The Battle For “True Worship” Part I

Everybody has something to say about the practice of corporate worship. I have talked to many friends that are very conservative when it comes to the use of music and arts in church. Many say that worship has become mere entertainment instead of true worship based on biblical truth. It is true that in our cultures today entertainment is probably one of the highest values. Even Churches today try to keep people pleased and entertained, and sometimes Pastors don’t really care if their congregations are thinking rightly about God as long as they are pleased and entertained by what they do and keep coming to church.

In some churches worship is all about the head, thinking correctly about God. In other churches worship and Christian life is all about the emotions, and they end up compromising biblical truth. Some worship leaders manipulate their congregations with attractive and moving words and tone. It’s all about choosing the right songs, saying the right things that move people’s heart and make them do what they what. This kind of worship leader appeals only to people’s emotions during worship services, instead of trying and working hard to engage, teach, and encourage them with biblical truth.

So, some conservative brothers would say: “well, to solve this problem we just need to get rid of everything that entertains people and that distracts them from true worship. After all, worship is not about our emotions, it’s about having the right knowledge of God”. That is exactly how John Calvin thought about the use of music and arts in worship. He wrote: “And we have never been forbidden to… delight in musical harmony… But to wallow in delight… to intoxicate mind and heart with present pleasures… such are very far removed from a lawful use of God’s gifts.” (Pietsch, 163. Taken from Charles P. St-Onge, Concordia Theological Seminary, Fort Wayne, IN. “Music, Worship and Martin Luther”).

I think there is a legitimate concern here. We need to instruct people with the Word (1 Timothy 4:11-13; 2 Timothy 2:2; Titus 2:1), so that they might worship God for what He really is and has done for us, and not just seek for shallow and momentary entertainment in God’s gifts, but in Himself. But I don’t think this formula correctly approaches or solves the problem. I don’t think it’s the best option just to get rid of things God created for Himself, and that give Him glory.

The first problem I see with this is that I think it is a poor, deficient, and inaccurate view of God’s worship to think that true worship only takes place when we encapsulate ourselves in body and mind, and enter into some sort of mystical state, isolated from the world around us, and then think about God, and try to avoid being distracted by anything, whether it be lights, or instruments, or people clapping their hands and singing around us. I think that’s very far away from what we see in Scriptures about corporate times of worship. Yes, there were many times when God encounter people and they worshiped Him by falling on their knees, facing to the ground, with no words, just in awe; but that is not the pattern we find in Scriptures when the people of God were called to sing His praises together. It is not the way the Psalmist describes a pattern of corporate worship in the Psalms (Psalms 33:1-3; 47:1-2, 66:1-5; 87:7; 92:1-4; 95:1-2; 96:1-3; 98:4-6; 100; 133:1; 134; 150), and it’s not how the New Testament describes it either (1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16).

I think the Bible is very clear that when the people of God come together for corporate worship, they come in unity and to edify one another and to sing praises directly to God in unity as one body in Christ Jesus. This does not mean that there is no place in our services for private confessions of faith, or individual confessions of sin, time for individual prayer, time to sing to the Lord out of our individual experience and relationship with Christ. Yes, in our corporate worship there is time for individual experiences, but this should not be the norm that governs the spirit of our worship services. Corporate worship by definition implies “a group of people”, it is not individualistic.

The second problem I have with this view of worship is that I think we worship God when we enjoy things He created for His glory. We were made for God’s glory (Isaiah 43:7), everything was made for God’s glory (Colossians 1:16). Music and arts are gifts from God. They help us express and communicate our thoughts and emotions in a way that honors our Savior. It’s true that worship is not only about our emotions; our emotions are fallen and sinful. But neither is worship only about our brain, which is fallen and sinful as well. What we need is to put together our head (thoughts) and heart (emotions) and submit both to what God has revealed about Himself in His Word.

True worship is the appropriate respond of creation to God’s revelation of Himself through Jesus Christ. It’s prideful to think we can come before God and not respond to Him appropriately. And it’s foolishness to think that we can come to Him in our own terms, without knowing what He has revealed about Himself. So, we need both, right knowledge about God, and a heart that responds to revelation. Right knowledge of God without emotions to respond, that leads to legalism. Emotions without right knowledge of God, that leads to idolatry.
There is nothing wrong about enjoying music and arts; on the contrary, that honors God. God is worshiped and honored when we enjoy His gifts and attribute the glory to Him for such things. We worship God, the Creator of music; not music itself. But we worship God when we value and enjoy music, even as a Church.