Passive “worship�

My post Saturday seems to have touched a chord. Apparently, I’m not alone in being an evangelical/fundamentalist who is frustrated with evangelical worship.

A thread through several of the comments is how passive most non-liturgical evangelical worship is. And indeed it often is. I’ve gone to countless services where the only active thing the congregation does is sing. And if you don’t like to sing (And during immusical songs and after about four songs, I don’t.), then too bad.

I suspect the passivity of so much Western evangelical worship is one factor that helped the rise of charismatic churches. Whatever you think of the charismatic movement, their worship is not passive! I suspect that passive evangelical worship is now also prodding increased interest in traditional liturgical worship. Although in many ways the opposite end of the worship style spectrum from charismatic worship, liturgical worship is quite active, too. Try sitting like a bump in the pew during a liturgical service. You’ll soon feel quite out of place!

Someone may say that I, along with my likeminded friends, are whiners. That the heart of worship is just that – the heart. And that if our hearts are right, we can worship anywhere at anytime. And I freely admit that’s all true (except for the whiner bit). Myself, I’ve been worshipping a lot going down I-35 lately.

But we are humans with bodies with five senses that can help us or distract us from worship.

For example, posture makes a difference. Personally, I've discovered kneeling helps me to pray. I don’t know why, but it does. On the other hand, being expected to stand for too long distracts me and makes it difficult to maintain a good attitude. Sitting continually has a similar effect on others.

Not to mention it’s just Biblical for worship to be done right. From Leviticus to I Corinthians to Psalm 150, there are a lot of verses given to worshiping God right.

I’m rambling a bit, and I’ll probably post more about worship. But it suffices to say that the sloppy, passive worship of many evangelical churches just doesn’t cut it for me and many others.