Modern-day individualism has diminished and diluted the communal emphasis in Scripture. Piety has become compartmentalized, relegated to a private personal pocket of life. The result is a religious consumerism which describes worship as “attending the church of your choice.” Western culture drowns in humanistic religion with its focus on “getting something out of the service.”

Biblical worship, on the other hand, sees the Shepherd gathering the sheep, the Father gathering the children. The relational unity which God’s people have with Him is, by its very strength, an antidote to individual loneliness (Ps. 106:47; Isa.11:12; John 11:52; Eph.1:7-10).

from “Reexamining Biblical Worship,” in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1985

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Gender-inclusive version:

Modern-day individualism has diminished and diluted the communal emphasis in Scripture. Piety has become compartmentalized, relegated to a private personal pocket of life. The result is a religious consumerism which describes worship as “attending the church of your choice.” Western culture drowns in humanistic religion with its focus on “getting something out of the service.”

Biblical worship, on the other hand, sees the Shepherd gathering the sheep, the Parent gathering the children. The relational unity which God’s people have with God is, by its very strength, an antidote to individual loneliness (Ps. 106:47; Isa.11:12; John 11:52; Eph.1:7-10).

from “Reexamining Biblical Worship,” in Bibliotheca Sacra, 1985