Thus says the Lord: "Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.
But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'" --Jeremiah 6:16

 

23 July, 2007   comments: (0) Today's Worship   If They Call Worship Fun, Then It's Time To Run Do any of these promotional slogans make any sense to you? Come to our restaurant and be touched deeply to the point of tears. The comedy at our health club is sure to tickle your funny bone. Your trip to our dentist office will be intellectually stimulating. Church ought to be fun. I don't know about you, but all of those descriptions seem more than a little out of place for their environments. Maybe they would be an attempt at marketing something with the aim of getting people to overcome their stereotypes of those places. In the case of many churches, the come for the fun concept has become an essential for growth. The pressure is on, churches are doing their best to make worship entertaining. Take for example this page on the Saddleback church website entitled "Just For Fun", which says that in one particular worship service God was honored and "it was so much fun". The commenters on that page seem to agree. Another pastor said that his goal as a leader is "To impact my community with the message that God loves them. I want people to know that God rocks and church can and should be fun. It literally is that simple to me." Are we communicating to a new generation that God is all fun and games? One of the sermon 'highlights' from a preacher was said to be his line: "Jesus must have been a fun guy because he gave people nicknames". A friend and Old Truth reader did a web search on the keywords fun and church, and here's a sampling of what he came up with. Thanks to Al for this list of links and the quotes that we found on them: If it ain't fun it ain't church [+] We believe church is for everyone; it should be fun, exciting, powerful and relevant [+] Church should be creative, fun and relevant to our daily lives! Church should be a safe, casual place to explore your relationship with God! [+] We do church a little differently. ... Come discover a fun, meaningful place designed for you and your family! [+] We believe church should be fun, exciting and adventurous! Having a real and growing relationship with God and others shouldn't be boring, monotonous, or ritualistic.[+] We believe that life (and church) should be fun. ...High-energy music, practical messages, and real relationships - now, that's fun! [+] Fun & Games. Who says church should always be serious? Below are links to some of our favorite amusements. Enjoy! [see their 'fun page'] we think church should be fun, exciting and relevant while still maintaining the life-changing truths of the Gospel. Pastor Diane will make you laugh, cry and ponder with her entertaining style. Every Sunday Pastor Diane delivers a practical message aimed at helping you walk in God's favor and blessing.[+] The only question is will your kids have more fun than you will? [+] We believe church should be fun [+] [+] [+] [+] [+] The music-and other arts-should rock. And, if God is the source of joy (which He claims to be), church should be fun! We believe that church should be at least 63.3% more fun than anything else you could do on Sunday morning. [+] Fun - In all things. Nehemiah 8:10b; John 15:11 (they cite verses that talk about joy) [+] If these churches want to follow a biblical precedent, and that's a big if, their best shot is in tweaking the meaning of the word 'joy' as the last church did when they cited those two verses. The Greek word for Joy in John 15:11 is Xara. But look at this list of places where the word is used in the New Testament, and try swapping out the word "Joy" and replace it with the word "Fun" instead. Do the verses still make sense when you do that? It's really bending scripture to try and make joy and fun interchangeable terms; they mean two different things. I look forward to going to my church gatherings every week; I can't wait to go. I enjoy them immensely, but I would never call them 'fun'. I also agree with RC Sproul in his book The Holiness of God, when he reminds his readers that of all of the times in scripture where somebody had an encounter with God, none of them ever depict the presence of God as "boring". True worship is never boring. But when I hear of churches today that describe themselves as 'fun', I think of this quote from one of my favorite Puritan books, entitled Gospel Worship: "The reason men worship God in a casual way is because they do not see God in His Glory. If a man has ever had Isaiah's vision of the Holiness of God, he would be changed in an instant. But until men have seen God as He truly is they will be forever guilty of the very same rebuke that God gave to the wicked in Psalms 50:21 'You thought I was just like you'." --Jeremiah Burroughs Chad is currently reading Gospel Worship, perhaps he will give us some thoughts on the book, or even write a review for us when he's done. I'm guessing that he's going to agree that, if you are looking for a church, and you find one that advertises their worship as 'fun' then it's time to run. Run in the opposite direction! Posted by: Jim B.   Link: http://www.oldtruth.com/blog.cfm/id.2.pid.743   Be the first to post a comment about this article        Home  |   About  |  Videos   |  Calvinism