"Entertainment for the Heart"?

This is more of a comment on worship in the church than specifically on music, and I apologize if this has already been discussed before, but this comes from a recent experience of mine that has me concerned:

My wife and I went to a movie, and you know those ads they show before the previews begin? A local church had an advertisement that about made my blood boil! Their slogan for the ad was "Entertainment for the Heart." They also had a line in the ad that said, "Come to __ where church is done for you."

It used to be that as I would lament the shift in the focus of "worship services" to entertainment, I would say that the shift is generally unintentional. But, when I saw a church come right out and admit to degrading worship to the same level of significance as the movie I was about to see, that was too much.

Is anyone else as concerned about this shift as I am?

Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris

 

Thank you Karen for your reply. I have a question. Who should be the one being entertained? God or us? Here is a definition of entertainment:

The reason I give the definition, is because this church, and unfortunately so many others, "market" the benefits of God, while they neglect speaking of our responsibilities toward God. We are the ones who should be entertaining God. I know that sounds weird, but here is a quotation that may explain it a little better:

Yes we should leave a worship service feeling uplifted and soothed, but, that comes as a result of us entertaining, praising, worshiping God, not being entertained.

Here is yet another quotation, then I will close:

Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris

 

Thanks JonathanDT for your reply.

And therein lies the problem I have. We present Christianity (and therefore everything we do, including worship) as being entertainment for us. A couple of examples of this getting out of control is a church in Houston hiring Wacky World, an "edutainment" company to design a $595,000 Soul Train City and Hangar area complete with Disney-style life-size animatronic figures for children and teens. Or a church in Springdale, Ark. also hiring Wacky World to design "Toon Town," a children’s sanctuary featuring a children’s baptistry built inside a fire truck so that when a child is baptized, a bell rings and he or she is sprayed with confetti.

I know those are two extreme examples, but that kind of insanity is what happens when we feel we need to "entertain" people into the kingdom. I mean, what kid would not want to be baptized in a fire truck like that? And, how on earth any church can justify spending over a half million dollars on animatronics, etc. is beyond me.

Horton's point in the chapter that quote came from was that in our theology man keeps getting better and better. In our evangelism, we should tell people the truth of their depravity. Don't they have to be lost before they can be found? If we are not depraved, why do we need a Savior? Whenever this notion comes up that we should not tell people how bad they are, I always think about the instance where the rich young ruler comes running up to Jesus, asking Him what he must do to be saved. What did Jesus say? He essentially told him that he was a bad person, that he had not kept the law perfectly from his youth as he thought he had. Why should we do any differently?

Karen, thanks again for your response. I agree, there is nothing wrong with what we gain from worshiping God. That is great! The problem is, when we become the focus of worship. When we go to a worship service in order to have our needs met. That is when our motives are wrong. Yes, we will gain from worshiping our Creator, but we should worship Him, not because we have to, or because of what we get out it, but rather because we want to be with Him. We should so delight ourselves in Him, that being in fellowship with Him (worshiping Him) is the desire of our heart. Then, it is worshiping in Spirit and in Truth.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris

 

I think you may need to re-check that passage you quoted (Mark 2:23-3:6), I don't think Jesus was giving us liberty to do whatever we want in a worship service. nor do I think your paraphrase works. What gives you an indication you can paraphrase it like that? We can't just paraphrase things however we want and I don't think church and Sabbath are synonymous.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris

[ October 02, 2002, 08:35 AM: Message edited by: Music Man ]

 

Karen,

I appreciate your response to my post. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that your view of worship makes worship a means to an end, that end being to make one feel a certain way. Worship, though, is not a means to an end, but rather is an end in and of itself.

I have posted a quote from the following article in another thread, so sorry if you have read it already, but I wanted to give a little excerpt for you to read and think about. The article is "Recovering the Priority of God", by Bruce Leafblad. I would encourage you to read the entire article (you can click on the link above). In the article he deals with this issue. I think it is quite good.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Chris