I was thinking a lot yesterday afternoon about church. Questions about “Why we gather?” and “What is our role in the world?” started flooding my mind. I guess my view of the church and the church service is evolving…

Yesterday, hundreds of millions of Christians around the world gathered together to worship Jesus. Each gathering, as its own mosaic of people, will meet at its own place and time. I’ve found that I’ve been emphasizing a great deal on going to church to give… our talents, gifts, resources, time, etc. And although those things are true, I think I’ve missed the point of what the church service is really about. I have reconsidered that and how hold the opinion that we should go to church, not to give, but to get.

This seems so contrary to what is being emphasized today. Go to church to get? Don’t go to give? Doesn’t that buy into the consumer mentality we despise?

The truth is, if we have the slightest idea in our heads that we are going to a corporate worship service because we have something to offer God, we are mistaken. He isn’t served like that, as though He needed anything, since He’s the one who gives everything to everybody. Acts 17:25 says, ” And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else.”

On top of that God doesn’t need your stuff. Psalm 50:9–12 says, “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.”

He doesn’t even need our voices either. Luke 19:40 says, ““I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

The worship of God is not about what you can bring to Him. It actually starts with what you can’t.

Our hearts are ushered into true worship by the honest confession that, in ourselves, we’re empty. We are empty of anything that could coax God’s favour. We are empty of anything that could contribute to His boundless sufficiency. God has no lack for which we must fill. And we have no service for which God depends.

We come empty to the corporate worship gathering. We come knowing the truth that there’s nothing in this world that can eternally satisfy our souls. We come hungry, and therefore, we come not to give, but get.

We come to get God. He is the one we need — which is different from consumerism. A hungry, dying man is not the same as a weekend mall shopper. The hungry person focuses on what he needs, not the particularities of his own demands. The hungry person submits his reason to God’s Word, not the assumption he knows what is best for his soul. The hungry person brings a passion rooted in his humanity, not the appetite for what’s popular.

If we come not to give, but get, it means we surrender our lives to God’s fullness. It means the focus of the event is not us, but the Object of our longing. Sunday worship is about God. We come for more of Him, that we might see His glory, celebrate his character, proclaim His victory, and find healing in His love. When we come not to give, but get, God is central. God is glorified.

Of course, coming to church to give and serve are still good things. But those things come out of the most important thing, that is finding our satisfaction in Christ! May God give us a fresh revelation of Christ so as we gather together we can discover again what God has for us in Christ. And out of that revelation, may we respond with sacrifice and service to glorify Him.