Evangelicals and worship

One of the ways in which I’m a square peg is I’m quite Evangelical, Fundamentalist even, in my beliefs, but not in how I best worship.

It’s gotten to the point where at times it’s hard for me to endure the evangelical worship formula of 5 or 6 “praise and worship� songs then a sermon. And those who run in the circles I do know what I mean by “formula.� Evangelical worship can be so numbingly uniform it’s pretty safe to say that many (most?) U. S. evangelicals think “worship� is singing P and W songs with maybe some 19th century Baptist-type songs thrown in (Yes, I don’t like those either. They tend to be overly sentimental and immusical.). For many, that’s about the only church service they know. But, especially when not done well, this type of “worship� makes it hard for me to worship at all. Sometimes, I just have to sit down (That’s another thing. Some worship leaders insist that proper worship singing is done standing up – for 5 songs in a row. My legs seriously distract me then.), tune the service out, and pray.

I’m not ranting, am I?

Anyway, as you can guess, my favorite mode of worship has become traditional Anglican liturgy. It really helps me, well, worship God, both in church and alone. And I’m not an old cud. Some of my purest worship experiences are just God, me, and a Bible out in nature. One of my most memorable worship experiences has even been a Moby concert.

I don’t know how many are like me – evangelical in belief but not in worship style -- but I know way too few church leaders provide a place for us. Take evangelical Anglican Archbishop Jensen of Sydney, for example. I very much respect him and appreciate his stand for orthodox Christian truth in an age of untruth. But he doesn’t seem to adequately appreciate the importance of traditional worship to many. His diocese is going more and more to “contemporary� (i.e. pedestrian middle of the road P and W) worship. Lately, he discontinued a long-standing Sunday Choral Evensong service at Sydney Cathedral. And that has a lot of people upset (In fact, some of the language on this link is inappropriate.). And it saddens me as well.

There are a lot of evangelicals like me who long to worship. And the same old P and W routine just doesn’t cut it for us. That style of worship is great for many, but not for everyone. Church and worship leaders should wise up to that.

In the meantime, churches that both are faithful to the Bible and really help people like me worship are oft few and far between.

It shouldn’t be that way.