When worship is seen as anything but giving praise to God for his attributes, thanksgiving for his sovereign providence, confession of our sin and glorifying all members of the Triune God it becomes false. When music is used as a vehicle for emotional experiences and lyrics focus on our own needs and desires, it misses the mark.
Many churches take it even further incorporating secular music into the mix, trying to give the appearance of “relevance” to the unsaved who may be present. When the goal is to make worship palatable to unbelievers then it’s no longer worshipping God.
False teaching and false worship are often two wings of the same bird. Both bend the purpose of the church toward pleasing men over pleasing God. The urgency to attract and retain as many as possible leads to weakening the commitment to the gospel truth, which is both offensive and foolish to the unregenerate unbeliever. A worldly pragmatism says it’s ok to use almost any means to bring in the sinners to the church. Coincidentally, or not, the higher, and increasing attendance almost inevitably leads to more money in the offering. But many pastors and leaders today see no problem with that. It’s all about growth, quantity over quality, whether they admit it or not.
Here are some resources to delve into this issue in greater depth.
Exhibit 1
This is an excellent video defining the issues of modern worship
Exhibit 2
This is a parody of a modern worship song. It does get some very good points across, delivered with some humor.
Exhibit 3
From Revealing Truth, makes the point that music can be a gateway to bad theology and drawn to heretical churches.
Exhibit 4
Kdubtru does a great breakdown of the difference between genuine emotions inspired by truth vs emotionalism, which is our emotion apart from truth. Great reminder that the Bible tells us that we are transformed by the renewal of our minds, and that our hearts are deceptive. Any teacher telling us to lose our minds, and only yield to our emotions is veering off the path.
