WORSHIP - BUT OF WHAT?

I am getting worried about what we call worship. I was looking through a catalogue of music sent out by a Christian bookshop or is it a bookshop that sells Christian music.

The prevailing culture is the Hillsong type singing and music and when it was obvious there was money to be made out of it, many others jumped onto the bandwagon.

Now we have so called churches that focus on the happy clappy mode of so called worship. The rational that is stated for this in most cases is that it attracts young people so let’s have a look at this rationale.

The first question is does the scriptures teach that the church has to attract young people? The fact is, not once does the scriptures show any ministry to young people specifically.

Second where in scripture is the Sunday morning preaching songfest? The fact is, it is not there. The church met daily in homes and all the church historians and commentators I have read said they sang a song as they closed their time together. One song!!

Third, whilst this sort of music might attract young people, the more important question is do these same young people become disciples and are they willing to lay down their lives for the cause of the gospel? If they are not and they don’t, all the music in the world is a waste of time.

I believe that the evidence suggests that generally it is a waste of time as I have been told that one of the churches that has a large youth congregation because of their music, lose 50% of their congregation every five years.

The fact is, this music in all probability keep most people babies because they are coming as it makes them happy and gives them a buzz. You can only keep a person a baby for so long, especially in the church as one of its main ministries is to grow people into maturity.

Fourth, there is I believe a pride factor creeping in. Different groups are striving to produce the latest and most relevant music to be top of the pops and outdo others. This is not good because it makes the focus commercial, not spiritual.

Fifth, the quality of the product in regards to the words has degenerated into a feel good gospel that seems to focus on the believer’s needs rather than expounding the truth of scripture. In the early days of the church the song they sang at the end of their meeting together was a psalm. In other words pure scripture.

This has the effect of dumbing down Christianity and the word of God.

Sixth, a lot of what happens in meetings that use this type of music is a substitute for the real thing. People get a warm fuzzy feeling from the singing and atmosphere and equate it to the presence of the Holy Spirit whereas it is nothing more than being worked up by the music and the atmosphere it creates.

As a result the people no longer know what the presence of the Holy Spirit is like and are not able to discern the counterfeit feelings this music engenders.

For all these reasons, I am worried that we are being led astray by people who ought to know better and who I wonder sometimes whether the main motivation for what they are doing is ego which has been precipitated by their rejection and they bask in the attention that it gives them.

This does not bode well for their followers as the law of nature and spirit is that you produce after your own kind and a tendency to replicate yourself. An example of this is a visit I paid to one of our mega churches filled with young people. During the singing, the so called “senior pastor” was out the front with one hand in the air and with his hand facing forward and his fingers bent inwards. I looked around the congregation and about 90% of them had one hand in the air with their palm facing forwards and their fingers bent inwards.

Need I say more?