Collide Magazine

Our Entertainment Worship Culture

Daniel Darnell - Originally posted Monday, June 8, 2009 -

“We are not producing worshipers in this country. Rather, we are producing a generation of spectators, religious onlookers lacking, in many cases, a true encounter with God, deprived of both the tangible sense of God’s presence and the supernatural relationship their inmost spirits crave.”—Sally Morgenthaler, Worship Evangelism

The state of worship in our churches concerns me. Specifically, the emphasis on entertainment in our corporate worship gatherings concerns me, especially as it pertains to music. Recently, I attended several churches where I felt more like a spectator than a worshiper. Like Sally Morgenthaler, I fear we are cultivating an unhealthy entertainment worship culture.

The Danger of Entertainment
Entertainment is often defined as something affording pleasure, diversion, or amusement. Whether we attend a sporting event, rock concert, or movie, we go to be entertained. We are spectators of a performance. In some churches, a visitor could easily confuse a worship service with a rock concert or theatrical performance. Why, then, do we engineer that kind of atmosphere in many of our worship experiences?

We can all agree that in order to be relevant to our culture we must speak the language of our culture. The apostle Paul made this argument in 1 Corinthians 9:22 when he said he willingly became all things to all men so that some may be saved. As much as our churches need to speak the language of our culture, we must remember that relevance is not our highest purpose.

Joe Horness, a former worship leader at Willow Creek Community Church, writes in Exploring the Worship Spectrum, “We can easily gear our worship times around what we think is hip or cool and forget that our primary calling is to serve our congregation and help them meet with God.” If we are entertaining our congregations with songs from the Top 40 charts rather than engaging them with truth and drawing them to God, are we really fulfilling the purpose of our gathering?

Sadly, entertainment is often sold in the name of evangelism. We are told that in order to attract unbelievers, our worship must be entertaining and exciting. While our church services should engage our congregations, we have to be careful not to teach people that a worship service exists for their entertainment rather than for God’s glory.

Paul Goebel, a worship leader at Park Cities Presbyterian Church in Dallas, believes that while entertainment may bring people in the door, it falls short of leading them to worship. “We must strive to never find our selves distracted by tradition or nostalgia, nor by what is cutting edge or trendy. As human beings on this side of Heaven, it is easy to get distracted by the things that bring us to God and stop short at the door to the Throne.”

Unfortunately, even our attempts to be relevant often fall short. In his book, Whatever Happened to Worship, A.W. Tozer writes: “Oh, brother or sister, God calls us to worship, but in many instances we are in entertainment, just running a poor second to the theaters. That is where we are, even in the evangelical churches, and I don't mind telling you that most of the people we say we are trying to reach will never come to a church to see a lot of amateur actors putting on a home talent show.”

Our culture doesn’t want to attend a poorly executed talent show for God when far better entertainment options are readily available. At this point we could argue the need for excellence in churches, but then we run the risk of focusing on the quality of performance rather than the objective of leading our congregations in worship.

While entertainment is not an inherently bad thing, its place in a worship service must be questioned. “The line between worship and entertainment is determined by the object of affection,” says Goebel. “Entertainment is for the purpose of pleasing the human ear. Worship is for the purpose of pleasing God.” When our worship services exist to simply please the ears of the congregation rather than the heart of God, can we still honestly call them worship services?

As the apostle Paul writes in Galatians 1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.” Clearly, who we are trying to please in our worship services is of utmost importance.

Taking a Step Back
This is by no means a call to eliminate all forms of performance art from our worship services; rather, it is a plea to examine our use of them. We must question whether such performances are for entertaining our congregations or edifying them. When the church encourages the overuse of performance in our worship services, we reinforce the expectation of entertainment. The more emphasis we place on entertaining our congregations rather than engaging them and inviting them into worship, the more we cultivate an entertainment worship culture. We make spectators instead of worshipers.

We need to take a step back and reevaluate the purpose behind our worship services. We need to ask ourselves why we do what we do. In beginning this process, I see four important steps:

Understand Worship—Unfortunately, many of us have an incomplete or skewed view of true worship. Worship extends far beyond music; it is our continuous response to God, in all that we do, because of who He is. A proper understanding of worship will shape how we lead our congregations. (For a more on worship, see the recommended reading sidebar.)

Check Our Hearts—While our intentions in using entertainment in our services can be pure, we must constantly check our motives—we are all capable of placing our confidence in manmade things. As we incorporate music into our services, we should ask ourselves these questions:
• What purpose does this song serve in our time of worship?
• What does the song have to say about God and us?
• How is this song drawing people to the Lord?

Know Our Congregations—Every church is unique, so no one formula works for all churches. Just because a church in Seattle worships in a particular manner doesn’t mean it’s the right formula for our church. We must know what engages their minds, speaks to their souls, and enables them to participate in worship.

Pray—While this last point may sound cliché, it is of great importance. Leading our congregations in worship is not a minor task. Left to our own devices, our worship times can become about us. We must be in constant prayer, asking for the Lord’s guidance as we seek to serve and worship Him.

The Fine Line
May we all examine our motives and hearts as we program our corporate worship services. May we never seek to entertain the ears of man, but rather engage their hearts and always strive to bring glory to our God. In the end, I pray that the Church would produce passionate worshippers of the Lord rather than mere spectators of passing entertainment.

Daniel Darnell is a COLLIDE staff writer. He has been involved in leading worship for the past nine years.