So I recently visited a church with a friend and to be honest, it felt more like a concert than a worship service. There was dramic lighting and pauses and lots of different things meant to get us, the worshippers (it felt more like we were the audience), hyped up. Now don't get me wrong...those things aren't bad. They're great...in a rock concert. But in church I longed to actually be free to hear God, if he should choose to speak to me; or be able to see just a little, in case I wanted to dance. It brought to mind the lyrics of a song by Jon Foreman:
I hate all your show and pretense
The hypocrisy of your praise
The hypocrisy of your festivals
I hate all your show
Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stomp on my ears when you're singing 'em
I hate all your show
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
Your eyes are closed when you're praying
You sing right along with the band
You shine up your shoes for services
There's blood on your hands
You turned your back on the homeless
And the ones that don't fit in your plan
Quit playing religion games
There's blood on your hands
Instead let there be a flood of justice
An endless procession of righteous living, living
Instead let there be a flood of justice
Instead of a show
I hate all your show
Let's argue this out
If your sins are blood red
Let's argue this out
You'll be white as the clouds
Let's argue this out
Quit fooling around
Give love to the ones who can't love at all
Give hope to the ones who got no hope at all
Stand up for the ones who can't stand at all
I hate all your show
At this point, I'm sure at least 70% of you are mad at me for judging this church, for judging at all. It's possible that some of you reading this blog even go to the church I'm talking about. Let me say this, I know I'm not a perfect Christian. I'm not pretending like I have it all together, like I have a corner on what it means to be a Christ-follower. I get so many things wrong in my Christian walk. I know no church is perfect, and I'm not mad at this church or anything even close to that. I'm just wondering when we are going to quit trying sell Christianity. When we are going to quit trying to make church a rock concert, or trying to hide the fact that making Jesus your Savior means dying. Quite literally, (in a figurative sense) dying.
When are we going to quit pushing the Holy Spirit out of our equations and plans? When is the church going to quit denying the very real and very potent power of the Spirit of Christ and his resurrection? We talk about being a church like the early church in Acts. This is what I see in the early Church, "'And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with boldness, while You stretch out Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of Your holy servant, Jesus.' And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the words with boldness." (Acts 4:29-31)
What I see is that there should be prophesy and healings and miracles in the church. "Pursue love and eagerly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy...If all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you." (I Corinthians 14:1, 24-25)
If you feel like I am following a rabbit's trail, or distracting from more important things, or that I'm just being a bad Christian, please comment and tell me. I don't really want applause though. These are some things that have been on my mind all summer long, quite honestly since I came back to Sand Mountain, Alabama (although this isn't the only place where the church has problems). There's many more things that I would like to complain about or speak out against, but I think this is more then enough for now. Hopefully, in my next post, I can speak about more uplifting things. But if you are reading this and you want to applaude what I am saying, first stop and see if you also are not part of the problem. Because I feel like applauding myself right now (I mean, not really, but I like what I am saying is the point) and I know that I am often part of the problem. This is really a post to me, to remind myself to get back to what it's about...Jesus Christ, his death, and the power of His resurrection.
Thoughts?
Thanks Hannah.
ReplyDeleteI also posted this on my facebook. Here is some questions a friend asked and my response:
ReplyDelete"Hannah, I read this and a lot came to mind...just thinking about some of these things myself, questions come to my mind:
- Do believe this to be the condition of all fellowships that use these tools? How would or wouldn't God have us use the...se things?
- What in Scripture provokes you to take action in being part of the solution? What is the solution (to add: does it look like anything that has already been or is being done today)?" -Jamie
My response:"1st question- well this isn't the first church I've been to that is using the rock concert approach in worship to get people interested. But in none of the churches (in my opinion) did I really feel like people were worshipping. I understand what they're trying to do (attract people that otherwise wouldn't come to church) and I think it could be a valid idea...just not on a weekly basis as the only worship that your church members are experiencing.I think that's what i was really trying to get at. I'm all for drums and guitars and all that, but the Bible doesn't say anything about keeping up wit trends to get people interested. The church is supposed to attract people by (1) their love for each other an everyone else and (2) the fragrence of Jesus. If we get the fragrence of Jesus on us by spending time in worship, then true worship is all the more important. Change the language you use in your sermons and prayers...change how the sanctuary looks...but don't mess with the worship, don't mess with the message. Those things have to stay the same.
2nd Question- I don' have an answer yet and this is already a really long comment so I'll leave it at this."