The Horizontal Aspect

I think one of the tragedies of modern church life reflecting the erosion between the public and the private is: somehow we've lost the art of leading in public prayer. The idea that if you pray in public any differently than you would pray in private at home it's somehow not authentic. Well, I sing in the bath, but I'm not going to sing that way in church you know, and good thing too! One needs to think about what is appropriate in a public context and what is most edifying to the body. Notice in Colossians, Paul talks about speaking to each other in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. We often think about worship as something directed vertically, but when paul talks he's talking about the horizontal, isn't he? Speaking to each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Worship is horizontally edifying even as it has a vertical dimension too. So the way you pray can edify those in church with you.

 

Carl Trueman, 22 - English Reformation III, Westminster Theological Seminary, 2013