Shaun Groves recently posted a series on worship – He indicated that our concept of worship is distorted – that worship is not what happens at the beginning of a service – that is worship music… I had this horrible realization that he is right about two Saturday’s ago when Willingdon hosted a worship conference. Willingdon and a worship conference – alliteration aside – the two don’t really go together in my books, but whatever. I got to hear Paul Baloche lead worship, supposedly from the introduction to the service this was to an experience equal to Bono leading worship – the supreme. Already I was uneasy – does it matter who leads – multi-million seller or first time 19 year old and his guitar? I almost left just after it started, it made me ill – Leaha looked at me – when the song ended I said I can’t do this – this is too bizarre. This is not worship it’s a concert, a visual overload of U2 proportions – moving lights, moving screens, moving people (remember I’m a Mennonite – people don’t dance and flail around – this woman just in front of me had actions for everything – there are actions for worship songs? Isn’t it just a gimmick to keep the kids hands away from each other and their noses?) It made me sad – to be in this room of people jumping and shouting and wondering, are you not present in the silence? How can I hear God when I cannot hear myself? Or is that the point? Claim I'm in His presence while ignoring all that I truly do not want to hear from Him? Like stop dating that person, leave your job, love your parents, trust me, give to me - your time, your money, your LIFE. When did worship become more like a concert experience and less like something, different - maybe sacred?I realize the scripture isn't directly to do with worship, but it speaks to our idea/belief that when God speaks to us - it's in your face, loud, angels and the whole "Behold unto you, you shall have a husband - 5'11, blond hair and his name shall be ___." It does not work that way - it is persistent and it's more often than not quiet, through friends, circumstance and any other number of less direct methods.
Does worship need to be razzle dazzle, glitz and all that to be worship? Or in the end does it really come down to we've lost the ability to understand worship? What does worship look like to you?
4 comments:
Jenn... I'm glad you made a link to this on your blog. I love reading what you write. I have been struggling with just what you wrote on here for such a long time that I think it was one of the reasons I wasn't going to church for a while. It's so hard for me to concentrate on worshiping God in the midst of all this "good" noise. Sometimes when I'm in church, I feel like hiding in a corner and for everyone to leave me alone!.. so that I can focus on my God whom I long to worship, and hear Him rather than all the other distractions going on around me. And I am really disgusted by how churches are starting to make everything in their services "fancier" and more "entertaining" just to attract crowds... and all that marketing and commercialisms. It also stretches far beyond having a good band, but also includes the fancy bulletins they hand out to you before services, the huge and very expensive screens they use to display lyrics, the fancy equipment, the fancy lighting... reminds you of Willingdon? I am not trying to put down that church because I have grown to love it, but all this talk about spending millions of dollars expanding it is really bothering me. I think the money can be much more well spent on the homeless downtown. God lived in tents. Jesus was pretty much homeless. I don't think he's looking for a church that's well heated with padded pews and an entertaining "worship team".
Is that picture of a "worship gathering/concert"? I wonder how much it cost for all that lighting, and equipment? Money that could have gone to the poor. They should worship in tents out in the cold. And then they'll see who is really there for the worship.
it's the first picture that came up when I did a Flickr search for worship conference. I stopped going to Sunday mornings because of all the chaos and then Saturday nights have become in many ways like that so - 10th?
In the end all the chaos is a reflection of our culture and a sad indicator of our inability to separate ourselves from it - especially on a day that is suppose to be our Sabbath.
Wow I almost wish I hadn't learned that such events go on in certain "churches". I think you raised some good points about worship, it's not meant to be entertainment. But I think it's a mistake to simply decide not to go to church, there are other ones. Look around, and most importantly, read your BIBLE. If pomp or ceremony, or even one-man ministries, don't show up in your Bible, question it. Don't let people tell you what the Bible says, read it for yourself, pray about where you should be going, God WILL answer (He's promised).
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