Our Entertainment Worship Culture

"We are not producing worshipers in this country. Rather, we are producing a generation of spectators, religious onlookers lacking, in many cases, a true encounter with God, deprived of both the tangible sense of God's presence and the supernatural relationship their inmost spirits crave."-Sally Morgenthaler, Worship Evangelism

The state of worship in our churches concerns me. Specifically, the emphasis on entertainment in our corporate worship gatherings concerns me, especially as it pertains to music. Recently, I attended several churches where I felt more like a spectator than a worshiper. Like Sally Morgenthaler, I fear we are cultivating an unhealthy entertainment worship culture.

The Danger of Entertainment
Entertainment is often defined as something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement. Whether we attend a sporting event, rock concert, or movie, we go to be entertained. We are spectators of a performance. In some churches, a visitor could easily confuse a worship service with a rock concert or theatrical performance. Why, then, do we engineer that kind of atmosphere in many of our worship experiences?

We can all agree that in order to be relevant to our culture we must speak the language of our culture. The apostle Paul made this argument in 1 Corinthians 9:22 when he said he willingly became all things to all men so that some may be saved. As much as our churches need to speak the language of our culture, we must remember that relevance is not our highest purpose.

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Tags: entertainment, kinetics, worship

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Comment by Tammy on July 24, 2009 at 12:45pm: Amen, King James!

You know, it is such a blessing to see churches that truly give freedom to worship in different ways. The church I attended prior to my current church was a college church. We had our praise team that did a mix of traditional and contemporary gospel, as well as, traditional and contemporary praise and worship music-- even hymns at times. The choir tended to be diverse as well. But, what I really loved was the fact that we had a dance team (liturgical), a mime team, then a group that ministered in a combination of drama, mime, dance (we saw anything from liturgical to hip hop), and poetry/rap. These individuals ministered! It was not a show (although some may have assumed so), particularly to those who had already come in a mode of praise and worship (i.e. did these things privately as well).

I was in the choir at that church and we did a lot of traveling. I saw MANY "shows" and often wondered what was that deciding factor that defined whether a routine was a show or praise and worship.

I came to several conclusions:
1. Goal or purpose. The individuals in the groups at my church were truly focused on praise and worship and did so on their own and at practice. It naturally overflowed into the "routine" when they ministered.
2. Freedom WITH accountability. The leaders of the church gave these various ministries freedom to stylize their routines, but kept them accountable to "keep it holy" and not provocative.

I can't tell you how many times the mime team would minister, the Spirit would move and THEY were the first ones to abandon "routine" and let out a shout, fall to their knees, or begin crying. But that is the whole point! The "performers" were not performing or putting on a show. While their talent and anointing drew the people in, the very people who came to be entertained were blown away by their "entertainment" become worship.

Talent mixed with anointing will draw people, bottom line. Good music is good music and will appeal to many people. Nobody wants to endure the praise and worship service Sunday after Sunday with the praise and worship team singing off key and the musicians playing badly. In our efforts to avoid the entertainment culture in our church, we still need to strive for excellence. It shouldn't effect our praise and worship, but let's keep it real...it does. Bad music is distracting.

And no, we can't separate praise from worship. Usually the "entertainment" part is the exuberant praise piece of our services, although its not limited to praise. And let's face it...there will always be "fakers" so we can't get caught up in that either. We really need to focus on our own responsibility to praise and worship.

Comment by King James on July 20, 2009 at 9:14am: Kinetics.. nice post. I like your ending... or rather.. agree with it. Just about the caution.. not sold on who's to blame. Thanks for sharing.

Tammy.. really good stuff. I follow you and you make sense.

I don't think that we should be separating praise from worship... I know I was taught that praise was faster and worship was slower... as in music and clap = praise... and hands up waving = worship. I think most of us have a similar understanding.. although my example was basic. But in any event.. I agree that sometimes things are very over the top. I'm only cool with it if I don't feel like it prevents me from concentrating or I feel like more folks are being lead in the wrong direction. I've only felt that way sometimes.

Aside from that, there's a place for everything. Let me go to church to see a 'show' for 15 minutes and dance on Sunday and be entertained by Godly tools and people. OR... I can go to the concert and after party on another day and get my dancing out of my system.. .(diff dancing of course)

But the good thing is that there are many churches.. so when I don't like one.. I have to choices. 1. change things. 2. Keep it movin.

Comment by Tammy on June 26, 2009 at 12:47am: I don't think we can blame our "worship culture" solely on the entertainment culture. We as a Church, and specifically, as individuals are very much to blame. When we take our personal worship seriously, it overflows into our corporate worship.

I am going to give some examples (some may consider them extreme, but hear me out):
--when a song says to "clap your hands" do you do it?
--when a song says to "shout to the Lord", do you let out a shout, or are you caught up in the melody?
--when a song says to "bow down and worship", do you remain on your feet?

We think that these actions are not necessary unless we are already hyped (i.e. Everybody, Clap Your Hands by Joshua's Troop), but the Bible clearly mentions all of the above actions in worship. While I agree that I have felt like a spectator many times, I realized that I had made a choice to be a spectator. While some may look at you funny if you suddenly take off your shoes and lay prostrate during the worship service, but once you do it, others begin to be freed as well. Now, how often do you do this during your private time with God? If we don't do these things regularly on our own, how can we do it in church? Is that pure worship?

I think that we can blame the Church for taking our freedom in worship and ourselves for giving it up.

Another thing, because most of us don't know what pure worship looks like, few can teach it or show us live examples. The church really needs to teach about worship. Our church recently did a Bible study on worship. A beautiful thing happened. We were praying before each session that we would learn about true worship. Rather than us spending a lot of time being taught by our instructor, we were taught by our Instructor. God started moving in our Bible studies and worship services. HE taught us how to worship, and we were given freedom to do so. Some cried, some shouted, some lifted their hands, some clapped, some ran, but many of us learned how to bow in worship or to lay prostrate. Our churches have become very program oriented and we rely on good music to elicit praise and worship. But it is not about the music, it is about both our hearts and our actions.

Recently I heard someone say, "This is not a worship service, this is a worship experience." Wow. What would happen if we REALLY took that to heart and worshiped as if it were our last chance to do so here on earth. I mean, it is what we were created to do...why can't we do it? If we can't do it here on earth, we may just be unhappy in heaven when we realize that's what we'll be doing there too!