These statements from Emerging Worship were valuable to me- I'm reading these quotes as a person who plans worship gatherings- not necessarily as someone who attends a worship service (although I do)... There's a huge difference. I'm NOT trying to bag on YOUR church or saying that what they do is wrong. I'm thinking about how to plan worship services that aren't just 'services', 'superficial', 'entertainment', or 'fill-up' stations... I want to be part of something that people remember because it changed them, gave them a clearer picture of God...
“She said that being in her church’s worship services was like watching a rerun of a 1980s TV show over and over again… It didn’t challenge her because it felt so programmatic, constrictive, and limiting. They were longing to express their worship to God when they came to church. But they felt restricted to passively sitting in their seats and worshiping as they were told. They longed for community, but the small group programs of the church felt so controlled and superficial.”
Oh, brother or sister, God calls us to worship, but in many instances we are in entertainment, just running a poor second to theaters. –A.W. Tozer
"Most people view the weekend worship service as a place where we go to get service done to us by ‘getting our tanks filled up’ at the service station. It’s a place where someone will give a sermon and serve us with our weekly sustenance. In automobile terms, you could say it is our weekly fill-up. We come to our service station to have a song leader serve us by leading us in singing songs. All so we can feel good when we emotionally connect through mass singing and feel secure that we did ‘worship.’"
Quoted from Emerging Worship, by Dan Kimball
It's Time to Say Goodbye
5 years ago
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