Just to clarify myself a bit.

If I absolutely love traditional hymns and worship God with them from the bottom of my heart and to the best of my ability.  God enjoys it and I enjoy it also.

The same is true if I enjoy any other style of worship.

When I worship God, I do it to bless him with a gift that suits who I am.

Perhaps your church suits whos you are and that’s great.  Regardless, you and I both enjoy our worship experience.  Both experiences entertain us (engage our attention).

Is there anything wrong with that?  No.

We’re just worshipping God in the way he’s made us to be.  You may never fit my mold, that’s ok because I may never fit yours.

Does God want us to be fighting over this?  No.  Rather we should be celebrated our unique differences.  So lets make a deal - You continue to enjoy (be entertained) what you’re doing, and please let me enjoy (be entertained) by what I’m doing.

In heaven our music may be completely different than you or I like, However I can guarantee you that we’ll both enjoy it.

This is definately my last comment.  It was a lot of fun and I learned a great deal!  Thanks to everyone.

A few times someone has commented that worship is for God.  I think that is too small a view of worship.  It is a view that is easily propagated because of the gap between God and us.  Worship is “of” god but not just about God.  It is an expression of an experience we have with God.  This makes it essential to have our experiences with God based in truth and grace so we can worship in spirit and truth. 

All communal worship is a recitation of the greatness of God, the mercy of God, the acts of God and what turns a recitation into worship is our heart and the relationship we possesses with God.  I can recite the words and actions of Michael Jordan but my heart has no connection to him.  I guess what I am saying is that while worship is for God is I about our relationship with God. 

Throughout the OT God introduced himself and was introduced by his relationships and acts… I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob… I am the God who led you out of Egypt… Both of these introductions are not singularly about God but rather about experiences and relationship people had with God.  When I come into a service (what we are talking about here) I worship God with my heart and mind because of a relationship I have with him.  The fact that he altogether different form me and measurelessly above me is in large part what transforms my heart into a worshippers heart.  The paradox of His personal connection to me and his vastness is what makes my singing, my spirit, my service, my preaching worship in my heart as well as an action.

My job, which is why we use music, teaching, creativity and every other reasonable resource we can use is to facilitate for the people of God the opportunity to collectively recite, proclaim and be grateful for the relationship and experiences with God.  Music came from the heart of man because it was a way to express emotionally what the mind was experiencing with God.  The stories of God through the Bible and the reading and explanation of the text are what God uses to draw us deeper into a transforming experience with himself.  We use tools not to entertain but to make sure the representation is accurate and the experience is full.  But I can tell you this for sure.

We worship God and no one else but worship is not only about God otherwise it is not worship.  Worship is much bigger than that.

Bonnie, I think we all agree with worship needing to be acceptable.  I know by how you have communicated here you are well spoken and thoughtful about our worship and I respect that. 

I believe the issue is not whether I can worship without being bored, I think that as we facilitate the moment in corporate worship we must use creative and engaging tools.  I don’t use video, sound, digital experiences because people will be bored if I don’t.  I use them because they are a part of the language of the culture in which I minister.  These tools help me present a more fully representative picture of God to others. 

Our culture has shifted from written cognitive heart processing to visual heart cognitive processing.  In other words we are moving back too an oral/visual society.  Most people today equate feeling with thinking.  I ask what someone thinks and they tell me how they feel.  Any medium of communication today whether it be news, print, movies, media, radio… is designed to make me feel before it makes me think.  This is an amoral statement in my mind. 

My mind and my heart are both essential to my worship.  Traditional churches often seek first the cognitive…Think right thoughts process.  It is simply not my experience that most of our culture starts there anymore.  To associate “flashy” with human means is simply to downplay the powerful presence of God’s creativity within human hearts.  God as a creator means he is by nature flashy and subtle both.  His image in me makes me creative too.  His redemptive work in my lives redeems my creativity. 

Thanks again to all of you for this discussion.

Suzanne and Bonnie,

We’re just not going to agree, so I’m going to leave it at this one last response. (Also, I don’t think you’re hearing what I’m saying.)

Bonnie… [and if we are bored without the audio-visual performances to stimulate us into a joyous response, then we are worshiping in the flesh and not in the spirit.] I weary of the “worship in the flesh” argument. If you’re using your lungs and vocal chords at all, you are worshipping in the flesh. To assume that since the worship is engaging and entertaining that it is therefore pandering to the flesh is assuming at best and judgmental at worst. I won’t engage that argument past that.

Suzanne [ I only know that for the past 20 years or more, churches in America have been trying everything they can to entice people to come.  Usually, the reason is to appeal to the young people.  It surely doesn’t seem to be working very well, unless all the statistics I’ve read are faulty.] First, we are not trying to entice people to come, that is your assumption. We are, however, trying to worship God with OUR cultural voice, something you apparently disagree with. Fine, we’ll leave it at that.

Second, I have to think your statistics may be indeed faulty. Very engaging contemporary “entertaining” churches are growing by leaps and bounds and traditional very “non-contemporary” churches are… well… not… It shows up in every statistic I’ve seen for years.

Thanks both for the dialogue, but no thanks for the inferences you have made about what I and others have said about contemporary worship.

Peter, I think maybe we’re talking about two different things.  Yes, we use our bodies to worship and serve Him.  But that is not the same as “being in the flesh” when we worship or serve Him.

“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.  To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.  For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, indeed it cannot; and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”
Romans 8:5-8 (RSV)

Hi Leonard,
Thank you for your thoughtful responses to my questions.  I agree that feeling and thinking are both essential and one is not superior to the other.  I think what concerns me most about our churches (and please understand I am not saying yours is one of them) reinforcing the “feel first, think later” culture we live in, is that people are very quick to act on feelings before engaging their minds.  While that’s normal behavior for young children, we are seeing more and more adults who have not grown beyond that, and obviously the results have often been disastrous.  If we offer them more of the same experiences in church by designing worship experiences that will stimulate emotions before thoughts, we aren’t teaching them to “take every thought captive” as much as we are teaching them to rely on their feelings as a way to assess their walk with Jesus.  They may “feel close” to God without actually being close to God.  Conversely, they may easily lose interest in God or believe they are far away from Him simply because the excitement diminishes and they don’t know how to feel close to Him without it.
I also know of many Christians who try to serve based on the fact that they “feel led by the Spirit” to head in a certain direction, only to have a very different “feeling” a day or two later when the thought process finally kicks in.  Ministries are started but not followed through on, and chaos reigns supreme.  I know this is just my opinion, but I think, with our young people in particular, we may be doing more harm than good by attempting to either bring them to or teach them more about Jesus by capturing their emotions first because we fear we won’t reach them at all otherwise.

Bonnie, I see and agree with your thinking about emotional manipulation and such.  I see much more of that in many of the pentecostal groups.  I know this is controversial to say that and certainly do not think the case in every pentecostal church.  More often than not in my experience the churches with more “flashy” worship are not as manipulative.

Sorry if I opened some scratches.

Will:

“A couple thoughts: to entertain means to to capture/hold people’s attention.  Should worship services be designed to do that? If not, what is the alternative?”

Worship services are designed for the worship of God.  If people get entertained in the process, no harm done, but worship is all about Him and not about us.  If worship services are being designed with the core intent of entertaining people, they have missed the mark entirely.

“Second, living in culture of consumers we are constantly asking; how can we make people happy so they won’t walk?”

In talking about preaching the Gospel, Paul said to the church in Galatia, “For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”

If people walk because they are not being entertained in a church, let them.  They likely came for the wrong reasons in the first place.

--
CS

From Webster’s Dictionary:

entertainment:
amusement or diversion provided especially by performers <hired a band to provide entertainment> b: something diverting or engaging: as (1): a public performance

worship:
2: reverence offered a divine being or supernatural power; also : an act of expressing such reverence
3: a form of religious practice with its creed and ritual
4: extravagant respect or admiration for or devotion to an object of esteem

Worship is, for me, an act of expressing my love, devotion, and adoration for God.  In doing so, I have a variety of experiences.  Sometimes it’s exhilirating and fun.  I smile because I feel joy and excitement.  Sometimes I cry because I am humbled by God’s love for me despite my sin.  Sometimes I am simply at peace because of the presence of God.  I worshipped in my car this morning listening “Glory Defined” by Building 429.  From an artistic standpoint, it is an entertaining song.  But as I listened and sang along I experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit and the peace of knowing my Savior. 

I’ve seen all forms of “entertainment” used in a church service.  I used to create video sketches for use in service to supplement the sermon or to make an announcement about an event or special service.  I used that as worship because I wanted to honor God by putting my absolute best work into those videos.  The quality is debatable but the intention to honor God was there. 

Not sure that I’ve helped anyone determine if worship should be enteraining or not.  But I wanted to chime in with some personal thoughts.

I would say the entertainment issue in worship is really overplayed.  Far too many people call out other churches because of the lights and video, judging the hearts of people unfairly.  I also think people unnecessarily see opposition to being entertained and worshiping God.  Did God create so I could love him?  Sure.  I love him because he loved me first.  Both are true.  Too many nitpick Warren, churches with lights, Hybles, churches with bands and say Holy Sounding things like… Worship is about God not about us.  The whole crux of scripture and worthiness of God for worship lies in his holiness, his love, his being creator and his being redeemer.  The very fact God is creator makes me involved in the process and experience of worship.  The very fact God is creator invites me to be creative with worship.  This is a part of God’s image stamped on me in creation. 

The very fact God is redeemer makes worship intensely personal.  Not from a me and Jesus only perspective but a; this is my God and I am personally involved with him.  Not this is a just a really big God who can kick my butt and because I am a sinner I deserve it.  My God is a redeemer and that redemption reconciled me with him.  I am right with god because of the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.  I am a living sacrifice, not a dead sacrifice.  If I were a dead sacrifice it would be all about the God who is appeased by the offering, as a living sacrifice it is about the relationship of mercy, grace and truth with my redeemer. 

Because of his love and his holiness God acted on my behalf and not just mine but on behalf of the whole world.  His holiness requires justice, his love provided justice at his own expense.  I cannot separate myself from worship.  I am entertained by a bee pollinating a flower, by a child singing happy birthday really loud, by a older couple walking hand in hand in the mall, still in love after 50 years.  I am also humbled by the creator of these things and I am both entertained and worshipful.  I am entertained by the beauty of sounds as they are strung together and humbled by the creative nature of God that is within people to be able to make such pleasing sounds when I can only make noise.  I am humbled by the redemptive nature of God as he has captured such gifted people and redeemed their talents for his glory.  Again I say, to say worship is about God and not about us it to make worship of God far too small.