Search this site
IRONSTRIKES
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Beliefs
  • Formation
  • For Women
  • Meetings & Events

Unbalanced worship

5/16/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
On a recent Sunday morning, I was having breakfast when I turned on my t.v. to watch a well-known local church’s broadcast.  As I came to the right channel, I was greeted by the image of stage lights and a multi-piece band.  Instead of what would normally be an opening praise song, the band started into the Bon Jovi 80′s classic, You Give Love a Bad Name.  After the initial shock wore off, I double checked the channel I was on.  Sure enough, this was the church service I was looking for.  As the song finished, a member of the pastoral staff came out from behind the stage.  After making a somewhat crude joke about hot flashes, he announced that the morning’s message would be on arguments in marriage.  The staff member exited the stage while the band started into a worship song.  With the band leading the church in two worship songs, I was left asking myself, “What in the world just happened?”

In a way, it is understandable what the church was trying to do.  They wanted to get the congregation focused on the message by using a song containing the message’s theme.  It is a common practice that many churches utilize today, traditional and contemporary alike.  In either case, the music is tied in with the sermon topic to provide a theme for that day’s service.  This method of planning worship services certainly has benefits, including the reinforcement of the sermon.  However, there is an inherent danger in using this method every time a worship service is planned.

The TV broadcast mentioned above demonstrates an extreme in worship planning.  This church is somewhat known for using secular songs related to the sermon as a call to worship.  In this instance, they turned to a rock song whose lyrics speak of being hurt in a relationship.  This song’s theme directly related to the sermon topic for that morning.  While the very thought of a secular song being used in a worship gathering is enough to cause controversy in some circles, the danger this congregation is flirting with goes much deeper than the use of one song in a service.  This church was so focused on reinforcing the message that, while externally polished, the intrinsic quality of worship was sacrificed.  They did not make time for prayer in their service and placed little emphasis on Holy Communion.

People are intrinsically designed to connect with God on many levels.  Scores of people have been impacted through the centuries by hearing powerful sermons and homilies.  Additionally, innumerable hearts have been led into God’s presence through mighty hymns and contemporary worship songs.  These hymns and songs have been the catalyst for outpourings of the heart onto God and have fostered many times of prayer.  In worship, there must be a balance of what I call the Spoken Word and the Living Word.  The Spoken Word is hearing a sermon/message/homily preached from the Scriptures and receiving from it.  Some traditions would call this, “The Word Proclaimed.”  The Living Word consists of coming to God in prayer, singing from the heart, and taking part in Holy Communion, e.g. the “hands-on” part of worship.  This would be the more experiential part of worship where a congregation would be actively participating in the service.

 A healthy church knows what it is to give equal weight to the Spoken and Living Word.  A vital church also knows that there are instances when the Holy Spirit will direct that one be given more emphasis, e.g. more time, over the other.  However, churches that consistently give one more priority over the other run the risk of not only robbing their members of a full worship experience in the presence of God but also presenting an incomplete picture of Christian worship to unbelievers.  The fact that we believe in and worship a God that is alive is what separates us as believers from other world religions.  How we worship our Lord communicates to the world what we believe.  A church that has unbalanced worship conveys its lack of spiritual depth, and no matter how flashy we try to be in our church services, unbelievers are not as spiritually and intuitively naïve as we sometimes think they are.  They can tell when something is not right within the church walls, and they will run from it.  People are looking for something more than another message to tickle their ears.  They want something that is real and that they can experience for themselves.  A church that focuses only on its sermons robs people of additional ways to encounter the Living God and also robs God of other ways to speak to people.  Going back to the church mentioned above, their use of a secular song at the beginning of their service took time away from the opportunities to commune with God through prayer or worship music.  Because they desired to emphasize the Spoken Word, the Living Word suffered by having reduced time.

Let me conclude by posing this:  what is the first question you ask when you plan worship?  Is it, “What is the sermon about this week?”  Are all aspects of the worship service being consistently and intentionally united with that week’s sermon topic?  Are the prayers prewritten to match the message?  Are all the opening and closing hymns/praise songs being chosen simply because the title/lyrics relate to the sermon?  Or is the first question asked, “Lord, how should we worship you this week?”  Is substantial time being spent in prayer over what hymns/songs to use?  Is there a time of spontaneous prayer set aside to allow the Holy Spirit to direct the hearts of those in attendance?  Your congregation, and even the entire world, depends on the first question asked in worship planning and how it is answered.  May we all have the spiritual sensitivity and courage to ask the right question and follow the Lord in our worship no matter where He may lead.



This post was written by Chase Franklin of Seedbed.  For the original post with comments, go to:  http://seedbed.com/feed/unbalanced-worship-overemphasizing-the-sermon/


BE HOLY.
BE A MAN.

0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Rules for commenting:

    1.  Be respectful  
    2.  Refer to rule #1

    All comments may not be approved.

    Note that many identifying details about individuals in these posts are not accurate.  Their identity is protected, except for those individuals who are being honored or are public figures.

    RSS Feed

    Enter your email address:

    Delivered by FeedBurner

    Categories

    All
    Abortion
    Abraham
    Abstinence
    Abuse
    Accountability
    Adam
    Adam Yauch
    Addictions
    Admiration
    Adultery
    Affair
    Amos
    Angels
    Anger
    Anniversary
    Anoint
    Anonymous
    Anxiety
    Atheism
    Avoidant
    Bad Boy
    Battle
    Beastie Boys
    Beautiful
    Bestiality
    Betrayal
    Bird
    Blame
    Bobby Petrino
    Bondage
    Book Review
    Brian Head Welch
    Brothel
    B.T. Roberts
    Camping
    Cancer
    Challenge
    Change
    Chaotic
    Character
    Children
    Choice
    Christmas
    Church
    Church Camp
    Closed Door
    Compulsions
    Confession
    Confident
    Control
    Courage
    Covenant
    Creator
    Crown
    Crucifixion
    Darkness
    Death
    Deception
    Decision
    Demons
    Depression
    Detachment
    Devotions
    Dez Bryant
    Differences
    Dilemma
    Dirty
    Discipleship
    Disgusting
    Divorce
    Domestic Violence
    Domination
    Doubt
    Dreams
    Dr Hart8bb80a7b00
    Dwayne Allen
    Dysfunction
    Easter
    Eden
    Ego
    Eleazar
    Elitism
    Empty
    Envy
    Ephesians
    Equality
    Erectile Dysfunction
    Esau
    Eternity
    Euthanasia
    Evil
    Exhibitionism
    Eyes
    Facebook
    Faithfulness
    Fantasy
    Fasting
    Father
    Favorites
    Fear
    Fellatio
    Fighting
    Fishing
    Flashing
    Flattery
    Flesh
    Force
    Forgiveness
    Gentleman
    Girls Gone Wild
    G.K. Chesteron
    Goals
    God
    Good Friday
    Grace
    Gratitude
    Greek
    Guard
    Guilt
    Heart
    Heaven
    Hebrew
    Hell
    Henri Nouwen
    Histrionic
    Hogging
    Holiness
    Hollow
    Honesty
    Honor
    Hope
    Humility
    Humor
    Ichabod
    Idols
    Impurity
    Individuality
    Input
    Insane Clown Posse
    Integrity
    Intent
    Intimacy
    Isaac
    Islam
    Jack Schaap
    Jamaica
    Jealousy
    Jimmy Needham
    Job
    Joy
    J.R.R. Tolkien
    Judgmentalism
    Justice
    Kindness
    King David
    Kittens
    Komboloib7e292a311
    Korn
    Larry Norman
    Leave It To Beaver
    Lies
    Light
    Listening
    Loneliness
    Love
    Lust
    Lying
    Macho
    Manners
    Marriage
    Masculinity
    Masturbation
    Maturity
    Mca
    Meditation
    Messianic
    Meticulous
    Mighty
    Missions
    Money
    Monogamy
    Moses
    Motivations
    Movies
    Music
    Normal
    Obedience
    Obscenity
    Open Door
    Parenting
    Passiveaggressive2ed940c88b
    Pastor
    Path
    Perfection
    Personality Disorders
    P.O.D.
    Politics
    Pornography
    Pornograpy
    Power
    Practical
    Prayer
    Predator
    Prejudice
    Premature Ejaculaton
    Preparation
    Pride
    Problems
    Promises
    Protection
    Providence
    Purity
    Quechua
    Quiz
    Racism
    Regret
    Religious
    Repentance
    Reputation
    Research
    Respect
    Responsibility
    Rest
    Resurrection
    Revival
    Righteousness
    Robots
    Roughhousing
    Routine
    Rules
    Rut
    Sabbath
    Sacrifice
    Sadism
    Salvation
    Sanctification
    Satisfaction
    Selfishness
    Self Love
    Self-love
    Service
    Sex
    Sexism
    Sexuality
    Sexual Response
    Sexual Response
    Shame
    Sin
    Singing
    Snobbery
    Soldier
    Sovereignty
    Stalking
    Stephen Hawking
    Step-parenting
    Strong
    Success
    Succubus
    Suicide
    Swearing
    Sword
    Teenagers
    Temper
    Temptation
    Tenth Ave North
    Testing
    Theology
    Thinking
    Thomas Cogswell Upham
    Tim Tebow
    Tournament Male
    Tradition
    Trafficking
    Trapped
    Trauma
    Triggers
    Trust
    Truth
    U2
    Uncle Buddy
    Unity
    Violence
    Virtue
    Vulnerability
    Warrior
    Watchman Nee
    Waywardness
    What Is A Man
    Women
    Worry
    Worship
    Wussification
    Year In Review
    Zombies

    Archives

    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012

IRONSTRIKES

Men Forging Men