A loser in the worship wars

Just as entitlements have been the "third rail" in American politics, so it is with worship among Evangelicals. "Chaplain Mike" at Internet Monk, touched that rail yesterday and today revisits the subject: "Let Me Restate That…A Rant Clarified." I agree with him [just another loser]. A selection from those clarifications:

• When I say I am a loser in the worship wars, it is not just because most churches today have chosen a style of music that doesn’t suit me. I like and play all kinds of music, and have used a great variety of styles in leading worship.
• When I say I am a “loser” in the worship wars, I mean that I feel the evangelical church took “worship” away from me. It changed the definition and ethos of worship. The church growth strategy that has overwhelmed today’s evangelical church uses music as a tool to attract people to church and stimulate them into particular emotional states, then calls that “worship.” ....
• Can we embrace the simple concept that we gather as believers for worship, and then scatter into the world to do our service? “Worship” was never intended to be an outreach to the lost and unchurched. So, worship together as God’s family, with grace and hospitality, of course, to those who may visit you. But then learn that the “Christian life” is not one lived in the confines of the “temple” (the church program). Make Monday-Saturday your primary context of outreach and service and attraction to Jesus Christ as you live out your vocations in the world. We are called to win people by our lives, not by having them attend an entertaining program. .... [more]

Let Me Restate That…A Rant Clarified | internetmonk.com