"15 Worship Decisions We'll Regret" - My Thoughts
Last week, I put a link to an article detailing what the author thought were 15 Worship Decisions We’ll Regret. Several folks asked if I would expound a bit on the article, so I thought I would give it a shot. Of course, this may not actually be what the author was thinking on each of these points, but rather what I read them to be. Honestly, he could have stopped with point 10 and the article would have still be fine.
1. Dividing congregations along age and affinity lines.
I have a whole sermon devoted to this topic that you can listen to here (It’s the sermon titled “Tell to the Coming Generations”). I moved on this subject over the years that I’ve been at Grace. When I took the job, I really loved the idea of divided services, so that everybody got to worship how they wanted, but as the years rolled on, I began to see the divided congregation that resulted from this decision. By making this decision, we were telling people that their individual preferences held priority. On Sunday mornings, all generations gather together under one roof to worship together. Worship on Sunday morning is about us, not me.
2. Eliminating choral expressions in worship.
Have you all been a part of a choir? There is something about choir that is kind of like training for being a part of a singing congregation. That said, I’m not entirely sure what the author was trying to say in this point. Perhaps he will expound on it further another time.
3. Worship leader ageism.
This article is a comment on the wider church culture, and one of the things that the modern worship culture seems to worship is youth. I’ve read well done posts on worship pastors afraid of getting old. Even groups like Hillsong work hard to appeal more and more to the young in the culture. There was the original Hillsong, and then 7 or 8 years ago, the band Hillsong United was the next big thing. Hillsong, but with young leaders and cooler music. Right now, there is Hillsong Young and Free. I kind of wonder what the new Hillsong group will be called in 10 years when Young and Free is old… One of the things I love most about GBC is that we are a multi-generational church valuing both the young, the old and everyone in between. I love that on a given Sunday, our worship team is comprised of people representing the whole spectrum of generations.
4. Elevating music above Scripture, Prayer and the Lord’s Supper
Have you been to a church where the majority of the worship service is music with a short time of preaching? How much time in the service is spent in corporate prayer? How much time is spent on the reading of God’s Word? How often does the church share the Lord’s Supper? What does scripture say about the importance of each of those things in our corporate worship?
5. Making worship and music exclusively synonymous.
Believe it or not, but the word worship is a broad word that encompasses all sorts of activities. Music is certainly a part of worship, but by making the terms synonymous, we tend to promote a misunderstanding about what worship is. This is why in our orders of worship, we list Worship in Song, Worship in the Word, Worship at the Table, Worship in Giving, etc..
6. Trying to recreate worship with each new generation.
There is a temptation in our quest to do the next big thing, to try to reinvent the wheel each generation, often throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Change is a central fact of our lives, but we need to be careful not to in arrogance fail to learn from the generations that have come before.
7. Ignoring the Christian Calendar and adopting the Hallmark Calendar.
Those of you that know me well know that I have a whole soapbox on the discussion of the Hallmark Calendar. I however won’t get on said soapbox now. Let me just say that there is a well thought out yearly calendar that helps the church think through the Gospel and implications. For more about these kinds of thoughts, I would recommend Mike Cosper’s book Rhythms of Grace.
8. Worshiping like inspiration stopped with the hymnal.
Every hymn was new at some point. God did not close the canon of Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs in 1980 (or whatever date you’d like to pick out). There are wonderful hymns being written in every generation, and there are clunky hymns written in every generation. The beauty of time is that the many of the best hymns of previous generations have risen to the top to be passed down.
9. Worshiping like inspiration started with modern worship songs
True worship didn’t start in 1980 (or whatever date you’d like to pick out). Congregations were pouring their hearts out to God before the Jesus Movement, Passion and Hillsong.
10. Not providing a venue for creatives to express their art as worship.
Guilty. I’m not actually even sure where to start. I bought this book, probably start with reading it?
11. Allowing songs about God to supersede the Word of God.
I think here he’s talking about the tendency in the modern worship movement to focus on the music (usually very shallow music…) to the detriment of the preaching of God’s word. In the service, the “experience” of God in music seems to be more important than that God has to say in His Word.
12. Elevating gathered worship above dispersed worship.
Actually, I think the modern culture tends the opposite way, devaluing the local Body of Christ in favor of the universal Body of Christ. It’s the whole, “I can worship just fine on a golf course attitude.” I could be wrong, but too many people shun gathered worship in favor of “Just me and God.” Balance , as usual, is the key.
13. Setting aside traditionalism around the world but not across the aisle.
Not sure what he’s talking about here.
14. Worshiping out of Nostalgia or Novelty.
He kind of hit this point with 8 and 9…
15. Worship services at the expense of worship service.
Our focus on worship gatherings, but not on serving the community around us. A warning sign for any church is when the ministries become inwardly focused to the exclusion of outwardly focused ministry.
(Originally posted February 3, 2015)
