Using secular songs and more in worship services - 2017 edition (Original BLOG about this was in 2013)
What is a worship service? Seriously? Who is it for?
Dictionary.com defines worship as:
1. reverent
2. formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage:
They attended worship this morning.
3. adoring reverence or regard.
4. the object of adoring reverence or regard.
So if that is what worship is, to give honour and praise to God, giving Him the worship that He is due, then I fail to see why churches use secular music in the service. The argument is to be seeker friendly, to appeal to those outside the church to bring them in.
If that's the case, should we be serving beer at services too? What about using PG-13 clips with swearing and having violence and more in them to be acceptable to seekers? Where do we draw the line?
A worship service is something designed with God in mind, not a person off the street. It's FOR Him, not for us or anyone else. If we offer secular music in praise of our God, is He well pleased with what He hears? I don't think so.
To me using secular music or secular skits and more to draw a crowd defeats the purpose. It's trying too hard in man's power to try and reach the lost. Christian music has so many styles to match what's out there that we don't need to cross the line and use secular music in our worship services to God. It takes the passage from 1 Corinthians 9:21 - 23 out of context: 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. The passage was not saying to use the world's music in worshiping God. You can't worship God with a song that has no message trying to do so. Two different mindsets. It can't bridge the gap, only the message of the Gospel can.
Then that's just me...
Dictionary.com defines worship as:
1. reverent
2. formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage:
They attended worship this morning.
3. adoring reverence or regard.
4. the object of adoring reverence or regard.
So if that is what worship is, to give honour and praise to God, giving Him the worship that He is due, then I fail to see why churches use secular music in the service. The argument is to be seeker friendly, to appeal to those outside the church to bring them in.
If that's the case, should we be serving beer at services too? What about using PG-13 clips with swearing and having violence and more in them to be acceptable to seekers? Where do we draw the line?
A worship service is something designed with God in mind, not a person off the street. It's FOR Him, not for us or anyone else. If we offer secular music in praise of our God, is He well pleased with what He hears? I don't think so.
To me using secular music or secular skits and more to draw a crowd defeats the purpose. It's trying too hard in man's power to try and reach the lost. Christian music has so many styles to match what's out there that we don't need to cross the line and use secular music in our worship services to God. It takes the passage from 1 Corinthians 9:21 - 23 out of context: 21 To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22 To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. 23 I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. The passage was not saying to use the world's music in worshiping God. You can't worship God with a song that has no message trying to do so. Two different mindsets. It can't bridge the gap, only the message of the Gospel can.
Then that's just me...
