Yep…..sounds like the ND church I went to. But they did have a good praise band. Very rock-ish, loud and vibrant.
Not necessarily a component of all ND churches, but I'd say it's pretty common. The rise of "worshiptainment" is itself a fascinating history that has its roots in 19th century Revivalism. Essentially the key component of Revivalism was the idea of "New Measures"; that's what Charles Finney, often considered a leading figure and pioneer of American Revivalism, called them. Finney became convinced that in order to really and truly be a Christian one needed a profound and obvious experience of conversion. Finney had been raised Presbyterian and taught in a Presbyterian seminary, but came to reject his Presbyterian/Reformed upbringing in favor of this conversionary experience. And so he believed it was necessary to create "new measures", that is new ways and methods to get people to have a profound conversion experience. So, as just an example, he implemented what he called "the anxious bench" where after fiery intense preaching and people were emotionally primed, could come forward for prayer and commit themselves to a life of dedication to Jesus. That is the origin of the "altar call" that is common in many different churches today.
That is the basis and origins for the language of "make a decision for Jesus" and "accept Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior" and "invite Jesus into your heart". Aka "Decisionism", that salvation depends on a concrete personal decision and conversion experience.
In the 20th century we can see how this Revivalist mentality produced a number of preachers, for example Billy Sunday who [in]famously said "God has done His part, now you need to do your part". Or Bill Bright who founded Campus Crusade for Christ and is the author of "The Four Spiritual Laws" which is still one of the most common conversion-seeking pamphlets still handed out and distributed today--in which you will find the formula of how Jesus did His part, but now we need to come to Him and have this conversion experience. This conversion experience being called "born again", which is very different to how Christians have historically understood what the new birth was. Hence why in the late 20th century you see the rise of the term "Born Again Christian" as a growing populist movement within Evangelical Protestantism--made most famous in America when President Jimmy Carter referred to himself in this way.
The rise of various forms of Evangelical media, such as radio and later television, and also music as tools to "reach the lost" and try and get people to have that "born again experience" really took off. That gets us to a booming music industry, both what we call "Contemporary Christian Music" and also a genre of "Praise and Worship". "Praise and Worship" music focused on creating an emotionally charged environment that was conducive to getting people to come forward when that "altar call" was made so they could have that "born again experience". Evolving over the past several decades into full rock ban concert style "worship services". I.e. "worshiptainment". And the use of music slowly became less about confessing and hearing the word of God, in offering gratitude and thanks for what God has done, and being bold and clear in what we believe and became more vapid, shallow, and "God makes me feel happy" type of music. And treating that emotionally-charged goosebumps type experience as though that is what "God feels like", which is why one might hear "Man, I really felt God this morning at church" or "The Holy Spirit was really moving today in worship".
I don't want to say that it's wrong to have guitars, or that rock music is bad (I love rock, and bluegrass, and hiphop, and blues, and motown, and...). But when worship is turned into an emotional experience because the music gives us a rush of endorphins, and we conclude that's God? That's a serious, serious problem. It becomes an even bigger problem when the music itself is incredibly shallow and vapid theologically.
Even before I was a Lutheran, as I simply was learning more about good theology and really putting my nose into the Bible, I began to notice some serious problems about the content of a lot of "praise and worship" music. Some of the biggest problems I noticed was how the lyrics did a terrible job of making a distinction between the Three Persons of the Trinity. To the point where it sounded like Jesus was being called the Father. And then I noticed how this confused language would translate into how people would pray, and talk about God, occasionally hearing fellow believers refer to Jesus as "Daddy God". Other problems I noticed were that a lot of the music placed the emphasis on personal feelings, or talking about looking inside of oneself or to oneself. The content of the music seemed to be increasingly less about Jesus, about His death and resurrection, about how we were rescued by God's grace, and our gratitude for what God has done. Some songs were so bad that it wasn't actually clear at all what it was about.
Now, there certainly are songs out there that can be broadly called "praise and worship" music that aren't all that terrible, and some that could even be called good. But, at least in my experiences, that good music became increasingly more difficult to find. At this point, I'll be honest that I'm quite out of the loop when it comes to this stuff. I haven't paid attention to the CCM and "Praise and Worship" music scene in at least 15 years if not longer. I'm sure there is at least
some decent stuff out there, but I couldn't really tell you what or where it is. I think the problem of worshiptainment is still a huge problem, perhaps even worse now than it was when I was younger. Though I have seen more push-back over recent years, which I think is itself good.
-CryptoLutheran
