While certainly you should baptize converts as soon as is practical, if there aren’t people coming to faith every week, then there won’t be baptisms at every worship service. Finally, with communion Paul makes it clear that while the church in Acts 2 celebrated it every time they gathered, that there is liberty there as well. In 1 Corinthians 11:25-26, he says “as often as” you practice it, which would be a strange phrase for him to use if it was celebrated at every corporate gathering. Taken together, the New Testament models singing, prayer, and preaching at every corporate worship service, with the priority placed on preaching.

Last week I listed seven components of worship that should take place when the church is gathered: fellowship, ordinances, Scripture reading, giving, corporate prayer, preaching, and singing. By itself, this list demonstrates the necessity of being part of a church. If a Christian is not part of a church, he separates himself from not only the means of grace, but the means of worship as well.

This week I want to answer this question: should all seven of them be present in every service? Or, to ask it another way, are any of these seven prioritized over the others? Is every form of corporate worship equal, or are some more equal than others? 

Of the seven, fellowship stands out as being the one that cannot really be planned for (while obviously fellowship is aided by the preaching of the word, presumably it cannot be scheduled into the worship service; rather it should take place organically). With the six remaining components, it is also likely that all six cannot be represented in every service.

The reality is that as those six elements are fleshed out, there will be strategic decisions made about how often each takes place, as well as the arraignment of each of them. Hence the question—which of these should be prioritized?

The New Testament repeatedly instructs churches to be devoted to the preaching of the word and the study of the Apostle’s doctrine. For example, Paul says, “Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God” (Col 1:25). He tells the Romans that they were “established by the preaching of Jesus” (Rom 16:25, and preaching in that context is best understood as a genitive of reference—not source, as the Romans had never heard Jesus preach before).

The book of Acts ends with Paul “preaching the kingdom of God” (Acts 28:31), and when he looked back at his own ministry within the churches, it was always a ministry of “going about and preaching the kingdom” (Acts 20:25; cf. Acts 8:4, 15:35—“preaching the word of the Lord”). After being released from jail, the Apostles “Preached Jesus as the Christ” in every meeting of the church (Acts 5:4). In fact, when his time in Ephesus had come to a close, he said that his ministry was defined by the act of “declaring the whole purpose of God” (Acts 20:27). It is in this light that it is best to see his command to Timothy to be faithful to “preach the word…both in season and out of season” (2 Tim 4:2).

Thus preaching rightly lies at the heart of every corporate worship service.

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