Fifteen Questions to Help You Grow in Corporate Worship: Preparation, Participation and Departure

Abstract: Rich Penix offers fifteen diagnostic questions to help us see where we need to grow in terms of corporate worship. These questions deal with three areas: how we prepare for corporate worship, how we participate in corporate worship, and how we depart from corporate worship. By answering these questions thoughtfully and honestly, we can identify ways we need to grow in this crucial area of discipleship.

This is the third article of a 3-part series. Read Part 1 and Part 2.

If corporate worship is one of God’s primary means of discipleship for his people, how can believers grow in this area? This is a particularly important question given the threats to corporate worship and our discipleship.

One of the most overlooked tools for growth is honest self-examination—asking ourselves where our habits, patterns, and expectations fall short of the biblical vision for gathered worship.

With that burden in mind, the following fifteen questions serve as a diagnostic instrument for our liturgical discipleship. These questions are not intended to induce unnecessary guilt or promote an unhealthy form of introspection that prompts us to look more to ourselves than to Christ in worship. Nor are they meant to imply that certain (extra-biblical) practices or habits are binding when it comes to corporate worship. Rather, the goal is to grow in the way we participate in God’s gracious means of gathered worship.

These questions fall into three broad categories: preparation for worship, participation in worship, and departure from worship.

Preparation for Worship 

The kind of discipleship that happens in corporate worship—what we might call “liturgical discipleship”—begins long before we enter the church building. Scripture repeatedly urges God’s people to “prepare your hearts” (1 Sam. 7:3, KJV), “set your mind on things above” (Col. 3:2), and “consider how to stir up one another” (Heb. 10:24). Yet preparation is often the most neglected part of worship. Here are four questions to help us see how intentionally we approach the privilege of gathered praise.

1. Prior to Sunday morning, do I orient my heart and my schedule so that I am as prepared as possible—mentally, spiritually, emotionally—to worship with God’s people?

True worship requires intentional recalibration. Preparation is not accidental; it is deliberate, reflecting love for God and his people.

2. Do my Saturday evening activities compromise my ability to worship well on the Lord’s Day?

Careless Saturday nights can lead to careless Sunday mornings. When it’s within our power, we should try to be rested and fully engaged on Sunday morning.

3. Before Sunday, do I make an effort to read the sermon text, familiarize myself with the songs, and plan my giving so that my heart is prepared to worship?

Being well acquainted with the sermon text, songs, and other elements of worship can help truths encountered in the service go deeper into our hearts and minds than they would otherwise.

4. Do I pray for an undistracted mind and a focused heart in anticipation of corporate worship?

Because we live in an age of distraction, intentional prayer is needed for our minds and hearts to stay focused on the Lord.

These questions expose an important reality: worship is not something we merely attend but something we must prepare for.

Participation in Worship 

Corporate worship is not, and must not become, a spectator event. Scripture calls believers to “offer a sacrifice of praise” (Heb. 13:15), “sing to the Lord” (Ps. 98:1), “attend to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim. 4:13), and “receive with meekness the implanted word” (Jas. 1:21). The next nine questions help Christians assess how fully they engage during public worship.

5. As worship begins, do I listen attentively to the call to worship, recognizing the privilege of being summoned by God himself?

Worship begins with God’s initiative, not ours. He calls us to listen to his voice and to respond in faith and obedience. Are we freshly amazed at such authority and mercy?

6. Do I actively fight distraction by resisting intrusive thoughts about responsibilities, worries, and upcoming tasks?

Attention to God and his Word is an act of love. May we give him the reverence and awe he deserves.

7. Do I resist cultivating a critical spirit about things I find distracting, distasteful, or personally undesirable?

A critical, judgmental spirit is a worship killer. We must labor to make sure small (non-essential) matters remain as small matters.

8. During corporate prayers, do I track with the flow of thought, adding my “Amen” as I pray along with the person who is leading?

Corporate prayer is not intended to be a performance by a single church leader. Rather, it is an invitation to every member to pray along with the church as a whole as together we enter into the joys, burdens, and petitions that are voiced.

9. During congregational singing, do I offer a joyful noise to the Lord—even when I feel timid or self-conscious?

Singing is not an optional extra; it is an act of obedience that provides mutual encouragement and instruction to your brothers and sisters in Christ.

10. While singing, do I allow the beauty of the music to enhance truth without allowing it to overshadow the truth?

Music serves doctrine, not the other way around.

11. Do I resist judging those on the platform as “performing,” choosing instead to assume the best about their motives?

Charity protects unity in worship.

12. During the sermon, do I listen carefully, asking the Spirit to help me obey while still thinking humbly and critically through the passage being preached?

Preaching is not a one-dimensional exercise by a man who enjoys the sound of his own voice. Nor is application automatic; it must be purposefully pursued in humility before the Lord.

13. During the Lord’s Supper, am I thinking only of my own experience, or am I also remembering that Christ died to create a people—the brothers and sisters beside me—who will one day share together in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb?

Personal introspection at the Supper is necessary and important, but we must not forget that communion is a communal meal. Treasure the corporate nature of Christ’s command to proclaim the Lord’s death as a worshiping community.

These questions remind us that worship is active, not passive. As a kingdom of priests serving Christ Jesus amid his new covenant temple, God forms us as we participate in such priestly service—with mind, voice, body, and heart.

Departure from Worship 

Corporate worship is not complete when the final “Amen” is spoken. Scripture’s benedictions are not dismissals but sendings: God blesses his people and sends them out into the world to live as witnesses to the power of the gospel. These final two questions help believers consider how Sunday shapes Monday.

14. As the worship service concludes, do I receive the benediction as God sending me into the world to live out the truths I’ve received?

The benediction is a commissioning, not merely a closing remark. Am I listening and heeding God’s closing word of blessing?

15. As I depart, do I intentionally build up the body through purposeful fellowship, prayer, or words of encouragement?

Avoid a speedy exit from corporate worship. Lingering with God’s people after a service can be a disciplined mark of sacrificial love for them.

Conclusion 

Again, these fifteen questions are not meant to burden but to sharpen. We don’t want the focus to be on “how we’re doing in worship” instead of on Christ, the object of our worship. However, when we answer these questions honestly, they can help expose how deeply we need to be reminded of the significance of Lord’s Day worship. And they remind us that corporate worship is not merely about an event we attend but about God’s wisdom on display in Christ. It’s by looking to Christ that we are increasingly formed into his character and likeness.