How are we supposed to worship? Does contemporary worship offend God?

[Bible Highlighter]

Christian Hard rock (like Striper) and or Christian Heavy Metal is an oxymoron. Why? Well, It is the spirit, and emotions that are caused by the music that determines whether it is of God or not. If the music leads you to have the fruits of the Spirit then it is of God. If the music makes you feel angry or makes you feel like head banging mindlessly with your fingers in the hand horn symbol it is a sure bet it is not of God. We are called to be a holy and separate people from the world. There has to be a distinction between us and the rest of the world.

I do not have a problem with the use of an electric guitar.
It is merely an instrument.
Lincoln Brewster has a lot of beautiful songs that praise the LORD.


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[Bible Highlighter]

 

[Bible Highlighter]

I will post a few more songs from other artists.


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[All4Christ]

Honestly, I think it is a fallacy to limit "worship" to singing songs or hymns in church. We should worship God in every place of our life. Within our services, the Eucharist - the Thanksgiving - is one of greatest forms of worship. In worship, we thank God for All, and praise Him for Who He is and what He has done. This should be throughout the entire service, and honestly throughout our entire life.

Until I joined a more liturgical church, I didn't fully understand this. That said, we all, no matter what type of church, can change our thought of worship to encompass all of our interactions with God and all of our time praising and thanking Him. After all, we are to pray ceaselessly. Let's stay in a constant state of worship no matter what we do and no matter where we are.

 

[Bible Highlighter]

 

[Bible Highlighter]

Animated Music Videos that are Beautiful.

 

[Bozotheclown]

So here's the thing.

I love contemporary worship, modern Christan music from the likes of Chris Tomlin, Miachel W Smith, Hillsong and other such artists really draws me close to God.

The issue is I see a lot of these bands as very self centered and self pleasing and worship to God should be ALL about Him and not what I get pleasure or enjoyment out of.

When I read the Bible and look at how the Jews in particular worshiped then and today there's a huge difference.

Orthodox and more inward and reflective worship seems to be how Jews and the early Christian church worshipped.

What if anything does God say about this Biblically.

As much as I love contemporary worship, I'd rather worship in a way that is pleasing to God than is pleasing to me and I've really started to worry that I may not be doing the right thing.

Any advice/input in greatly appreciated.

 

[WolfGate]

So here's the thing.

I love contemporary worship, modern Christan music from the likes of Chris Tomlin, Miachel W Smith, Hillsong and other such artists really draws me close to God.

The issue is I see a lot of these bands as very self centered and self pleasing and worship to God should be ALL about Him and not what I get pleasure or enjoyment out of.

When I read the Bible and look at how the Jews in particular worshiped then and today there's a huge difference.

Orthodox and more inward and reflective worship seems to be how Jews and the early Christian church worshipped.

What if anything does God say about this Biblically.

As much as I love contemporary worship, I'd rather worship in a way that is pleasing to God than is pleasing to me and I've really started to worry that I may not be doing the right thing.

Any advice/input in greatly appreciated.

Curious to me, you talk about artist being self centered and self pleasing and then you list the three above. While I have never seen MW Smith, I have seen Hillsong and Chris Tomlin multiple times. I would characterize what they do as worship services, not concerts. In both of those cases their events are clearly Christ focused and not self focused. They lead thousands of people in a few hours of worship generally with short sermons as a part. Is there a reason you picked them?

 

[Bible Highlighter]

Interesting post - I ultimately disagree with your assessment of heavy metal. The research actually shows that what you might consider aggressive music actually reduces aggression in listeners. So if we're judging by the fruit, you'll have a harder time ruling that genre out.

Well, there are worldly solutions to things that I believe are a temporary or quick fix. But I do not believe it is a permanent fix or a tried and true test method like surrendering to GOD and His ways. What you are suggesting is like saying the dog who is biting me is actually really being nice towards me. To say such a thing is illogical. When people play aggressive music whereby they scream and yell and act hateful, they are actually doing things that are not peaceful and good. The Bible says you reap what you sow. So if these artists sow hate and confusion, then that is what they will get in return. People want to be on the side of GOD and yet not give up the things of this world which are obviously dark by looking at them. But of course, people see what they want to see. Nobody really wants to give up things to follow Jesus. Nobody truly wants to be a holy people that are separate from this world.


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[Bible Highlighter]

I get what you're saying, but I don't think you can be that categorical about it. Are you saying that we can't express frustration, or that loud music or harsh vocals can't express truths?

It doesn't matter what I say.
It matters what the Bible says.
Nowhere will you find any justification in the New Testament for acting aggressively or in a hateful manner. On the contrary, Jesus says we are told to love, and do good, and to pray for our enemies. Paul says we are to speak full of grace seasoned with salt. Paul says he would rather speak five words with the understanding than five thousand words without the understanding.

What about when David laments in the Psalms? Is he being too negative? I think all of that is part of the human experience, and honestly expressing some of those things can bring us closer to God.

Nowhere do we see David play music or vent frustration or hate at GOD or others with GOD approving.

At first you equated the aggressive music with aggression, and when I should that they don't correlate, you started talking about hate and confusion. If 'aggressive' music like Christian metal don't actually cause aggression and have meaningful lyrics, where's the hate? Where's the confusion?

Again, if you can't see Christian Heavy Metal Music as being hateful, dark, and aggressive in the way that it sounds (and that it is hard to understand in what is being said) then that is something that you need to talk to GOD about. I cannot help you to see something so basic unless you want to see it.

Usually a person has to give up these things and or the ways of the world in order to see it for what it is.


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[pshun2404]

By definition, the concept of worship is the expressing of praise and adoration and performance of devotional acts in honor of some deity or ruler. It includes words like reverence, veneration, adoration, idolizing, and the performing of service to or for a deity or ruler. It can even be stretched to include commending, applauding, or being in submission to someone or something! This word comes from the old English term for worth-fullness.


In the scriptures worship includes the connotation of three expressed attitudes. One is bodily physical, another is vocally expressive, and the other is spiritual (often a matter of the heart). The physical includes ideas of posture, actions, and/or often some sort of service or sacrifice. The vocal is demonstrated in praise, shouting, singing and so on. The spiritual is steeped with an air of true heartfelt gratitude, praise, submission, adoration, and even reverential awe.


Worship is a combination of attitude and behavior. In Christianity there is no one single way. Christianity, even in the time of Cyprian (see the Unity of the Church), was culturally adaptive. The churches did not look the same, there was no specific clothes one would wear, no specific diet one had to eat or not eat, and so on. Romanians could remain Romanian and Greeks could remain Greeks and Nigerians could remain Nigerian in every way because the real purpose and intent of Jesus was to reconcile us with the Father and get us born of the Spirit, through the Spirit because of the work He had done on our behalf. As a Jew in this times one would on occasion or regularly dress a certain way, the same with Hindus and Moslems, you eat certain things and avoid others, you perform daily prayers and/or rituals likened to your “religion” and the culture of your religion. But in Christ it really and truly is about the relationship with God and one another. So some are into silent observance, others outward bold praise, others on their face in reverence, but we are all one in the Spirit. Gender, age, ethnicity, and preference of expression are all secondary and apart from the heart of the one who is engaged in worship mean very little. It’s all about the heart in relation to God and our Savior the Lord Jesus.

In His love

Paul

 

[rockytopva]

I believe in the seven churches as ages...

Ephesus - Messianic - Beginning with the Apostle to the Circumcision, Peter
Smyrna - Martyr - Beginning with the Apostle to the Un-Circumcision, Paul
Pergamos - Orthodoxy formed in this time... Pergos is a tower... Needed in the dark ages
Thyatira - Catholicism formed in this time - The spirit of Jezebel is to control and to dominate.
Sardis - Protestantism formed in this time- A sardius is a gem - elegant yet hard and rigid
Philadelphia - Wesleyism formed in this time - To be sanctioned is to acquire it with love.
Laodicea - Charismatic movement formed in this time - Beginning with DL Moody, the first to make money off of ministry

And it is important to note that all these congregations within the seven are all very much different one from another. The contemporary worship is something that has arisen out of the Laodicean church age. It is something uniquely Laodicean. Even in denominational churches many are going to two services, one traditional, and the other contemporary. I visited a Baptist church one Sunday night and before the service started they excused the young people. The young people went to another building where you could hear the contemporary music through the walls.

I would think that complementary music can offend God if there is no heart felt worship behind the music. Here is a place called Cave Church in Egypt. They seem to have the worship music nailed down pretty good. Which I would expect is very much different than from what the parents use to listen to...

 

[Soyeong]

So here's the thing.

I love contemporary worship, modern Christan music from the likes of Chris Tomlin, Miachel W Smith, Hillsong and other such artists really draws me close to God.

The issue is I see a lot of these bands as very self centered and self pleasing and worship to God should be ALL about Him and not what I get pleasure or enjoyment out of.

When I read the Bible and look at how the Jews in particular worshiped then and today there's a huge difference.

Orthodox and more inward and reflective worship seems to be how Jews and the early Christian church worshipped.

What if anything does God say about this Biblically.

As much as I love contemporary worship, I'd rather worship in a way that is pleasing to God than is pleasing to me and I've really started to worry that I may not be doing the right thing.

Any advice/input in greatly appreciated.

There are plenty of examples of singing praises to God, but in the Bible, worship was more associated with bowing down, coming under God's authority, and submitting to His will than it was with singing praises:

Genesis 24:26 Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord,

Exodus 4:31 and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.

Exodus 34:8 Moses bowed to the ground at once and worshiped.

Joshua 5:4 And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?”

Psalms 95:6 Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;

Matthew 4:9 "All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me."

 

[Sheep4Christ]

Hi. Well I've always thought that there were two types of christian music.
1.worship music
2.Praise music
Now worship music (for those who don't know the difference) is soft and reminds you of how good the Lord is and sometimes this music causes people to weep. Songs like "Amazing Grace" and "How great thou art" always puts me in a place of worship but that's just my taste in music.Praise music on the other hand will get you up out of your seat and have you dancing for the Lord in what I call a "victory step". Even listening to this type of music at home will make me want to dance.So really it's your choice of music as long as it's talking about the Lord or encourages you in your worship of Him is fine (in my opinion) be it in the musical style of Rock, Hip\Hop,Rap or whatever.

 

[Deadworm]

miamited:" First, as regards the 'early' christians, we really don't have any evidence of how the very first gatherings used the time while they were gathered. We do know that they practiced communion, but as to whether or not they did any singing or giving of some sort of praise through song, we don't know."

On the contrary the NT provides abundant evidence that the early Christians sang hymns and songs during corporate worship: E. g.
Colossians 3:16: "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God."

Ephesians 5:19: "...speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord."

1 Corinthians 14:26 "What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation Let all things be done for edification."

From corporate worship, Paul and Silas likely learned the hymns that they sang in the Philippian jail:
Acts 16:25: "But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them."

Indeed our earliest evidence for a high Christology comes from early Christian hymns quoted by Paul (e. g. Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 1:15-20). Such texts are universally treated as early Christian hymns in modern NT scholarship. So the Odes of Solomon, the earliest serving Christian song book, reflects first century Chrisian hymnody and may well be traceable to 100 AD.

miamited: "Secondly, to base such things on 'how the Jews did it' doesn't really give us much help either. We all know that the Jews didn't then, and still don't, get it, for the most part."

You overlook the fact that in Palestine many first century Christians still attended Jewish synagogues and that the first Christians were Jews. Thus, the burden of proof rests with one who would claim that Jewish Christians would not adapt the elements of Jewish worship with which they were familiar (including singing and chanting) to Christian worship: and the OT is full of examples of Jewish songs sung during worship.
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[~Anastasia~]

Part of this seems to be semantics.

Many of us call our meetings "worship services". Then we further have a portion of the meeting devoted to singing, and a portion devoted to preaching, and we call the singing "worship" ...

So some of us here mean "singing in church" when we say "worship" and some of us take a more literal meaning of actual worshipping, and some confuse the two because of the language their denomination uses and because they actually do focus their attention to worship God during those times.

I'm not criticizing, just pointing out that we are not always speaking the same language to one another.

As for myself, I should be more precise. If I'm talking to someone who says "worship" and means "the time at church when we sing" then I will probably use the word in that way when speaking to them. I could be contributing to confusion myself in that way.

 

[Uber Genius]

As much as I love contemporary worship, I'd rather worship in a way that is pleasing to God than is pleasing to me and I've really started to worry that I may not be doing the right thing.

Always good to do what is pleasing, but why assume that the joy of your heart honestly singing the words to these songs to God is not pleasing to God?

We have fundamentalist over here in the US that frown on anything that smack of modernity, but God is nothing like Fundamentalist, (for proof just read any NT narrative with Jesus in conversation with the pharisees).

Deut. 6:4 Tells us that God wants us to love him with both our heart and our rationality (mind) (MT 22:37).

Pick the best songs by the artist you mentioned that also have lyrics that focus on God's great character, and praise him for his work with mankind.

Take a minute to lookup lyrics and see which ones are expressed in scripture and which one focus on just describing how you feel when you are in relation to God.

Don't just throw out the so-called feeling ones.

I know that is a contraversial statement, but the Christians that were raised singing hymns and reading prayers have a great deal of trouble relating to God as a person rather than a thing.

These "feeling" songs do break down the inanimate false view of God as incomprehensible and replace them with the God of Paul "We no longer have a spirit of slavery but one by which we cry out "Abba Father."

I have seen countless Christians coming from "dead" church backgrounds, made alive to the personal aspects of relationship with Jesus and the Father and the HS after singing these relational "feeling" songs.

I personally don't care for them but was raised with personal intimate prayer and communication with God modeled. Other are not.

I love contemporary worship, modern Christan music from the likes of Chris Tomlin, Miachel W Smith, Hillsong and other such artists really draws me close to God

Great artist all. Enjoy!

I always feel when I'm singing or in church that I'm "false" or "pretending" you know.

I "pretend" to be walking into the temple.
I "pretend" to have access to the Holy of Holies (Heb 10)
I "pretend" that God sees me as a priest. (1 Pet. 2:9)
I "pretend" that a contrite heart and an offering of praise is better than sacrifice (ps 51 and Heb 13)
I "pretend" that my garments are whiter than snow having been cleaned by the Lamb who was sent to wash away the sins of the world.
I "pretend" that it is not just a formal process of worship but like the woman in Luke 7:37 who fell down and kiss Jesus' feet in adoration.

These are a few of my favorite...pretenses!

 

[jimmyjimmy]

I would characterize what they do as worship services, not concerts.

I would say the exact opposite.

A concret has certain elements, and a service has certain elements. Tomlin is not a minister, nor Hill Song. Therefore, they are only capable of, and a concert.

Whether or not the music as an good is another matter, but when we place musicians in the place of ministers, I say that we have los our way, and Christ's Church suffers for it.

 

[Clovis Man]

So here's the thing.

I love contemporary worship, modern Christan music from the likes of Chris Tomlin, Miachel W Smith, Hillsong and other such artists really draws me close to God.

The issue is I see a lot of these bands as very self centered and self pleasing and worship to God should be ALL about Him and not what I get pleasure or enjoyment out of.

When I read the Bible and look at how the Jews in particular worshiped then and today there's a huge difference.

Orthodox and more inward and reflective worship seems to be how Jews and the early Christian church worshipped.

What if anything does God say about this Biblically.

As much as I love contemporary worship, I'd rather worship in a way that is pleasing to God than is pleasing to me and I've really started to worry that I may not be doing the right thing.

Any advice/input in greatly appreciated.

Your answer depends on whether worship is centered on what you do for God or on what God does for you.

 

[jimmyjimmy]

Your answer depends on whether worship is centered on what you do for God or on what God does for you.

That kind of paradigm shift can be painful, but it is freeing.