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.
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