Donald S. Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines Within the Church: Participating Fully in the Body of Christ. Moody Publishers, 1996. 207 pages.
“Every pastor I know eventually preaches this sermon.”
He said it almost as a side comment in our conversation, but my ears were immediately riveted to the sentence that followed: “God desires more for his people to worship him congregationally than personally.”
My pastor-friend was referencing a semi-famous (or infamous, depending on how you see it) sermon by Puritan pastor David Clarkson. Clarkson was John Owens’ assistant minister near the end of his life and succeeded Owen in the church where he served. On one occasion during his ministry, Clarkson preached a sermon on Psalm 87:2: “The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob.” His main point, which was captured by my pastor-friend in his comment, was “public worship is to be much preferred over private.”
Now, to be clear, Clarkson was not arguing for one over the other. We know from other places in Scripture that the quality of our congregational worship is affected in large measure by the personal worship of the individual members who gather. Colossians 3:16 says we
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