Eclexia tagged me in a can-of-worms meme opened by Lingamish. Want to know what I think is most weird about this Weird Worship Meme? It’s that everyone equates worship with MUSIC!!!!!!!!
I don’t remember people confusing worship and music before 1995. I didn’t attend a church with a rockin’ praise band until 1995. Coincidence? I think not!
Confusing music and worship results in confused worship.
Especially when we confuse worship with a certain kind of music.
I wonder what would happen to our worship if for some reason we couldn’t afford guitars and amps and sound boards and microphones–or organs and stained glass (take your pick). What if we chose to worship by spending more of our offering money on other things?
Maybe people would leave the church in droves. Makes me wonder who would stay…
Jesus said to the woman at the well, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem…a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
That’s what Jesus said. No mountains or temples–no buildings or music or artifact of human culture of any kind can conjure, capture or contain God’s presence. All we can do is respond to him and serve and obey him. Maybe that’s just too weird for us to believe.
Posted on May 16th, 2008 by Kathy
Filed under: Thursday's Child
Ah, beautiful thoughts. I knew I could count on you to make me think about things more and differently. I especially appreciate the sentence, “Confusing music and worship results in confused worship.”
Thanks for sharing these thoughts, which, as your words often do, challenge me.
Right on!
[…] though I don’t exactly agree either (e.g. it operates on a false assumption pointed out on a great post at Beyond Words that worship = music. It’s a good post and I’m still thinking through all of it, but, for the moment, let me […]