Issue #2. The Church Concert, aka Worship

There is a great Christian Recording Artist named Ross King who I had the honor of meeting at National Collegiate Week many years ago. He has a song called "Clear the Stage" about how we approach worship in our country and the church. The first line of the song is "Clear the stage and set the sounds and lights ablaze if that's the measure you must take to crush the idol". He goes on in the song to be very honest about the state of the church when it comes to worship. We have to ask ourselves, what are we really worshiping? Are we singing to God, or are we worshiping at the feet of our own entertainment preferences? Maybe we are just worshiping our desire to be entertained and enjoy ourselves.

In my years in the church ministries, I have had some issues with worship and the way we say we "worship". Things have only gotten worse. My first and biggest complaint is that modern church worship isn't worship, it's an attempt to emotionally manipulate the congregation. We act like this is somehow "holy" if we get people really emotionally into what is happening. The reality, this happens outside the church. Jason Aldean, a country singer says in one of his songs that during a concert everyone feels the "halleluiah high from the floor to the ceiling". This is not a Christian song, this is not a context to worship God, but this country singer recognizes the ability to manipulate the crowd into feeling a religious experience. As a performer, it's his job to emotionally manipulate the people into feeling good and having fun. It is not the job of the church to manipulate the people in the congregation into feeling something. This isn't authentic, nowhere is the Bible does it talk about having an emotional experience with Christ. The reality is emotions are easy to manipulate but don't last. You know as well as I do the promises and vows you made in emotional situations that faded as soon as the emotions. Guilt, fear, and anger cause you to make promises you'll never keep. Feelings of elation and extasy do the same thing, and often the "mountain top" experience is an emotional decision that doesn't last long enough to even get us off the mountain. To compensate, the church has begun to try to emotionally manipulate the church once a week for 30 minutes, then we listen to Christian radio to try to fill in the gaps. This keeps people doing the right thing without the need for the Holy Spirit or any actual saving faith in their lives.

It didn't always use to be this way. We use to sing songs that taught, that had depth and that didn't attempt to emotionally manipulate people. They didn't require saying the same phrase over 50 times, they didn't have 3 part harmonies, solos, lights, and special effects. These things move worshipers to spectators. If you are doing things on the stage that the people in the congregation aren't doing, like guitar solos, they are no longer worshipers, they are spectators. I have had this conversation with many worship leaders, some agreed with me, many didn't. I am pretty convinced that the main purpose for these things in to create a "mood" and move the people into a specific emotional place. This is a nice way of saying "emotional manipulation".

The performance aspect of our church services, what we call Worship, has become an idol. People join and leave churches based on the music, which is basically their need to be entertained. We have entire churches that spend more on the music budget in a month than discipleship in a year. We have put so much into the emotional manipulation because it fills the pews. If we offer mini-concerts every week, along with a free coffee bar and some feel-good words, we can fill the building. It works, and it keeps people coming back and fewer and fewer people have the Biblical worldview. They walk away singing the songs that aren't teaching them anything. If you want proof, look at the state of our country, how much we have given up and given away. The church is not having the impact on society it once had.

The sad truth is, it's doubtful things will change. The leadership doesn't want to change things, they see this is working. Megachurches with the best worship keep growing. Worship leaders don't want to change this, they feel they are having a great impact. The entertained masses don't want to change this, they love the free show they can attend. We have gone so far down this road, it will take something disastrous to turn back. I don't see the worship trend changing unless this country makes it illegal to worship. Those just coming for entertainment will not come under threat of persecution. If the flashy show draws attention from a hostile government, it will go away. Then the faithful who are left will worship in a very different manner. They will sing Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs to one another without professionals, without solos and three-part harmonies. The music will become a teaching aspect of the church again, not an entertainment aspect. Emotional manipulation won't be a recipe for a large service, and then we may see revival in the church. Until then, it's an assembling of consumers for entertainment.