Worship wars

I am tired of the worship wars, and I am tired of them on both sides. I am tired of positions that are fundamentally idolatrous. On the one side of the debate, we seem to have people who believe that God cannot and will not appear if drums are on the stage. On the other side, we seem to have people who believe that God cannot and will not appear unless there are drums on the stage. If I were God, I would give up on ALL of them (yet one more in the list of reasons that we are all thankful I am not God). We make these arguments as though we have control on the appearing of God. How arrogant and how idolatrous.

From the biblical perspective, worship is what happens when individuals encounter the presence of God. The church when it gathers as a community represents a miracle of incarnation. We are the body of Christ! Just as Christ was 100% divine and 100% human, the church is at the same time a body of believers and the body of Christ. It seems unfortunate that the 100% human side seems to show so often. Divisiveness and personality conflicts supplant ministry and supplant true worship.

The church needs to ask itself what it can do to manifest the divine to the world, so that worship might actually take place. This change in focus would be pretty healthy. Moving the discussion from "What do I need to experience God" to "What can I do for you to experience God" would seem to be the more biblical perspective. It would be particularly nice if the "you" in that sentence referred to the "least of these."

I am sure the crowds were drawn to Jesus because of his Sandy Creek traditional worship. No wait, I am sure people were drawn to Jesus because of his electric guitar. No wait, people were drawn to Jesus because Jesus loved them. He loved the "least of these." There were people who had no hope and no help from anywhere in the world. Jesus said, "You are of value to me."

People will come to a church when they feel loved. People will come when they find a community that loves them. Part of loving them is giving them a way to experience God, and that is done differently for different people in different places.

So, the challenge is to be like Jesus. Maybe we would move beyond "3 points and a poem" and "hymnbooks vs. overheads" to a relevant expression of Christ to the world. If we aren't willing to do this, the only difference between churches of America and the empty cathedrals of Europe will be that the cathedrals are prettier and already paid for.