Thankfully, we don’t hear as much about “worship wars” these days. I wonder if that’s because of growing maturity or if it’s simply because we’ve so segregated ourselves when we have corporate worship. We have split into services and congregations that reflect generational and ethnic and class-oriented musical commonalities. Maybe we need to reignite the wars but in a Christian sort of way.
What if the war looked like this in your congregation? What if the young singles complained that the drums are too loud, that they’re distracting the senior adults? And what if the elderly people complained that the church wasn’t paying attention to the new movements in songwriting or musical style?
Seeking the Well-Being of Others in Corporate Worship
When we seek the well-being of others in worship, it’s not just that we cringe through music we hate. As an act of love, this often causes us to appreciate, empathize, and even start to resonate with worship through musical forms we previously never considered.
Excerpted from Russell Moore’s article titled “Let’s Have More Worship Wars.”
More Resources
The following links also provide helpful counsel on corporate worship:
- Bob Kauflin, “Seven Myths of Contextualization”: “If most of the congregation isn’t singing, you’re not contextualizing, you’re performing. . . . Contextualizing evangelism practices is different from contextualizing congregational meetings.”
- Alex Duke, “Nine Marks of a Healthy Worship Leader”: “Your worship leader should be invisible (almost). . . . Your worship leader should work in close tandem with the preacher.”
- Ligioneer on “Dead Worship“: “If worship is not leading us to repent and do good, it is not worship from the heart. We must remember, as Matthew Henry comments, that ‘the sacrifice of the wicked is really an abomination to [God].’”
Radical exists to equip Christians to be on mission.
