Amy Kaylor: "Modern Worship is Missing the Truth"

“God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth” ­
--John 4:24,

By Amy Kaylor
from The Sojourn,
the student newspaper at Indiana Wesleyan University



(Warning: this is a very provocative piece. But I think it's a worthwhile corrective to the subjectivism that dominates much of postmodern worship. --BB)

I’m sick of worshiping myself. Is anybody with me on this?

I used to be all about “modern worship.” Hymnals? Yuck! Let’s break out the Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, “this-is-the-air-I-breathe-I-love-you-I-will-never-let-you-go” songs. But somewhere along the line, I got tired of singing about how I feel and what I’m going to do.

The problem I have with modern worship—whether in IWU chapel or in the local church—is the phenomenon of what others have so aptly named “Jesus is my boyfriend” songs. When you think about it, most of the “praise choruses” we sing to God could really be sung to a boyfriend/girlfriend, without changing much of anything.

As a result of all this emotional sappiness, our “praise and worship” has lost a whole lot of meaning. We’re not really worshiping God at all—we’re worshiping our feelings. These days, I’m hard pressed to find one slide in a worship set that doesn’t have the word “I” or “me” anywhere on it. These pronouns are problematic in and of themselves (the Bride of Christ is the collective Church, so shouldn’t it be “we”?), but the point is, it’s about us. Despite the fact that we sing, “It’s all about You, Jesus,” we sure don’t act like it.

I’m not saying using “I” or “me” is wrong; I firmly believe that there’s a place in worship for subjective, emotional response. But that’s just it—it should be a response. What are those subjective emotions based on? If they come as a response to the objective truth of God—His character and His actions—then fine. Let’s respond to those revelations by telling God how much we love Him, how desperate we are for Him, how we’re never going to leave Him.

But I don’t always feel that warm-fuzzy “in love” feeling about Christ; He isn’t always “my heart’s one desire,” and chances are, I won’t always cling desperately to Him. I’m not that constant. What sustains my faith is the fact that He is. In worship, we need to focus our attention, our songs of praise, on the One who is worthy of worship. Let’s sing about His mighty acts, His glorious deeds. Even better yet, let’s sing about who He is—sovereign, holy, merciful, loving, righteous, for starters—besides what He does for us.

If we’re singing about God, I can worship regardless of how I feel. Sure, I’d like to “feel” close to Him, but even if I don’t, I can still sing about how and why He’s so worthy of my praise. But when I don’t “feel” close to God, I can’t do much of anything in most modern worship services.

During one recent chapel, we sang: “…all I really long for is You / All I really yearn for is You…” I sat in silence because I couldn’t honestly sing those words—can you? Really? If so, please write a letter to the editor and tell me your secret…cause although I want that to be true, I long for other things besides God. I yearn for other people than Him.

I went to Sunnycrest Baptist Church for the first time last weekend, and I didn’t know many of the songs we sang. But what a breath of fresh air! We were actually singing about God, not about ourselves. We were declaring the splendor and majesty of our Creator, our Savior, our Counselor—and that made me want to respond.

Response is valuable, but only if it’s response. You’ve got to have something substantial to respond to—otherwise all that emotion is pointless. I understand that leading worship and selecting song sets is difficult; I’ve done it. But won’t our worship be a whole lot more meaningful if we start worshiping God and stop worshiping our feelings? My feelings won’t be the same an hour from now, let alone next week…but my God is the same yesterday, today and forever—and that is worthy of my praise.

http://www.indwes.edu/tuesday/worship.amy.kaylor.htm