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2009/09/28: Worship ... Sort'a

Perhaps you haven’t heard the phrase “worship wars,” but you almost certainly know that they’re going on.

  • Guitars or organs?
  • Hymns or praise songs?
  • Short or long services?
  • Children’s sermons or no?
  • 10 minute sermons or 50?
  • Flip flops or suits?
  • Hawaiian shorts or vestments?
  • Culturally relevant or historically accurate?

You’ve heard these discussions and probably even started a few of them yourself. To be honest, I hold most of these discussions to be a prime example of missing the forest for the trees. After all, there were plenty of guitars at Woodstock and I wouldn’t call that a worship service! Wanamaker was famous for its organ in downtown Philadelphia and that wasn’t a worship service either.

The real issue is this: what is the purpose? An old friend of mine, the Rev. Dr. Monte Wilson, recently wrote a great article: “Narcissism Goes To Church: Encountering Evangelical Worship”. He rightly observes:

“When I contemplate gathering to worship the Triune God in the presence of angels, archangels and the Cloud of Witnesses – which is exactly what we do when we “gather as the church” – I am struck with the sinful and irreverent nonsense of much of what goes on in our worship services. I am not only speaking of people falling down laughing or of rock bands screaming; I am also thinking of the bored familiarity with which many approach worship. Both services fail to glorify God and invite his presence. Consequently, both services fail to meet the real needs of God’s people.”

The war, dear brothers and sisters, is not about the externals (some of which I enumerated above). The war is for our souls’ true affections for God, rather than those idolatrous things that we put in His place. Dr. Wilson, quoting from Jonathan Edwards says:

“That religion which God requires, and will accept, does not consist in weak, dull, and lifeless wishes, raising us but a little above indifference. God, in his word, greatly insists upon it, that we be in good earnest, fervent in spirit, and our hearts vigorously engaged in religion.”  “As there is no true religion where there is nothing else but affection (ed. note: feelings/experiences), so there is no true religion where there is no religious affections.1

I highly recommend Dr. Wilson’s article here.

  1. 1. On Religious Affections, Part I, Sections 2 and 3. The full text may be found here.