From this perspective, faith can never be seen as some self-generated act of affirmation, but rather as a gradual entrance into a divinely inspired set of communal assumptions that surround us. Just as we are gradually socialized into the prevailing ways of the society in which we live, so also, are we socialized into the life of faith. Given this assumption, worship becomes the environment or context wherein faith is both awakened and modelled. Here we practice the virtues of the kingdom, primary among which is the call to live a life of Christian service. In effect, worship becomes to life what practicing your scales is to preparing for a piano recital.
Worship be-comes the primary training ground for the life of discipleship and servanthood.
He had to wear it for years. What had begun as a disguise had become a reality. The ritual life of the Christian community serves a similar function. And while there is a dishonest kind of pretending wherein we pretend to be something we have no intention of truly becoming, there is also a good kind of pretending wherein the pretense leads us to the real thing. It is within this latter category that much of what the typical Christian assembly does on a Sunday morning could properly be placed.