The Church in America part 4: Corporate Worship

Putting the evil of politics on hold for a while, I want to go back to a series I started a few weeks ago about the Church in America. I want to deal with the topic of worship in our churches today, and how I feel that too much is being made over people's opinion and not enough on what the Bible has to say. Church growth gurus and marketers have turned the church into a coffee shop, bookstore, come as you are, irreverent gathering in my humble opinion. Now, I know those are strong words, but look at how churches try to attract people today. It is appalling the lengths some will go to just to make their church look better than all the other ones around them. I read a blog the other day that mentioned a church starting up in a town that sent out cards that asked the question, "Does you churches music s*ck?" Of course the church brochure didn't even have the decency to put an asterisk in the word on the mail out. Now, what type of church leader would ever think that would be an effective way to get the attention of the people in his area to come check out his church? Probably some young 20-30 something who thinks the church is full of a bunch of old people who need to get out so that more young people will show up to have a good time. I feel this not only is a sad commentary on the leadership of the church, but also a neglect of a biblical principle of the older generation teaching the younger. But, in our society today "old" is viewed as being out of date and lacking in attraction. "New" is viewed as being relative and impressionable. Is this what we think of the church, too? We need churches to be "hip" and "cool" so that people will show up? What about the Gospel? Do we need to change it too so that people will come to our churches? Many have today and in the process are leading many people astray. They think they have eternal life, but they do not. Why? Because of a war between culture and doctrine. Can the two co-exist? Yes. Should our churches forsake thousands of years of history so that people will feel more comfortable? No.
Contemporary music is not inherently evil, but the idea behind it leads to a pragmatism that I don't think the scripture allows. I know me being more of a regulatory principle guy skews my view, but why do we think just because the scripture might be silent on something gives us permission to do whatever we want and claim it as a Freedom in Christ. Whatever happened to erring on the side of caution in our corporate gatherings? Should not our focus be on uplifting Christ, even if that means putting personal preference aside to make sure that is being done?
At the church I pastor we don't have "special" music or choral music. We do this because I feel scripture directs us to corporate worship that lifts up God by the participation of the whole. When you put your focus on one person or a selected few it is harder to put your thoughts on God and not the "talents" of the performers. We also only sing hymns, because I feel they do a better job of saying what the scripture says, and not simply focusing on individual worship. If I had my way completely I would only sing songs that mention "us" and "we" (focus on the whole) instead of songs that use the words "I" or "me" (focus on the individual). I would also change songs that mention "I" and "me" if they are good hymns that should still be sung but with more of a corporate focus.
Why go to all this trouble? Because I think we need to change the mindset that many in the church have today. We live in a world that is fit to our needs. "Your way right away" is a motto many in America live by, and think the church should, too. But the Church was built on the Rock, Christ. It is not ours to mold into something we like at the time, nor should we let the unsaved tell us what they want. I mean where does it stop when all we are concerned about is satisfying the consumer instead of giving Praise to the Father? Let's make our churches TRUE sanctuaries of worship by making sure we are focused on the Father first, faithful to the scriptures second and thirdly, concerned with the worship of the whole instead of the glorification of a few. And this goes for all secondary matters in the church because music style, wardrobe, and architecture should be the last thing dividing the church when people are questioning the authority of Scripture, unsure of the definition of marriage, and when parents have forsaken their responsibility to teach their own children the Word of God.