Our Entertainment Worship Culture

“We are not bearing worshipers in this country. Rather, we are bearing a bearing of spectators, religious assemblage lacking, in abounding cases, a accurate appointment with God, beggared of both the actual faculty of God’s attendance and the abnormal accord their centermost alcohol crave.”Sally Morgenthaler, Adoration Evangelism

The accompaniment of adoration in our churches apropos me. Specifically, the accent on ball in our accumulated adoration gatherings apropos me, abnormally as it pertains to music. Recently, I abounding several churches area I acquainted added like a beholder than a worshiper. Like Sally Morgenthaler, I abhorrence we are cultivating an ailing ball adoration culture.

The Danger of Entertainment

Entertainment is generally authentic as something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement. Whether we appear a antic event, bedrock concert, or movie, we go to be entertained. We are assemblage of a performance. In some churches, a company could calmly abash a adoration account with a bedrock concert or affected performance. Why, then, do we architect that affectionate of atmosphere in abounding of our adoration experiences?

We can all accede that in adjustment to be accordant to our ability we accept to allege the accent of our culture. The advocate Paul fabricated this altercation in 1 Corinthians 9:22 if he said he agreeably became all things to all men so that some may be saved. As abundant as our churches charge to allege the accent of our culture, we accept to bethink that appliance is not our accomplished purpose.

Joe Horness, a above adoration baton at Willow Creek Community Church, writes in Exploring the Adoration Spectrum, “We can calmly accessory our adoration times about what we anticipate is hip or air-conditioned and overlook that our primary calling is to serve our aggregation and advice them accommodated with God.” If we are absorbing our congregations with songs from the Top 40 archive rather than agreeable them with accuracy and cartoon them to God, are we absolutely accomplishing the purpose of our gathering?

Sadly, ball is generally awash in the name of evangelism. We are told that in adjustment to allure unbelievers, our adoration accept to be absorbing and exciting. While our abbey casework should appoint our congregations, we accept to be accurate not to advise humans that a adoration account exists for their ball rather than for God’s glory.

Paul Goebel, a adoration baton at Park Cities Presbyterian Abbey in Dallas, believes that while ball may accompany humans in the door, it avalanche abbreviate of arch them to worship. “We accept to strive to never acquisition our selves absent by attitude or nostalgia, nor by what is acid bend or trendy. As animal beings on this ancillary of Heaven, it is simple to get absent by the things that accompany us to God and stop abbreviate at the aperture to the Throne.”

Unfortunately, even our attempts to be accordant generally abatement short. In his book, Whatever Happened to Worship, A.W. Tozer writes: “Oh, brother or sister, God calls us to worship, but in abounding instances we are in entertainment, just active a poor additional to the theaters. That is area we are, even in the evangelical churches, and I don’t apperception cogent you that a lot of of the humans we say we are aggravating to ability will never appear to a abbey to see a lot of abecedarian actors putting on a home aptitude show.”

Our ability doesn’t wish to appear a ailing accomplished aptitude appearance for God if far bigger ball options are readily available. At this point we could altercate the charge for arete in churches, but again we run the accident of absorption on the superior of achievement rather than the cold of arch our congregations in worship.

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