Worship wars are nothing new. Ever since there was music in the church there have been people on either side of an arguement on what worship in the church should look and feel like. People use terms like charismatic, traditional, contemporary, reformed, etc. to try and define their liturgy, musical genre, or even dress.
Martin Luther loved music and said that “next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world”. He was responsible for much of the revolution from the Roman Catholic Church in theology, art, and music. Meanwhile, John Calvin was saying that we should only sing the Psalms (exclusive congregational metrical Psalmody in unison). Anything from Gregorian chant, pipe organs, harmony, electric guitars, and LCD projectors have, at some point, been debated.
But the point of this post is not to give a detailed history or argue for one side or the other. I just want to stand back and made some broad(er) statements on the worship wars in general and how I would “mediate” both sides.
- I love that people are talking about what worship should look like. It means that they care to protect and be responsible for something that God has ordained. I have always been a strong supporter of Christians who know what and why they believe something and will research, think, and pray about it.
- I hate that we call it a war. It should not be two sides fighting against one another with the idea that one side will eventually win. This does not communicate the right kind of attitude we should be having about the subject, especially as Christians.
- I love that working through these issues can and should bring unity in the church. I do believe wrestling through these topics are important especially for pastors, worship leaders, etc., and can bring a strong sense of their direct vision to the team.
- I hate that the discussions have been driven into the floor so hard that it is pitting two good things against eachother. Examples: head versus heart, doctrine versus devotion, passion versus reverence, or being rooted versus being relevant. We should be saying AND and not VERSUS. I can’t see any scenario where you should have one without also having the other.
At the end of the day, I hope that we can put our preferences aside, love eachother, and just worship Jesus. That is, afterall, what it is all about anyway.
We’ve all experienced the chaos of Sunday morning church. If you have children, you’ve probably experienced a double dose of this chaos. Waking up, eating breakfast, getting the family dressed and ready to go, getting the family loaded into the mini-van, and getting to church can be CRAZY. This or something similar is the somewhat “normal” chaos that must happen for us to get to church to worship. Often times, by the time that we get in our seat in the church sanctuary we are somewhat frazzled, if not altogether distracted. And odds are, we are just minutes away from the start of the worship service (unless we are already late, which is a great possibility). These moments, the moments as soon as we get to our seats before the service starts, can be some of the most important moments of our week.
