"Whenever we gather for Word and Sacrament, it is because we have been summoned. That is what "church" means: ekklesia, "called out." It is not a voluntary society of those who come together regularly with the chief concern to share, to build community, to enjoy fellowship, and so forth. Rather, it is a society of those who have been chosen, redeemed, called, justified, and are being sanctified until one day they will finally be glorified in heaven. We gather each Lord's day not merely out of habit or social custom, but because God has chosen this day as a foretaste of the everlasting Sabbath day that will be enjoyed fully at the marriage supper of the Lamb. God has called us out of the world: that is why we gather.
"As in all covenants, there are two parts to the covenant of grace. God speaks and delivers; we respond in faith and repentance." And so we find that "worship is 'dialogical': God speaks and we respond. That is the form that we find in the Psalms: God's wondrous works in creation, preservation, judgment, and redemption are extolled; it is then that it makes sense to respond, whether in confession, praise, thanksgiving, lament, or whatever else might be appropriate to the divine activity that is announced.
"God meets his people in Christ as the Holy Spirit works through the liturgy, the preaching, and the Sacraments."
Dr. Michael Horton from "The Covenantal Summons: When God Gathers His People in Worship" at ModernReformation.org, Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals
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