Thoughts About Our Worship
by Jim Kenaston
“Worship in many Evangelical churches, with its emphasis on entertaining an audience, has more the flavor of a rock concert than of a gathering where the people of God join together in the work of the liturgy. These churches fit nicely into the Age of Authenticity. People can have their individual experiences of God without even knowing the person standing next to them. The services are sprinkled with enchantment, just enough to create an environment of ‘praise and worship’ without threatening the autonomous self. Some Evangelical churches maintain singing of taditional hymns, but the ethos of worship has a decidedly rational and disembodied tone. For many years, whether one worshiped in seeker-friendly settings or in traditional contexts, no one seemed to notice or miss the presence of the divine in the material world - until they did.”
Perhaps the past 100 years of training ourselves in modes of passive entertainment have formed us into a people who find it quite natural to treat worship as just another form of entertainment. An extreme example of this was recently noted in the United Kingdom: This UK Church Mixes Sermons with Wrestling So More People Show Up.
In many contexts, seeking to add entertainment value to our routines may be fine, though we may want to pause to consider what we’re doing as we enter a time of worshiping God as our Creator, Savior, and King. Are we reflecting in our worship a heart that loves the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30), or have we allowed ourselves to be drawn into something else?
Such a question requires circumspection, as it’s easy to find fault in the practice of others while being blind to our own failings. While a less extreme example, a behavior that raises a question for me is our practice of entering worship services with part of our breakfast in hand. It may be that we’ve gotten so used to multitasking that we’ve become thoughtless about what we’re doing as we enter a time for worshiping God.
We are critical of those in our culture who have come to define themselves according to their appetites (whether a sexual appetite or otherwise), though we may do well to ask whether we’re in fact worshiping our own appetite, as we can’t seem to set it aside for a mere hour of our Sunday mornings.
We rightly call for times a prayer and fasting when an issue is of great importance to us, such as an election, though it’s odd that there is apparently nothing special about our regular times of worship, such that we might set aside our appetite for a time. Out of respect for a given family, we would not bring our coffee into a wedding ceremony or to a funeral, but for some reason we’re not showing this same level of respect for God.
It makes sense to me that we should encourage times of fellowship, and where a spirit of hospitality is part of such gatherings (most weddings and funerals have a food reception afterward). In the case of our worship, perhaps we should arrive early and separate our time of fellowship from times set aside for formal worship.
Our fellowship is with each other, but we come together as a fellowship to worship our God. We might do well to consider hospitality as an opportunity to give of ourselves to each other, rather than reduce it to merely sharing light snacks and drinks. Our worship service is a time for us to attend to God and His Word. Are we being irreverent when we conflate the two?
In sharing concern about how our propensity to seek entertainment may have a negative impact on our worship, I’m sure there are habits and patterns in my own life that call for change. I pray for the Lord’s continued work in my own heart and life, and that I will grow in both discipleship and in grace. Let’s each follow the Holy Spirit’s lead in whether He calls us to change patterns we may have thoughtlessly fallen into, whether in our worship or in other areas of our lives.
[Updated on December 4, 2024]
