Thank you for sharing this thoughtful reflection. It challenged me to remember that worship is not about constantly chasing emotional highs or exciting experiences, but about faithfully fixing our hearts on God. Some of the deepest moments of worship happen in quiet obedience, daily surrender, and steadfast faith, even when our emotions are silent. Romans 12:1 reminds us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is our true and proper worship. Jesus also said in John 4:23-24 that the Father is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Worship is ultimately about God's worth, not our feelings. Hebrews 13:15 encourages us to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and Psalm 95:6 invites us to come, bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. Thank you for this encouraging reminder that faithfulness often grows in the ordinary moments. May we learn to delight in God's presence whether the moment feels exciting or quiet, knowing that He is always worthy of our praise and devotion.
I am curious your take on worship in more embodied and expressive cultures? Is your critique aimed more directly at the White American church? I agree with most of your points and it gave words to something I have felt in charismatic spaces… however, I have been in African churches that no one would categorize as boring yet the felt authentic to me… I would have trouble conflating them with some of the more mega church style of worship influenced by the industrial complex… Just kind of thinking out loud here, but would love to hear your thought? thanks.
Thank you. I had these same questions in mind as I wrote the piece. I will try my best to articulate my thoughts. Although my context of church is strictly American, I think what I am touching on is bigger than what is happening stateside. For instance, Hillsong is one of the giants of the worship industrial complex, and it originated in Australia. Most of our missionaries and mission movements are still shaped by the worship industrial complex. I just watched videos of a family member who went overseas to serve, leading worship for indigenous people while they sang the same praise choruses sung at any generic American evangelical church. Nor did I have only the White church in mind, because I used to be Pentecostal, which has integrated worship and shares a lot of elements from African and Black churches. A lot of my criticism is drawn from experiencing Pentecostal worship. Moreover, I observe this trend transcending racial barriers as of late. Where I live, in Charlotte, NC, there are a good half dozen or more Black-led congregations, a few of them megachurches, that sing the same praise choruses, put on the same shows, and have no real liturgy or tradition to which they tether their worship.
And it is not like there aren't examples of more grounded and liturgical worship in the Black Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is liturgical in its worship and follows a regulative principle of worship as well.
Let me, then, briefly reflect on three things I wanted to say in the blog but chose to leave out, perhaps to write more on in the future.
1. Donald McGavran was right in his assessment that we should not export our cultural elements of worship to the extent that it requires other cultures to adopt them or be excluded. Yet the Western church still does this: singing American pop-worship songs to indigenous people across the globe. Pentecost shows us that the good news should be communicated in a way people understand. To that end, McGavran has a lot to offer. But I think the error is when we say that whatever it takes to draw a crowd and coerce them to believe is good and right. McGavran wasn't arguing for a consumer-based faith. He was arguing for an accessible faith. In this way, traditional forms and liturgies must stay open to different expressions for the sake of crossing cultural boundaries.
(Side note: Pentecostals are amazing at mission work and have been able to export their very Southern American folk religion across the globe. Some heavily evangelized places in Latin America, for instance, feel and sound like the local Assemblies of God in Mobile, AL.)
2. There is also the element of catharsis or emotionalism in worship. That is not what I am addressing here. I feel like this element is often missing in older, White, Protestant churches. This is one gift we can share from the Pentecostals. They make space for a cathartic response to God's work in our lives: crying, shouting, clapping, raising hands, dancing, running, etc. This is part of the human experience that we often exclude in lieu of forms. Most liturgical churches prefer decency and order to emotionalism and disorder. I think, again, that there are ways to make space for that in worship without becoming "seeker-sensitive" or having an attractional church model.
3. Finally, I do think preaching and all elements of worship should be engaging. Why waste a couple of hours of your life each week going through motions that don't translate into real experiences or real change? I like good preaching, good singing, etc. It is when we have to turn the volume up on entertainment so loud just to keep people engaged that things go off the rails for me. Sadly, many people can't enjoy an engaging sermon and find it boring, because non-stop scrolling and dopamine hits have stolen their capacity to sit and listen. So instead, they look for animated preachers and singers, whom they call "anointed," to give them the high they need to stay engaged. That is a real problem, I think.
Hopefully that makes sense. Written in stream of consciousness.
Thank you for sharing this thoughtful reflection. It challenged me to remember that worship is not about constantly chasing emotional highs or exciting experiences, but about faithfully fixing our hearts on God. Some of the deepest moments of worship happen in quiet obedience, daily surrender, and steadfast faith, even when our emotions are silent. Romans 12:1 reminds us to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is our true and proper worship. Jesus also said in John 4:23-24 that the Father is seeking those who worship Him in spirit and in truth. Worship is ultimately about God's worth, not our feelings. Hebrews 13:15 encourages us to continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise, and Psalm 95:6 invites us to come, bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker. Thank you for this encouraging reminder that faithfulness often grows in the ordinary moments. May we learn to delight in God's presence whether the moment feels exciting or quiet, knowing that He is always worthy of our praise and devotion.
I am curious your take on worship in more embodied and expressive cultures? Is your critique aimed more directly at the White American church? I agree with most of your points and it gave words to something I have felt in charismatic spaces… however, I have been in African churches that no one would categorize as boring yet the felt authentic to me… I would have trouble conflating them with some of the more mega church style of worship influenced by the industrial complex… Just kind of thinking out loud here, but would love to hear your thought? thanks.
Thank you. I had these same questions in mind as I wrote the piece. I will try my best to articulate my thoughts. Although my context of church is strictly American, I think what I am touching on is bigger than what is happening stateside. For instance, Hillsong is one of the giants of the worship industrial complex, and it originated in Australia. Most of our missionaries and mission movements are still shaped by the worship industrial complex. I just watched videos of a family member who went overseas to serve, leading worship for indigenous people while they sang the same praise choruses sung at any generic American evangelical church. Nor did I have only the White church in mind, because I used to be Pentecostal, which has integrated worship and shares a lot of elements from African and Black churches. A lot of my criticism is drawn from experiencing Pentecostal worship. Moreover, I observe this trend transcending racial barriers as of late. Where I live, in Charlotte, NC, there are a good half dozen or more Black-led congregations, a few of them megachurches, that sing the same praise choruses, put on the same shows, and have no real liturgy or tradition to which they tether their worship.
And it is not like there aren't examples of more grounded and liturgical worship in the Black Church. The African Methodist Episcopal Church is liturgical in its worship and follows a regulative principle of worship as well.
Let me, then, briefly reflect on three things I wanted to say in the blog but chose to leave out, perhaps to write more on in the future.
1. Donald McGavran was right in his assessment that we should not export our cultural elements of worship to the extent that it requires other cultures to adopt them or be excluded. Yet the Western church still does this: singing American pop-worship songs to indigenous people across the globe. Pentecost shows us that the good news should be communicated in a way people understand. To that end, McGavran has a lot to offer. But I think the error is when we say that whatever it takes to draw a crowd and coerce them to believe is good and right. McGavran wasn't arguing for a consumer-based faith. He was arguing for an accessible faith. In this way, traditional forms and liturgies must stay open to different expressions for the sake of crossing cultural boundaries.
(Side note: Pentecostals are amazing at mission work and have been able to export their very Southern American folk religion across the globe. Some heavily evangelized places in Latin America, for instance, feel and sound like the local Assemblies of God in Mobile, AL.)
2. There is also the element of catharsis or emotionalism in worship. That is not what I am addressing here. I feel like this element is often missing in older, White, Protestant churches. This is one gift we can share from the Pentecostals. They make space for a cathartic response to God's work in our lives: crying, shouting, clapping, raising hands, dancing, running, etc. This is part of the human experience that we often exclude in lieu of forms. Most liturgical churches prefer decency and order to emotionalism and disorder. I think, again, that there are ways to make space for that in worship without becoming "seeker-sensitive" or having an attractional church model.
3. Finally, I do think preaching and all elements of worship should be engaging. Why waste a couple of hours of your life each week going through motions that don't translate into real experiences or real change? I like good preaching, good singing, etc. It is when we have to turn the volume up on entertainment so loud just to keep people engaged that things go off the rails for me. Sadly, many people can't enjoy an engaging sermon and find it boring, because non-stop scrolling and dopamine hits have stolen their capacity to sit and listen. So instead, they look for animated preachers and singers, whom they call "anointed," to give them the high they need to stay engaged. That is a real problem, I think.
Hopefully that makes sense. Written in stream of consciousness.