Worship has always been hard for me – at church. I can think of maybe three times when during the singing at church I have been sincere and undistracted. So many more times I’ve prayed through the service, offering to God my struggle and my discontent. Pushing beyond that, I’m willing to consider that there is more going on here than my attitude, and that the atmosphere that stifles me at church might have a remedy. When I talk to friends who go to my church, those who have experienced worship somewhere else during their lives, they agree that worship is hard there. So this isn’t just me.
Teachers read us John 4 and say that true worship can be anywhere. The people around you shouldn’t matter. Neither should the color of the walls or the style of the music. If your heart is right, they insist, you can worship.
Maybe the statement is true if your definition of worship is broad, something like: acknowledging that God is real and good and that He saved you – or even: doing what God’s will for you is this moment. I have a few objections to the assertion made by teachers if the definition is more traditional.
- The point of congregational worship is that you are with other people – and not just with them, but aware of them and united with them. If they are not participating, that should bother you. Maybe we need to stop the worship service and address what’s going on.
- If you are standing in a room with someone whom you know is sad, and you care about that person, it is reasonable to let that sadness affect you. On the other hand, if a friend is belting out joy to the Lord, that should affect you as wall.
- The setting matters because it can be an ‘argument setting itself against the knowledge of God’. I would have a hard time worshipping God in a Buddhist temple, idols all around.
- Worship styles are not as subjective as people make them out to be. Music has meaning. Different genres express different emotions. Trumpeting might be good for a battle cry or victory celebration, but less appropriate for repentance. “Music” that gives its audience headaches or heart palpitations is not going to be conducive to worship.
- What is being sung also matters. Theologically false lyrics do not honor God. Some songs are theologically neutral. Twinkle, twinkle little star is a nice song with nothing improper. It just isn’t much about God, which worship is supposed to be. In the same line, a song all about how we feel and what we will do for God is not really worship either, unless it is connecting this as a response to God’s work and worthiness.
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