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Is Worship a Show?

When you attend the worship service at your church, do you get a little confused as to just what's going on?  A lot of churches have recently revamped their worship service.  Pretty much gone is the traditional preacher who stands at the front teaching the congregation from God's word.  In his place is a full scale production in entertainment.

   Supposedly in an effort to bring the church "up to date" and get it more "in touch" with society at large, the worship services of many churches now look like anything but a church worship service.  There is now a stage, with props, stage lights and music.  Actors now take the place of the preacher.  Full stage plays are put on, supposedly portraying lessons with Biblical application.  These productions become quite intricate.  The effort is to make the church, along with the worship of the church, more "contemporary."

   Of course, there are varying degrees to which individual churches have adopted this "contemporary worship."  Some may have not yet gone the route of the full stage play.  But you may see musical singing groups putting on productions of more contemporary music.  There may be duets, trios or larger groups with all manner of musical accompaniment singing contemporary, supposedly spiritual songs as part of the worship.  The traditional church hymns seem to be dropped, to a great extent.  You may hear songs sung in worship that you've heard on a regular radio station.

   What is the purpose of this faddish trend?  Obviously, it is an attempt to replace true worship with entertainment.  Now, the entertainment is supposed to have spiritual overtones, but it is entertainment first and foremost.  The idea is to get people who are bored with "traditional" religion to come back to church.  We live in a sophisticated society.  Our culture is high tech.  Four year olds play on computers.  Parents set up entertainment centers in their homes for their children.  Video games with super graphics are the norm.  We entertain ourselves with virtual reality games.  We want fun and excitement.  How could we expect to get people to come to a quiet church building, sit on somewhat uncomfortable pews, sing what some might consider to be out of touch songs and listen to some minister talk about principles out of a book most people hardly ever read anyway?

   Has worship at your church become a "show?"  Has your church resorted to putting on shows to get people to come to church services?  Is that what worshiping God is supposed to be?  A lot of the problem is that people have lost the true purpose of worship.  Worship is supposed to be an act done by us and directed toward God.  Many churches today seem to have turned that around.  They have made the focus of worship the individual in the pew.  He is to be entertained, made to feel good, gotten excited, stroked.  But, true worship is supposed to be adoration and honor rendered to God by the individual in the pew.  In worship we're not there to have something done "for us."  We're supposed to be there to do something "to God." 

   It makes a difference how you worship God.  Jesus said, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (Jn. 4:24).  You will be held accountable for how you serve God, including how you worship Him.  When we get too smart to do things God's way, we're not very smart after all.  If you're confused, there is a way to find the answers.  They're right where they've always been, in God's word, the Bible.

You can write to us with any questions you might have at our email address: info@mooresvillechurchofchrist.org This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .

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