I'm finding it quite difficult to come up with a solid blog entry for where my thoughts are. I feel that I have found some things that we who are under the headship of Christ do wrong, and I feel like I need to share these feelings with others. But I'm not sure how I come across. I don't want people to think that I hate church and everything we do in the church. I just feel that the church has incredibly large shoes to fill, and yet we decide to walk barefoot. So these blog entries are a way for me to try to at least point out where I think we miss the mark. So after way to long to have these thoughts just bound in my head, I shall dry-heave them forth in writing, and maybe they will make sense to you.
The question for today is: What's going on in church today regarding worship?
I'm getting pretty annoyed how often I'm with a group of believers that have little idea what worshiping God even looks like.
Is standing up together and singing some boring songs really worshiping God?
Do we think that God takes delight in us demanding that he "Take take take it all"?
Who are we even talking to?
Do we even realize the content of some of our songs, or even some of our hymns?
God is neither mentioned nor worshiped in some of them.
Here's where I think the problem is, we've decided to worship ourselves instead of God.
Think that's going to far? Try listening to what we're singing next time then, listen to who we're talking to and about who we're talking to. Both answer's are ourselves.
When we read the old testament, one of the problems that the people had was making idols all the time. Naturally, when we read it, we think, "well they made it, how could they think that it's a god?" That's looking at the wrong issue. They weren't worshiping what they made. They were worshiping that they can create. They were worshiping themselves, in that they could make something. Sure it looked like they worshiped a golden calf, but what they were doing were seeing themselves as the creator, instead of the created. They were putting themselves higher status than God, they were literal switching their roles with God's by saying that they can create something to be worshiped.
That's exactly what we are doing with our worship today.
But instead of filling you with examples, I'd rather anyone reading this to see for themselves what I'm speaking of. So go ahead next time your singing some worship songs. Think deeply on who the subject of the verses is. Who is really being glorified by the voices around you.
Also tell me this, what's the point of a church choir?
Practicing a 4 part harmony to some song that may or may not have Jesus' name in it.
How is that pleasing or glorifying God?
Don't get me wrong, I'm certain that it can be, there's no arguing that. But is that it's purpose at your church when they do it, or is the "special music" simply part of the liturgy?
Now, don't think that I hate all our music today or all our music minister's. I know that quite a few of them are very Godly men and women that really do make their priority serving and worshiping God, but I'm putting a lot of their roles into question here also.
Has our "music ministry" become no more than a Branson show or a glorified karaoke party?
After all, an adult ministry has people ministering to adults, a children's ministry is people ministering to children, but how does a music ministry minister to music, why would music need to be ministered to? (I know that's just semantics, but it's the larger point I'm trying to make.)
I once went to a youth event where we had sung some songs, and then as soon as the dude playing guitar and singing had cut off the last song he told everyone to take off their hats for prayer.
This confused me. If it was God that we were talking to after the worship, then who were we talking to during the worship?
The answer: ourselves.
Another problem I see is in some churches, people decide to put lots of charisma in their worship, swaying exhaustively back and forth, sometimes jumping up and down with their hands up. I've seen people pick up flags and wave them around, and one time I even saw some dude hop around on one leg circling the entire church.
I was very very tempted to trip him.
Not just for the laugh it would bring (which it definitely would), but because he was slandering the noble name to whom I belong.
Why do I feel this way?
It's because they are worshiping themselves.
They are worshiping their adrenaline rush and happy feelings inside, it has little to do with the God who has called them to suffer for him.
They worship their emotions, and that's called idolatry.
It's also called a lot of other things.
But I just call it disgusting.
Also, why must have such a good view of the worship band during worship?
Why must there be stage lights? Once again who are we worshiping?
A friend of mine once said that good lighting creates the emotion and mood needed for good worship.
Creating an emotion?
Setting the mood?
When it's the emotion that we're trying to evoke, then it's the emotion that we'll get. We have decided to trade God for emotion.
I agree that sometimes I like some settings better than others, but my favorite, is when everything is black, you can't see the stage, you can't see the people next to you, but you can hear them, and you feel like it's just you and God, worshiping him by yourself, and yet still with the community. You add your voice to the chorus of God's church, worshiping the only thing worth worshiping.
I title this Pavlov's worship because our worship sometimes becomes nothing more than songs and traditions to do at our weekly get together...with lunch sometimes provided. When the bell rings and the church choir stands, we do our thing without thinking, without meditation, without our hearts. Let us instead love the Lord our God with all our heart mind and soul. Let our prayers in song be a beautiful sound to him, instead of our love for our own voices reaching the ceiling and coming back down with those expensive well designed acoustics.
Ok, I know I just strung a bunch of somewhat related arguments into one blog. It may not have good flow, and may sound more like ranting than anything else. But it's entire purpose is to question how we worship or Savior. You know, the one who made us and yet died for us? And I figure our response to his beautiful sacrifice should be genuine, much more genuine than what I've been seeing. So, step back and look at yourself next time, seriously, I think it's important, and look at the people around you maybe. I'm not saying to judge them, you can't actually know what's going on their mind. I'm just saying lets worship God together with our hearts in it. (And feel free to comment for or against this argument with me.)
Think about the content,
Andy Sander
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Amen brother. I agree with it all, but let me play devils advocate for a second. No matter what the setting, or what the band looks like, or what kind of music it is, we will undoubtedly feel some type of emotion towards it. I think its impossible to remain emotionally unattached from music, be it a good emotion or a bad emotion.
ReplyDeleteThat said, I don't think we should ever try to shut down that part of ourselves. Worshiping in a completely dark room is still emotional, but not as distracting.
Some people say that it shouldn't matter what kind of music it is because it isn't about the music. But then why would we ever try to be better musicians? Why would bands practice? Humans will always feel some type of emotion to the music, and musicians will always try to make their music better for that reason. I think the issue is how much importance we give to the emotions we feel, and whether we find those emotions to be the key to feeling as if we have worshiped.
Let me know if I biffed it here. I might have misunderstood you.
Oh definitely Caleb, it would be ridiculous to say you can't worship with emotion. In fact, I'd say you can't worship without emotions. My point is that our focus often becomes our emotions. Then even our goal becomes emotions. And when that's true, our destination becomes our prize. But nothing more than that. I'm simply calling into question whether our hearts are on God in our music or on ourselves. So we are in complete agreement. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteAndy,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the thoughts, and especially thanks for the thoughtfulness (and passion).
It does seem like a bunch of related arguments were strung together, and I'd love to think more about what you said in each of them. But I first feel like I want to simply reply with some other people's thoughts that came into mind when I read your blog.
"Now, the inquiring subject must be in one of two situations: either he must in faith be convinced of the truth of Christianity and his own relation to it, in which case all the rest cannot possibly be of infinite interest, since faith is precisely the infinite interest in Christianity and any other interest easily becomes a temptation; or he is not in a relationship of faith but is objectively in a relationship of observation and as such is not infinitely interested in deciding the question." - Soren Kierkegaard
"And yet the speculator is perhaps furthest removed from Christianity, and perhaps it is preferable by far to be someone who takes offense but still continually relates himself to Christianity, whereas the speculator has understood it. To that extent there is hope that there still remains a similarity between a Christian now and in those early days and that wanting to become a Christian will once again become foolishness. In those early days, a Christian was a fool in the eyes of the world. To the pagans and Jews it was foolishness for him to want to become one. Now one is a Christian as a matter of course. If someone wants to be a Christian with infinite passion, he is a fool, just as it is always foolishness to will to exert oneself with infinite passion in order to become what one is as a matter of course, as if someone would give all his fortune to purchase a precious gem - which he owned. Formerly a Christian was a fool in the eyes of the world; now all people are Christians, but he nevertheless becomes a fool - in the eyes of Christians." - Kierkegaard
Andy,
I say this tongue-in-cheek, "You're a fool. You should leave well enough alone."
"Now the best relation to our spiritual home is to be near enough to love it. But the next best is to be far enough away not to hate it. It is the contention of these pages that while the best judge of Christianity is a Christian, the next best judge would be something more like a Confucian. The worst judge of all is the man now most ready with his judgements; the ill-educated Christian turning gradually into the ill-tempered agnostic, entangled in the end of a feud of which he never understood the beginning, blighted with a sort of hereditary boredom with he knows not what, and already weary of hearing what he has never heard. He does not judge Christianity calmly as a Confucian would; he does not judge it as he would judge Confucianism....They still live in the shadow of the faith and have lost the light of the faith." G. K. Chesterton
Andy,
Again, thank you. Please keep being a "fool", the very thoughtful and sincere Christian fool. And keep giving me thoughts to think about, stuff to push me further forward ("further up and further in" - C. S. Lewis).
Ben B.
Postscript to the previous message:
ReplyDeleteI think that Chesterton's "worst judge of all" could be comparable to Kierkegaard's "observer" and "speculator".
Alongside Chesterton's words, one might add, "Those that hate goodness are sometimes nearer than those that know nothing at all about it and think they have it already" - C. S. Lewis.
The world in which we live is often "too christian", too status quo, and maybe there are too few people who actually want to know and understand and worship Christ better and better.