I have a great childhood memory of my dad taking me to Yankee Stadium to watch Mickey Mantle play. I remember that Mantle hit some towering shots, but I remember so much more – the sights, the sounds, the smells. The hugeness of the stadium. Even the taste of the ballpark hot dog. Though I cannot recall who we played or who won, as we were leaving I remember saying “Wow – what a great game!”
Over the years, I have heard Christians (including myself) leaving church services or praise and worship gatherings evaluating those events in almost the same way. “What a powerful worship experience!” etc. Or, sometimes the opposite.
We live in an age dominated by branding and marketing, and so we look for ways for our faith to operate in a consumer culture. Even the Gospel has been packaged and pedaled, boiled down to a few verses (usually of the “turn-or-burn” variety) or some pithy summary. Yet when Jesus preached the Gospel, he had a lot to say about a lot of things. Salvation, certainly but also prayer, compassion, the nature of the world, how we are to interact with one another and a host of other topics. The fact that God physically entered human history turned everything on its ear, and as a result, these issues and more all became part of the Gospel Jesus preached. It was too far-reaching and radical to be condensed down to a slogan. Yet, we often respond to the inward or outward pressure to simplify, package and brand our message - both to ourselves and to our community and world.
One area where we often see this in action is in the idea that we have to provide people with a “positive worship experience” at our church. In our consumer culture, we are aware that people will rate a church service like they might rate a concert or a play. It affected me, or it didn’t. I got something out of it, or not. And whether we recognize it or not, the need to please consumers has crept into our thinking and planning to a huge degree.
When someone approaches worship expecting to be entertained, then they can feel justified in judging the experience. “It was a great service”; “That church really knows how to worship”, etc. Or, “What a stiff, boring service”; “They really don’t understand what true worship is about.” As a result, they feel like can now assess that church’s spirituality.
I am pretty sure this is not what Jesus had in mind when He said “God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” (Jn. 4:24). Maybe a particular flavor of worship at a specific local church doesn’t suit me. That’s perfectly natural and legitimate. But it doesn’t give me the right to judge.
I play on a worship team. I can fall into this kind of thinking as easily as anyone, and often do. Now and then I can feel some subtle pressure (totally self-inflicted) to make sure our singing time is powerful and Spirit-led – or at least to make sure it looks that way.
The truth is, worship is not an experience I can create for someone else. I can’t market it. Nor should I try. In stark contrast to the spectator mindset, the biblical picture of worship has to do with an act that is initiated by God and that we engage in. It is a responsive offering that we make. We give worship. And corporate worship is simply the act of two or more believers coming together to offer glory and honor to almighty God. It has absolutely nothing to do with soaking in an experience created by someone else for our enjoyment. That is foreign to Scripture and would seem completely backward to most of our brothers and sisters who have gone before us over the past 2000 years or so.
If you are a church leader or teacher, try to keep a biblical definition of worship in front of your people. Worship is not to be evaluated or absorbed. It is to be given. Each of us is to offer it to God freely from our heart, without reservation. And God who sees our heart will meet us there.
And, if you attend a church but are not “getting anything” out of your church’s worship experience, here’s an idea – try worshipping.
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