All kidding aside

Dave Black has some sage words regarding the viral Contemporvant video. It is funny but there is also something decidedly unfunny underlying the assumptions a lot of the church makes as it pertains to "worship" and the gathering of the church.

I see that the Contemporvant video is making the rounds this afternoon in the biblioblogs (go here, for example). I watched it, and indeed it provides some comic relief from the tedium of the day. Of course, pointing out the evils of "contemporary worship" (and emergent worship seems to take the brunt of the criticism) actually misses the point. We are experts at magnifying the trivial. The problem with contemporary worship is not that it artificially whips up joy among Christians -- the same kind of enthusiasm that was whipped up at my high school football games by the cheerleaders. No, the problem is the unbiblical notion that the purpose of the gathering of believers is for worship. It most certainly is not, as Paul makes clear in 1 Cor. 12-14. Would that Christians learned what it means to worship 24/7, as we are commanded to in Rom. 12:1-2. How the old nature wants to take off after every distraction that comes our way. Sorry, but I doubt that contemporary worship is "contemptible." I much rather think that what is contemptible is our eisegesis of Scripture. We must somehow get over the idea that we gather in order to worship, as well as the idea that we cannot be "church" without our worship centers and our worship folders and our worship teams and our worship leaders. We enter to serve and depart to worship!