Baal Worship?

This is an excerpt from a thread on ABET. What do you think is the relationship between trinitarian worship and personal satisfaction? I am very sympathetic with Peter's insistence that we worship God, not our own experience. But does that mean that worship must be "no fun." as if the less we enjoy it the more authentic it will be? I think the way to a resolution lies in better understanding the dimensions of work and leisure, sacrament and festivity, which Josef Pieper masterfully handles in his book, In Tune with the World: A Theory of Festivity (St. Augustine's Press, 1999).

Lloyd Ahlem:
Mr. Weber should have been at CHIC 2k3. The worship music was modern beat,loud and ear busting. But self centered, it was not. It was clearly focused on Jesus, and secondarily on the worshippers. I am no fan of rock beat Christian music, but CHIC redeemed a lot of it in calling kids to worship and to follow Jesus. I am a fan of Robert Weber's kind of thinking, but maybe he haslistened too long to his own thoughts.

Peter A. Kozushko:
Lloyd, I think Webber's concern is that in some churches contemporary worship tends to be as Eugene Peterson says "...reduced to the spiritual stature of the worshipper. It's canons are that it should be interesting, relevant, and exciting."This is Baalism which seeks to give its worshippers satisfaction. It's more focused on "experience"--getting something out of worship, fulfilling personal needs with convincing immediacy. The phrases: "let's have a worship experience" and "I don't get anything out of it" are Baalistic, substituting the phrase "let's worship God".

If people enjoy worship or participate more in it because they like the music they are likely worshipping because of the experience rather than because they want to worship God. That's a problem. I'm sure that at CHIC many of our youth were truly worshipping God and were freed to do so because they worshipping in a way familiar to them.

I believe that expressing worship and devotion to God in ways familiar to us does enables us to worship God in an authentic way. That's why worship at our church is contemporary. Our youth participate because of it. The down side of this though, is that there are some youth and adults who participate because it's just plain fun. I'm sure that was the case for many youth at CHIC. For them it was fun to sing, clap, jump, scream, and dance. It was a rush. They had and experience with worship rather than God. That's not why we worship. I think in many churches that is why they worship the way they do--to get a rush
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Peter A. Kozushko
Associate Pastor
Countryside Community Church
Sherwood, OR
Web Site: www.countrysidechurch.com