Subject: Circus Churchianity vs.Spirt-led worship |
Bible Note: Welcome to the Forum, nuge, and thanks for sharing your perspective. I happen to be blessed as member of a church that is, from my understanding of biblical worship, approaching worship correctly. Some of the aspects of true worship that American evangelicalism in general hos distanced itself from are the following. 1. Worship must be centered to and directed toward God, not man-centered. Look at how many songs sung in our churches today place an undue emphasis on the words "I" and "me." While it is certainly not unbiblical to include praise to God for what he has done for us personally in our day-to-day lives, it is essential that worship focus on God's grandeur and majesty and His attributes and Christ's chief role as our REDEEMER, not as our "buddy" or "emotional healer" or "best friend," existing only to meet our selfish needs. 2. True worship arises from a correct understanding of who God is. That's theology. That's doctrine. Many of the writers of our most cherished hymns were theologians and ministers of the word of God, not professional entertainers, as you so aptly put it. Skim through a hymnal and look at some of the richness of the content. The hymns, while perhaps a little outdated in wording for some, contain TEACHING and INFORMATION about who God is. Isaac Watts, John Newton, Charles Wesley, Martin Luther, and many others wrote God-glorifying songs in response to the Spirit working through God's word in their inner beings. By contrast the modern church has penned such vapid and theologically destitute songs like "Heavnely Father, I Appreciate You." How that incenses me! I appreciate my neighbor who loaned me his lawn mower; I do not use such a weak, pathertic sentiment as "appreciation" to express the awe and reverence I should have for a holy God who infinitely hates my sin and yet fixed His saving love on me so that while I was yet ungodly, Jesus dies for me. One does not have to necessarily maintain the same musical style in worship (although I do find a timelessness in a great number of the hymns that the early-90's pop ripoffs no not share), but there has to be some substance there. We do not worship God without a reason, so our worship should fix itself precisely on those reasons why our Triune God is worthy of praise. 3. Lastly, the church has somehow bought into the entirely unbiblical notion that to bring people to Christ it is necessary to look much more like the world. While Paul does see the need to become "all things to all men," he did not compromise or dilute the revelation of God in doing so. Like you imply, people have substituted business principles and group growth dynamics for the true worship of God in Spirit and in TRUTH. And the sad fact is that while many churches do not promote serious falsehood, there also exists a serious absence of truth. Without either, we have empty, feel-good, fluff. I got the latest issue of Moody Magazine in the mail, which deals with the worship wars. I was saddened as I read article after article on worship style, getting many pages deep into the section before the idea of substance was even addressed at all. And it is substance that is at the heart of our worship dilemma. I would recommend two very good books that address this very issue. The (much) older one is the _Religious Affections_ by Jonathan Edwards. The more recent one is called _Losing our Virtue_ by David O. Wells, and the latter book should be on the reading list of everyone concerned with the direction church has taken. Have I hit my 5000-word limit yet? :) --Joe! |