Worship Wars?

Yes,isn't that sad?

And over what? Things like wearing a tie...it seems many have lost their focus on biblical things....satan must love the distractions!

 

It's a real shame when anything other then God becomes the focus of worship, clothing, music, how loud you sing, whose sitting in the pew behind you. These are all false worship, drawing attention away from God, worship war is a tool of satan to distract epoepl from God, if all you do is complain about music style, and how loud people sing, then you aren't worshipping God. What people fail to understadn is that everything you do is worship, the bibel calls for us to submitt our bodies and lives to sacrifice them to worship God. When you sing, listen tot the preacher, give money, you worship Him, when you drive your car, plan your meals, go tot a resturant, to work, talk to your friends, whatever you do is worship to God, thats why we are told to submit our lives as a living sacrifice to God. We worship God with our lives and the way we live them. So what does it say about those who just want to fuss about worship style. They certainly aren't worshipping God, but music and self desires.

 

The church I used to attend has gone through two splits in the past five years. The style of music was an issue, but it was really just a symptom of the problem. The main problem was the "who's in charge around here" nonsense. The pastor prefers the praise and worship music, while the deacons wanted to stay with the hymnals. The music became the focal point in a power struggle between pastor and deacons. The last time I checked, I thought Jesus was in charge

Love in Christ,
Larry

 

Yes. The worship war hit our church a few years ago and it has left and we survived. We had a few families that left that wanted to go "full comtemporary", but we settled on a "blended style" that honors the great hymns of the faith and incorporates beautiful praise songs. In the end, thankfully, we had no split over the issue.

In relecting upon all of this, I often ask myself: Do we worship our "worship" or do we worship God? Regardless of the worship style, our hearts can still be far from God.

 

I don't think any of us would argue with that, but how does that practically work out?? Based on the NT, it is through the pastor leading teh congregation. The deacons were given no ruling authority in the church, though they are often mistaken for a board.

Having said that, contemporary worship is definitely full of problems that need to be evaluated very carefully.

 

I agree Pastor Larry.

Why is it that those who push this seem to want what they want?(casual service,casual clothes,band,light preaching,laid back)....and these things,although they have no doctrinal weight at all(well,except the preaching style),seem to be the driving focus.

Molly

 

Molly, we have a blended worship at our churc, we do not have light preaching, or less preaching, nor do we have easy believeism. We have people who respect God and the worship of Him, who respect hymns, and contemporay praise, worship comes from the heart.


If the heart is stuck on which song is sung today, then it isn't on God. You can worship a style or you can worship God. As long as the praise songs are carefully choosen, I see nothing wrong with them, I've also seen hymns before that were doctrinlly incorrect. Why is it people who oppose praising God always want what they want, and are willing to cause trouble in churchs to get it, even to the point of false accusations of others?

 

I don't think any of us would argue with that, but how does that practically work out?? Based on the NT, it is through the pastor leading teh congregation. The deacons were given no ruling authority in the church, though they are often mistaken for a board.

Having said that, contemporary worship is definitely full of problems that need to be evaluated very carefully. </font>[/QUOTE]Pastor Larry, I'm in complete agreement with you. The problem arose when they brought their power play in front of the congregation. The congregation started taking sides, with half of them asking for the pastor to resign, and the other half asking for the deacons to leave. The music was made the main issue, although I'm pretty sure there was alot more going on behind the scenes that we didn't know about. I think it's very sad that these things happen within the Body of Christ.

Love in Christ,
Larry

 

It is interesting, is it not, how when gathering to
worship, each side wants the music their way?
If it truly is worship, who cares what style of
music? And if we care enough to split over it, is it
worship or entertainment or my taste in music?

If one brought up the question, "If it is truly
worship, what kind of music does our God prefer?"
each side would likely argue for their preferance
in style. "Certainly, our God loves the old hymns
and not that modern, shallow noise!" "Our God
loves praise and woship music, because He loves
the praises of His people."

Nyet!

Perhaps we should get down to this: calling music
what it truly is. So what is it?

If we enjoy the song service, be honest and say so,
and stop calling it all worship. Certainly parts of it
are worship, or can become worship, but most of
it is based upon what humans enjoy doing, upon
human taste, and not upon our God's musical
taste -- which He has disclosed to no one.

While most leaders strive to have tasteful services
with beautiful music by skilled musicians, how do
we know this pleases our God? Perhaps He
would rather hear the cracked, warbling voice of
an ancient gentleman who has poured his heart
out in his own poorly-written poem, put to the
some simply awful (in our ears) tune he created
and sang completely off tune from an honest
heart that loves our God!

And while the music war continues, I have
occasionally been criticized because my
synagogue sings neither the old hymns nor
praise and worship music. That is fine with me.
8o) So far, no one at the synagogue has
complained in my ears about our music, which I
readily admit that I enjoy.

 

Abiyah, I agree, I don't personally care which music we have as long as we have worship. Theres not been a worship war in our church.

 

I of course do have a preferecne, but if we don't sing with praise music this week thats ok too, my woship is about God, not me and my preferecnes.

 

Reminds me of a joke (?) that I heard.

Satan was showing his newest demon around and as they passed a church the new demon would see a single devil sitting on the roof and he would wave and give a "thumbs up" as they passed. eventually they came to a church that had a multitude of devils all around just busy, busy, busy. The new demon asked "Why does this church have more demons than all the rest?" "Well, I'm already in all the other churches and I only need a demon there to keep an eye on things, but this church is one that I haven't been able to get into yet. But, I won't stop trying." said the father of lies.

Sounds like "worship wars" are getting a thumbs up from the devil on the roof.

In Christ

Ronnie