Is Worship A Matter of Personal Preference?

Is how we worship a matter of preference? Do people who want upbeat and happy worship go to a Pentecostal church or a church that might have that. Maybe you just want a nice rock band type of atmosphere were you want to go to church and feel like your at a concert. Maybe if you like something liturgical then you go to a church that can give you that. Is how we worship God the some kind of decision as shopping at one grocery store over another, or how some like country but others like rap. Let me say I think we are doing something horrid when we say that how we worship the God of the universe the one who creates everything and holds things together is the same as whether we like ketchup or mustard on our hot dog, or is it just a matter of preference like whether you use a PC or MAC.

Its about time we stop confusing what we want with what God wants. There in no other time in history other then our own in which the preference card has been played in worship. I have been around the block as far as “styles” of worship go I have been in just about any kind of style. I was once the first person the pull the whole preference card. What I would often say would be “I’m glad you can get something out of that style of service but I just don't get anything from it.”


Let me be blunt, this type of outlook, which is common and what you would typically hear argued is an idolatry. What your saying is you cannot worship God because of the music. That your own personal preference means so much to you that unless you get what you want God is not someone you can worship. Not only does it confuse the music in worship as something that is done for you. For your own spiritual high and enrichment. I’m sorry to break it too you, but your worshiping yourself and your own tastes and not Jesus Christ.


So let me ask you if your ultra hip church that really caters to your preferences this Sunday announced that they would now be only singing unaccompanied psalms from now on, would your response be sorry guys this stuff just does not hit my sweet spot and give me warm fuzzy's and emotional highs which I mistake for God. So I am going down the street. Sorry but if that’s what you think the problem is with you, and you need to repent because you are worshiping an Idol.


I think one of the greatest drawbacks to how the modern church sees worships is that we have condensed the definition of worship to mean the 34 songs that are sung at the beginning of the service, rather then worship being the entire service from beginning to end with all its parts.


As I mentioned I used to be the poster boy for the worship is a matter of preference argument. I now get rather insulted when someone tries to tell me that how God is worshiped is a matter of personal preference. I go to what some might call a traditional church or a liturgical church, I don't go there because hymns really hit my sweet spot and the order of worship just makes me feel like God is cuddling or hugging me. I go to the church I do because I think that it is Biblical worship and how worship should be done, because there is a right and wrong way to worship God, so next time please don't say that worship is a matter of preference because my preference is the last thing I take into account. Has anyone asked God his opinion? It seems that God nor scripture has even consulted in the preference argument, the judge on how God is to worshiped is made to be man rather then God. I mean it seems to me if one reads the Old Testament that God is very particular about how it is that he is to be worshiped the detail that goes into how he is to be worshiped is vast. Let me ask this question can we worship God in anyway we deem fit as long as he has not said not to? Or are we to only worship God how he has commanded he to be worshiped? Its not a unimportant thing, its has deep far reaching consequences one that we would do well to contemplate because if it is God who dictates how he is to be worshiped then our churches might be dramatically changed.

How Church Culture Differs Between California and Maritime Canada.

 

I realize its been a long time since I wrote on here, and honestly I was never like I was really very good at posting to begin with. So full disclaimer, during this post i will look at my observations in comparing the church in California and the church of Maritimes. Now keep in mind these are my own observations and rather then talk about America and Canada I have chosen to look at two particular area I have spent the most time in, rather then make broad generalization that may not even exist if we are talking about British Columbia and Wyoming. Now its worthwhile to note that Christianity between these two places have similarities butt there is also strong differences, just as both are on opposites sides of the continent and separate countries so to the Christian culture between the two really varies.

• I notice that in California the church is politically charged, you might be thinking that  did not have to leave Canada to notice that. Its something that Canadians have noticed for years. Canada has never had a religious right within politics like America. Even respected brothers who otherwise are grounded and knowledgeable in the faith a will often seem to talk as if the ten commandments and the U.S Constitution are the same thing, when you talk about gun control or free health care
• I find that I have found that in the Maritimes the Social Gospel tends to have more of a predominant role within evangelical churches then in California. As someone who has no love for the Social Gospel this is one thing I like about America over Canada, I find churches in California more concerned with evangelism and church planting while my interaction with churches in the Maritimes tends to lean more towards social justice.
• Pentecostal/Charismatic movement has taken more of a dominant role in California probable because Los Angelos was the hot bed of that movement 100 years ago. The Maritime Pentecostals seem to have always struggled in some area, even mistrusted as not having the kind in historical connection other churches have. That being said the movement has had a big effect in subtle ways such as modern worship music with many baptists church really being unofficially Pentecostal.
• Spring boarding  a bit off my last comment in California there tends to be a dislike to denominations. I have heard of people who refuse to go to a church unless they are independent and non denominational. A friend told me about a friend of his who said there was not church in his area, despite the fact he lived next to a fairly descent Presbyterian church, his argument was he could not go there because it was a denominational church. I have found in the Maritimes almost the opposite in that unless your Baptist, United, Presbyterian, Anglican then you lack allot of trust and credibility. I do think this is changing in some ways. Whether that is good or bad, I will not cover now.
• Generally speaking the church in the Maritimes has strong roots culturally. Many people despite never stepping in a church since there baptism at 6 months identify strongly with a denomination. Entire families identify and hold deep loyalty to there churches despite never going to church and frankly not even believing in God. Depending on the family watch out if a Baptist goes Presbyterian or vice versa. In that same vain the Maritimes tend to still carry strong echoes of the conflict of Romanism and Protestantism. Growing up not really in the active church I always knew we were Protestant, the thing was I knew I was Protestant  long before I ever knew what a Christian was. I remember growing up my Nanny telling me stories about street wars between the Roman Catholic kids and Protestant kids growing up in North Sydney, this however may not be the same time honored tradition in every Maritime family.
• You do not need to go far to find traditional churches in the Maritimes but many of these cannot begin to tell you why, they will tell you its whats always been done and why change it now. (I get weird looks here when I tell people I have been to liturgical baptist churches were the pastor wears a robe.) I have been part of and currently a member of a church that is both traditional and liturgical but the refreshing difference is that they can tell me why they do what they do and do to so in a scriptural and biblical way. Its really my prayer that my people can experience this same thing.
• As I have observed it Dispensationalism tends to be more of a strong force in California, perhaps its because the Masters College and John MacArthur are just down the road. Maritime Christians and churches either are apathetic and do not know what it is nor how to spell it or by historic default hold to a basic form of Covenant theology. Yet there is still very much pockets here and there and its most popular in its eschatology form.