Skip to main content

Is Worship Entertaining?


  Recently I had a discussion with a friend about the music where I attend worship services. “I could never go there,” she said “without a band or choir it just wouldn’t be entertaining.” I believe persons who make such statements have completely missed the point of attending “church.” While we should be edified and uplifted by our worship, it is not our purpose to be entertained in church. When we are entertained we reduce God to nothing more than an excuse to listen to a performance. God never intended his house to be an entertainment venue. He intended his church to be a place of worship and reverence to him. The New Testament instructs us to gather every Sunday (Acts 20:7) to worship him in prayer ( I Cor. 14:15, Acts 2:42; 12:5), singing songs and psalms and spiritual psalms one to another (Eph. 5:19, Col. 3:16), to remember the death, burial and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ by partaking of the Lord’s Supper (I Cor. 11:23-29), to give to the church ((I Cor. 16:2, II Cor. 9:7) and to teach and admonish one another by the Word of God (Acts 20:7).
  Even the first century church did not use instruments in worship to God. Secular historians of the time - men who had no reason or agenda to promote the church - even make reference to the followers of Christ singing without instruments. 
  “But,” you say “God doesn’t care about how I worship.”
  Doesn’t he? In Leviticus 10:1-2 the sons of Aaron - Nadab and Abihu offered an unauthorized fire in the temple and God killed them with fire. If something as seemingly insignificant as the way you light a fire matters to God, then the way we worship Him surely should hold a high degree of importance.
  So the question is “Why do you go to church?” Do you go to hear a band or to dance and clap? Do you go to hear someone else sing or do you go to offer your worship to God with your own voice as we are commanded to do. Do you go to be entertained or to worship God? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What's in a Name

  Sometime ago I made an entry in my Handprints blog about my name. At the time I had intended to make a second entry about names in relation to Christianity.   So, once again I ask, "What's in a name?" Just as a name is important because it gives us an identity, it helps others to know who we are. In the religious world names are even more important. In a very broad sense a name identifies a religion in general terms and encompasses many varied beliefs. For instance, in the Muslim world there are many different sects or religious factions but all have Mohammed at their core. So it is in Christianity. There are many religous sects that have Jesus at it's core. In a specific sense people take on the name of their sect - Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Protestants, etc., etc.. But where do they get the authority to call themselves such? The Bible certainly doesn't justify a religious body to name themselves whatever they want anymore than it justifies naming the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Tolerant or Intolerant?

We often hear the battle cry in the news and in social circles today that we are to be tolerant. We must tolerate this person or that one who is different from us. But is tolerance a good thing? Well, that depends on just what it is you are tolerating. If a person is doing something contrary to God’s will we should love that person but we should not tolerate their sin. But isn’t that contradictory you might ask? No. If you are a parent and you have told your child to not do something but the child does it anyway do you just turn your head the other way and let the child do as he or she wishes? No. A good parent will discipline their child because they love that child and have their best interests at heart. In other words, the parent is intolerant of the bad behavior but still loves the child. Through discipline and instruction the child will learn to do what is right. In the same way, Christians should be intolerant of sin but still love the sinner.   Take for example the life...
Post a Comment
Read more