- Oct 15, 2005
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Leadership journal has a new article online in which Chuck Swindoll is interviewed about what is happening with music in the church. The article is titled, “The Problem with Pizzazz: Has entertainment replaced Scripture as the center of our worship?”
Chuck is concerned with what entertainment in the church is doing. Here are a few grabs from the article:
Has he shown how the entertainment mode in churches leads to biblical illiteracy? What’s the future for the church if it continues to entertain the people who attend?
In Christ, Oz
Chuck is concerned with what entertainment in the church is doing. Here are a few grabs from the article:
Has Chuck Swindoll hit the mark. Are evangelical churches more places of entertainment than places of worship?His latest book, The Church Awakening: An Urgent Call for Renewal, outlines the dangers when churches seek the world's affirmation and copy the world's methods….
It troubled me then, and it's enormously troubling to me now because the result is an entertainment mentality that leads to biblical ignorance.
And alongside that is a corporate mentality. We're tempted to think of the church as a business with a cross stuck on top (if it has a cross at all). "We really shouldn't look like a church." I've heard that so much I want to vomit. "Why?" I ask. "Do you want your bank to look like a bank? Do you want your doctor's office to look like a doctor's office, or would you prefer your doctor to dress like a clown? Would you be comfortable if your attorney dressed like a surfer and showed movies in his office? Then why do you want your church's worship center to look like a talk show set?"….
I have been to church services, and you have too, where the only people who knew the songs were the band. I'm not edified. I'm just watching a show. And they're not interested in teaching me the songs either. They just sing louder to make up for the fact that no one else is singing. Loud doesn't help. Why do they do that? Do you want me to be impressed with how loud you are singing, how accomplished you are? I'm not. I'm not here to be impressed with you. I'm here to fall back in love with Christ…..
Here's what troubles me: I don't know why leaders younger than me aren't saying this. I'm not talking about novices, but the leaders in their forties and fifties. Why aren't they raising questions and showing some concern for where the church is heading with its focus on media and headcount and passive spectating? I know one church that has 17 people on their media staff and only 12 on the pastoral staff.
When a church is spending more of its budget on media than shepherding, something is out of whack. We have gotten things twisted around. My book is simply saying come back, folks. I'm not against innovation. But we need more wisdom….
Has he shown how the entertainment mode in churches leads to biblical illiteracy? What’s the future for the church if it continues to entertain the people who attend?
In Christ, Oz