I think the Psalms are tremendoulsly instructive to us. We tend to think of everyone “back then” as living in a monoculture. I’m sure the reality was far different. If you look at Psalm 90, written by Moses, and Psalm 137 from the Babylonian captivity, there is a span of nearly 1000 years. Though the times and places varied greatly, the Psalms were added to one another and sung regularly. Some are new, but many look to the past (Psalm 95). Jesus probably sang Psalm 118 at the Last Supper. It is interesting that that the Psalter was closed to addition by the time of Christ, but you probably don’t want to go there:-)

Can we say that our music reflects the themes of the Psalms (think carefully about this one), their example of continuity from age to age, and their vivid language?

My point was “legalism about how OTHER people worship” as far as the style point. I do think we all have a style, form, setting and such that seems to click or not click. What is important is to be open to the idea that it is not wrong for a person to have something opposite than you or I would like. It means somehow valuing that there are different expression–culturally, demographically and personally.

God does not have a style preference, but WE DO. Therein lies the problem! What we do with that is important.

On other thought. Music is as much sensual and intellectual as emotional. So, it is not just the emotional reaction, but even preferred physical response. Sound “touches” and some want that to feel less or more, etc. That is not necessarily emotional, but certainly results in emotion.

The same is true of intellect. The art of music can actually shape the way we think! So, content and phrasing matter. I am saying all this to make a point about the fact that emotions are not a reason as much as an indicator of many factors that go into how we present our worship services. People will certainly feel, but it comes from the choices people make about the whole encounter.

I think the more mature we get, the more we have to be willing to transcend the need for our style to be catered to in order to make way for the newer believers. (That is a whole post right there).

Amen. The pendulum has swung where in the praise and worship movement of the 80s prophetic voices were rightly calling us to value the concept of worship outside of our liturgy. Now, I see some in our culture use this as an excuse to devalue the mystery and power in corporate worship by thinking everything else is worship, so they excuse themselves from the need to come to a church or service. A new day and time.

Dan says: “Good stuff, Rich, thanks for stirring up the coals. We should all give this some thought and know why we do what we do. Sorry for this long post; I didn’t mean to make your blog my blog. God bless you, Bro.”

Dan! You NEED to start a blog. Great argumentation. One thing that is clear is how unclear and fuzzy things are in how to have this conversation. The idea of WORSHIP is one thing while the PRACTICE of LITURGY or public worship is another. If you take what I am saying in the context of the latter, it might change a couple of your points.

I DO believe these are myths since they (and some new ones I will unfold later) have lost their original meaning, or have at times been counterproductive to making people really think about our liturgy/public worship. They become misnomers and even though they can be said to be true in some instances or context, the point is that how many use them is false . Besides, no one would really care to read this if I called them “sort-of-problematic-trite-sayings that might at times in some context confuse our thinking about public worship”!

I am so HAPPY that people are thinking about this stuff and conversing on my blog!

#1A. Our lifestyle will be a reflection of our beliefs, and if one of our beliefs is that we should be worshippers of Jesus Christ, then our lifestyle will unavoidably reflect our worship. A true lifestyle is an effect, not a cause. If one merely wears a lifestyle, whether it be worship or disco, that really isn’t a true lifestyle; rather it’s a pose of a lifestyle.
#1B. Some will argue that mundane tasks can be acts of worship; I don’t disagree but I’m not going to argue that. Rather I will argue that every lifestyle will have its collection of mundane tasks: that neither proves nor refutes the alleged myth. If we assume that brushing your teeth is devoid of any worshipful qualities, it still doesn’t speak against worship being a lifestyle.

#2. Worship can contain musical elements, but not all elements of worship are musical. The confusion arises out of what the modern church too many times labels worship. Not too many years ago the church service was called a worship service because all of the elements of the service were considered to be acts of worship. Our church had a music leader, not a worship leader. That clearly delineated the role without ascribing undue importance to a particular element. Giving a cup of cold water in His name is an act of worship, but no music is involved.

I do agree that music can and should play a key role in our worship and its use has a firm basis in scripture. In fact, maybe it should play an even greater role, for example, some churches use musical instruments to underscore the teaching.

#3. The statement “worship is not about me” is modern phraseology that means “the focus of worship is not me”. In this sense the statement is true. Certainly we are participants in the process, but the focus of worship is Jesus Christ. Without Him worship would have no point. 1 Cor 8:6

#4A. Add one word to this statement and I would agree it’s a myth: Worship with hymns ALWAYS is deeper theologically than with modern music. The truth is, every song, hymn, chorus, or whatever needs to be evaluated on its own lyrical merits.
#4B. Let’s separate songs of the church into two elements: music and lyrics. I would agree that Western music may not be the most efficacious vehicle to speak to other cultures. Certain forms of Western music don’t even speak to all the sub-cultures of our Western culture. However, if our hymns and choruses and whatever have accurate Biblical content, then when translated from English into the language of another culture, should convey the same knowledge and experience that it conveys to Western culture. There is only one God. Eph 4:6. So if White, European songs from 300 years ago do not give us a full picture of theology, it’s not because they are White, European, or 300 years old; it would be because they contain anemic lyrical content.

#5A In one sense, I agree. Fully embracing your statement would mean during the musical segment of a worship service I should be as free to sit as still as a statue as I am to dance in the aisles. Maybe in a future post you could expand on your statement “why do we have so much legalism about how other people worship?” I’d be interested in your thoughts.
#5B In another sense, I disagree. My dad cannot worship with guitar and drum music. He’s not saying that no one else can either, he’s simply saying he personally cannot. It has nothing to do with the music being ungodly; rather, it’s simply not his preference. Unless you want to make a case that he’s closed-minded (thereby forcing your musical worship style on him, the very thing being refuted), there truly exists a style of worship that’s better for him. The point is: A)that style is the worshipper’s free choice, it’s not to be forced upon him from the outside, and B)it isn’t the style per se that’s better, it’s the style’s fit upon the worshipper that’s better.

#6. IMHO the end result of worship should make us feel good in the sense that we are satisfied. I agree, worship can be an outpouring of grief and sadness and through worship we might be made aware of sin, which should produce Godly sorrow. Maybe the realization will come that I need to walk out of the local worship service and fix something that I now realize needs fixing. Through the course of this though should come the realization that we have been repentant and subservient before God which should make us feel satisfied that to the best of our knowledge we have performed the commandments of God, thus expressing our love for Him. John 14:15

Good stuff, Rich, thanks for stirring up the coals. We should all give this some thought and know why we do what we do. Sorry for this long post; I didn’t mean to make your blog my blog. God bless you, Bro.

For me, I define worship in my own life as anything I do that brings glory to God. I want everything I do, speak and think to bring glory to God, and I know that this idea really helped me to relax into God’s assurances to me that Christianity is not about performance (making sure that I do enough good things for God to keep Him happy with me), but that I am a worshiper all the way through every aspect of my life. I’m even bringing God glory when I sleep – Psalm 3:5.

You are right. We cannot, truthfully, even seek God without God’s help. We cannot have faith without the truth.

What is said better instead of “WORSHIP IS NOT ABOUT US” is to say “WORSHIP IS ABOUT GOD…us worshipping Him.” I just do not think we think to much about how that phrase is misused to beat up people.