Today, Michael Spencer called out EXACTLY what I’ve been thinking (and writing about) for a couple years.
Does anyone- I mean, really, seriously- have any idea what is actually happening within the worship culture of evangelicals?
Worship has now become a musical term. Praise and worship means music. Let’s worship means the band will play. We need to give more time to worship doesn’t mean silent prayer or public scripture reading or any kind of participatory liturgy. It means music.
My early (and very amateur) study of the Greek and Hebrew showed that of the 100+ times that worship appears in the Bible, it nearly always means “bowing down” and virtually never music by any stretch.
Don’t get me wrong, I love music. But music is not worship. And music you are only listening to (not participating in) is even less so. That listening to tunes is often the centerpiece of our corporate gatherings has contributed greatly to the self-destruction of the evangelical church.
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June 14th, 2009 at 5:39 AM
Interestingly enough. This exact topic came up in conversation.
June 14th, 2009 at 7:10 PM
Matt: I agree; just as a guitar is not music but it facilitates music. In all fairness and what is likely at the root of this practice is the same idea. Judson Cornwall says that “Worship expands through music” (ELEMENTS OF WORSHIP”). In chp 7. his subtitles are Davidic Music; Music, per se , is not worship, Music may be inseparable from worship, Music can unite believers, Music can release the emotions, Music gives vocabulary to worship, Music can be a worship channel.
June 14th, 2009 at 8:53 PM
Hi Vic. It seems to me that of of the many things that could be worship (especially in a corporate, community setting), music IS an especially good one (for the reasons you pointed out). But when it is the largely the exclusive method of honoring and declaring our submission to God, our worship to him is truncated. That is, it leaves some or even a lot of people out (depending on how it is practiced) and tends to not demand very much from us.
Bowing down and chanting scripture, for example, requires more of our attention and energy than standing and listening to a song. So does tithing! When worship = music, the word (and act) has been greatly devalued.
June 14th, 2009 at 10:16 PM
Matthew; If the objective is to proscribe the method of worship for someone else or the group, we run the risk of rendering it meaningless for them .Worship is a matter of the heart not a method that can be evaluated. Bowing down, for example is a cultural expression used in worship in the middle east and was widely practiced in biblical times. Be careful how you intrepret word studies. While the Scriptures are to be interpreted in the literal sense, there other factors that help in translating it into our culture. The same expression of deference may for some today include the raising of hands. Since public or corporate worship does require some form of expression, we are always going to leave somebody out, hence the plethora of denominations and liturgies that are bent on pleasing the masses instead of the spirit of God. If you can condense worship into an acceptable form that appeases everyone, you can start yet another church.