Wednesday, February 7, 2007

Focused on feelings

Joel Osborn at SDB Forums brought this post by Bob Kauflin to my attention. "Should worship be fun?"
More than once I've heard Christians claim that worship should be fun, or act like they had a responsibility to prove that Christians knew how to "party" in church. I've always been uncomfortable with that connection, so I started thinking about the place of "fun" in worship, if one even exists. ....

...[W]hen defined as enjoyment and not seen as the only aspect of worship, worshipping God can be very "fun." People shouldn't find our meetings dull or dour. Smiles and even laughter should abound as we consider how kind, merciful, and gracious God has been to us (Ps. 126:2)!
In the comments section, one of the responses put the issue into the right perspective:
.... Enjoying God is inherently enjoyable, but to center on that enjoyment spoils the entire experience because we lose sight of the (infinitely worthy) object of enjoyment by focusing on the feeling of enjoyment instead. We are called to delight in God, not delight in delighting in God. The former is righteous and proper, the second is idolatry. And I think that is a helpful word to keep in mind when discussing this topic. [my emphasis]
Source: Worship Matters: Should Worship Be Fun?

From the Westminster Catechism:
What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.

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