Fast Food Worship - Reforming Worship #2

One of the great problems of the evangelical church is making worship into a form of entertainment. Of course, people will not admit it, but let’s think about this together for a minute. Entertainment, as we are defining it here, is any activity that holds the attention or interest of people, usually with the intent of giving pleasure or delight. Now, think about the way most churches craft their worship “experience” and how pastors craft their messages. It’s all about grabbing attention, appealing to people’s immediate felt needs and interests, and aiming that they would leave church on Sunday motivated, encouraged, and uplifted.

Now, you might argue that there is nothing inherently wrong with having a band, a pastor, and an order of service that holds people’s attention and makes them feel good. The problem, though, is when this becomes the top priority. Think of it this way: when you eat, there is nothing wrong with your food tasting good, but food is more than that—it’s supposed to nourish your body. What fast food companies make to sell is taste without nutrients. It’s a kind of counterfeit deliciousness, because no real food in the world can taste that way. The problem is that over time, you start thinking food is supposed to taste like that, and real food becomes boring and tasteless. It takes time and discipline for you to learn to enjoy the taste of real food again.

That’s exactly what has happened to worship in the evangelical world. The modern evangelical church applied business techniques to the church world and created an experience that sells. They made people addicted to it. And now you have a whole generation of malnourished Christians who find true worship boring and tasteless. Their biblical understanding is pathetic; they have no strength or ability to fight against sin, no taste for true holiness. They like singing about their own feelings and struggles, they enjoy sermons that are short, watered down, and upbeat, they have very little understanding or appreciation for the sacraments, prayer for them is self-centred, and fellowship means coffee or potlucks.

The church needs to go back to true and biblical worship—centred around the Word and the sacraments, having the cross at the center as the means by which we approach the glorious throne of God, with the great goal of giving honour, praise, and glory to the one living God, who is fully deserving of our undivided attention and affections.

Nino Marques