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Wanted: An Old Fashioned Church
I’m looking for a good Christian church. I don’t want to sing songs off a wall, the same five notes, over and over and over and over again while I am lightheaded from standing so long. There’s a record of the hymns of God’s people that spans 2000 years. Why are we so arrogant as to think we don’t need those wonderful songs any longer? Have we gone through more suffering, more affliction, more pain for Jesus than those who wrote these enduring hymns? Does a semi-secular song writer in Nashville with a multi-million dollar music contract have more to say to us about God and the Christian life than the 17th-century hymn writer who lost four children and his wife during the 30 years War?
I don’t want to have my eardrums bashed in by the three kids in the “worship band” who can’t be bothered to bathe, shave, dress or comb their hair on Sunday morning. If it’s really all about the God that Scripture describes as ineffably holy, shouldn’t that be reflected in attitude and dress for those who serve in church music?
I don’t want a vampy “praise and worship” leader who is flaunting her wares at every male within view as she does her worship moves on “stage”. If we are to worship God in spirit and in truth, as Scripture tell us, than what’s all the flesh about? Can we no longer discern the difference?
I don’t want to see people in beach attire with their backsides peeping out of their shorts because they think that God isn’t worth their best efforts at dressing. “God doesn’t care about clothes, only man”, they say. But the real reason is that it’s just plain easier to cruise into church in jeans or whatever is still lying on the floor from the night before. Dressing up for worship of the Lord would cost them something, however little, and they don’t want to pay it.
I also don’t want to see all the variations on lovers’ back rubs where Chuck and Sue take turns massaging each other’s neck and shoulders during the sermon so everyone behind them is completely distracted. Behavior affects other people. Are Christians so self-absorbed that they never think about the people behind them trying to hear the message?
You can read more at SliceofLaodicea.com...
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This post has been viewed 1275 times and was added on March 07, 2008 by Todd Rhoades. Filed under: Miscellaneous Church Leadership Humor Share this post with a friend right now! View reactions to this post at other blogs... You can really help us out by subscribing to our free RSS feed with your favorite feed reader, or here at Bloglines. Also, you can add us to your favorites at Technorati.
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I'm Todd Rhoades... the MMI guy. I'm also on the team at Leadership Network (although that doesn't mean that they endorse everything I write here). In my past life, I was the founder and developer of a website named ChurchStaffing.com.
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Posted by Hupokrisis
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 3:28 PM
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Posted by
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 11:48 PM
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Posted by
Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 11:52 AM
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Posted by Brian L
Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 4:43 PM
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Posted by
Thursday, March 13, 2008 at 5:01 PM
Post Your Comments:Satire? What is satire?
Are you making fun of me? Wow, try to help somebody increase their understanding and the critics come out of the woodwork.
I agree that some things that are going on with young people in church are inappropriate, however, with more and more of my generation, the youth walking away from God the church is trying to find ways to keep them involved in christianity. While I agree that some things the church is doing I understand them. Your parents, for example, might be unhappy with the church you desire because it is too modern and doesn’t fit into their idea of what church worship should be. Allowing the youth to come to God the way they are is very helpful. It shows them that they can come to God just like they are and that He accepts them. When we, the church, accept them then we may begin to see the changes in their lives.Churches, like people are different.
I completely agree about not wanting to sing songs off a wall! I much prefer hymnals. Why? Because I read music, am an alto, and want to see the music as well as the words. Everyone just singing the melody is boring. One of the criticisms of the praise music is that it is too simple both musically and lyrically. Perhaps the music (not just the melody line) as well as the words could be shown ‘on the wall’.
We are looking at adding video projection to our services, and my thought is simply to keep the hymnals so that those who want to use them can. No need to ditch them simply because we can put the words on the wall.
BTW, Francesca, I think it’s awesome you want to sing parts, and that’s another reason I’d keep the hymnals around.
I know some will probably cry, “foul” at our church when we start the projection (in fact, I KNOW some will...), but they can still keep their hymnals for the hymns we sing. The rest of us will just worship without worrying about dropping the book on our kids!
Brian, you’re right that some will cry foul and the ones who cry the loudest are probably the people who have the least reason to actually complain. That happened at one church and it pretty much killed that worship service. The numbers dwindled more and more until it had maybe 1/3 of the people in the other service. Still, those people couldn’t see that trying to hold on to something out of nostalgia more than anything else was actually hurting the local body (or at least their part of it). They were more and more separated and it seems the only time there was major interaction was at a business meeting.
Recommendation for using both - remember to put the hymn numbers prominently in the bulletin and on the screen. We often had someone forget to put those in the bulletin which left those wanting to use the hymnals unable to use them. Also, be sure that the person running the projector is good about switching verses/songs correctly. That may take a little rehearsal or setup ahead of time. It was definitely disharmonious when we were told to sing 1,3,4 in the bulletin but the person running the projector went straight from 1 to 2 or sometimes completely on to a different song.
On a lighter note, I think that it is very interesting to see what happens as even the most vocal protesters stop using the hymnals because the screen is present. Putting in a hymn/song that’s not in the hymnal, but putting a number up with it was an interesting experiment. As long as it wasn’t that of a pretty well-known entry in the hymnal, it was usually missed completely. :-D
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