗
在新約使徒書信，我們看到罪人聚集跟隨耶穌時，往往會卷入困難和分裂。教會經常很雜亂。 那麽我們從中得到什麽？我們可以大概了解一下啟示錄，上帝對我們這些罪人做了些什麽。祂正在加速這一天的到來，即祂的選民將從從各國、各族、各民、各方來聚集，不在乎彼此间的分歧，一起慶祝與基督的聯合和在基督裏的合一。 因此，上教會就是那一天的預嘗。
當我們這些陌生人、外來人象兄弟姐妹那樣聚集在福音的旗幟底下時，我們在預演那榮耀的一天，（現在所知道的只是一部分，）那一天我們將要全知道，好像主完全知道我們那樣，那一天我們的罪被徹底擊敗，我們的基督徒團契完全被喜樂充滿。 因此，上教會也許是你能做到的最屬天的事情。 參加集體崇拜能激發你對將要應驗的事的渴望。你發覺自己殷切盼望那一天，你也就找到了盼望星期天的動力。
本文原刊於Tabletalk雜誌2018年四月號 。
Attending Corporate Worship
by
Jared C. Wilson
There
are a lot of good reasons to gather with your brothers and sisters in the
sacred fellowship of worship each week. Even if you struggle with regular
church attendance, you can probably think of all the primary reasons quite
easily. Most importantly, God has commanded it (Heb. 10:24–25). If that were
the only reason we had to attend corporate worship, it would be enough.
You
can probably also easily see in the Scriptures how important it is to grow in
your faith through participation in a local church. That is where Christians
exercise their spiritual gifts in honor of God and in service to each other. We
are saved as individuals, but we are not saved to an individualized faith. But
there are still more reasons why attending corporate worship is important for
every Christian, including some reasons not frequently discussed.
Here,
then, are four important—yet underrated—reasons Christians ought to attend the
Lord’s Day gathering.
AS AN
ENCOURAGEMENT TO OTHERS
Your
church attendance is an encouragement to others. This is especially true in
smaller to medium-sized congregations, but it’s even true in very large local
churches where you may be tempted to think your absence would go unnoticed.
Presence is impressive. When the saints gather, there is something spiritually
helpful about the physical proximity of the brethren and even about the
relative fullness of the sanctuary.
Even
if you make the mistake of not talking to anyone, even if you don’t think
you’re getting much out of the church or they’re not getting much out of you,
your actual presence communicates to those around you: “This is worth it. You,
brothers and sisters, are worth it.” Having pastored a church, I can tell you
that while I didn’t get to speak to every attendee every Sunday, I was
encouraged when I saw people loyally showing up week after week. I’m willing to
bet your presence encourages your pastors as well.
This
is to say nothing of the immense help and encouragement you can be when you
actually reach out with kind words or a helping hand to the brethren you see
week after week.
AS AN
ACT OF SELF-CRUCIFIXION
Your
church attendance is a rebellion against your sense of self-sovereignty. Oh, I
know that sometimes the sermon is a little (or a lot) longer than you’d like,
the songs aren’t quite to your taste, the people are too shy to welcome you
properly or so exuberantly friendly that you feel overwhelmed. I know sometimes
there are a million things you’d do differently if you were in charge. So just
think how sanctifying going to church must be!
The
gathering of the diverse and divinely empowered saints is a community organized
in part to stifle the selfish human desire for autonomy. In a world where we
encounter so much that caters to our sense of self-sovereignty, going to church
can be a way of taking up our cross—not our will be done, but the Father’s, not
our interests be first, but our brothers’—and in that regard, it is extremely
helpful to our growth in Christlikeness.
AS A
WITNESS TO YOUR NEIGHBORS
One
of the most countercultural things you can do is get up early on Sunday
morning, put real clothes on, and drive to a church building. Church attendance
is not a cultural expectation in the United States today. In many regions of
the Western world, church attendance is downright abnormal.
And
so on the Lord’s Day morning, while all the other yards in your neighborhood
are buzzing with lawn mowers, all the other kids are making for the swimming
pool, all the other patrons of the coffee shop are lounging in sweatpants, you
show your family’s otherworldliness in that moment that you dedicate to the
countercultural tradition of going to church.
It’s
not that you’re better than everyone else. It’s because you realize you may in
fact be worse. When you back the family car out of the driveway on Sunday
morning, you are telling your neighbors that you need Jesus and no amount of
Sunday leisure can satisfy you like Him, that no rest is better than that which
is found in Jesus, and that when the thin veneer of worldly frivolities starts
to show a few cracks, you might be the kind of person they could talk to about
the “alternative lifestyle” of following Jesus.
AS A
FORETASTE OF HEAVEN
In
the New Testament Epistles, we see the difficulty and the division often
involved when sinners gather together in following Jesus. Church is often
messy. So what is it we’re getting out of this? In the book of Revelation, we
get a glimpse of what God is doing with us motley sinners. He is hastening the
day when His elect people from every tongue, tribe, race, and nation will
gather despite their differences to celebrate their union with Christ and their
unity in Christ. Going to church, then, is a foretaste of that day.
When
we strangers and aliens gather as brothers and sisters under the banner of the
gospel, we are rehearsing that glorious day when we will know as we are known,
when our sin is vanquished and our Christian fellowship is fully enjoyed. As
such, going to church is perhaps the most heavenly thing you can do. Attending
corporate worship can whet your appetite for the fulfillment that is coming
soon. If you find yourself excited about that day, you can find the motivation
to look forward to Sunday as well.
Jared
C. Wilson is director of content strategy at Midwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary in Kansas City, Mo., managing editor of For the Church, and author of
Gospel Wakefulness and The Wonder-Working God.
