Worship: Wrong (Rewrite)

I think I got it right this time... I hope so. This is something very important to me, and I hope I've articulated it correctly.

I've got a problem with our current state of doing 'worship' as a church through music. Let me count the ways:

1. It's too easy. The very first instance we see the word worship being used in the bible is when Abraham gives the ultimate sacrifice, a foreshadowing of what God would do for us later. He says "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Gen 22:5). There's something to be said about this, and to me, it's that worship often takes sacrifice on our parts. Giving of our time or possessions, serving others, being outside of our comfort zone. Many other examples in the Bible where the word worship is used is often in context of God appearing and men falling on their faces in His presence.
2. We worship in the wrong tense and perspective. Almost always throughout the Bible, we see Israel praising God for things he's done, all throughout the old testament and through the psalms. Worship is always in present or past tense, after God has done something great. I'm not saying we shouldn't have hope for the things God is going to do, but we can't know what those things are. We often say things along the lines of "following all of our days," or, "less of me, more of you." These are also examples of focusing on what we'll do for God instead of what He's done for us as well as promises we can't keep - after all, we know that we are only capable of following God as it was His grace that has saved us, nothing of our doing. "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." (Phil 1:6). So it's good to have hope that we'll be kept in His grace, but as far as our worship goes, I think we should both be focusing on Him, not making promises, and focusing ourselves on things He's already done for us.
   
3. It lacks creativity. Honestly, I don't think I should have to turn to secular music to find anything innovative. We are definitely failing to display God's attribute of creativity in our music, using the same simple formula over and over again. If we're writing music for God, the best audience we can have, why are we not creating masterpieces, why have we created so many cliches for ourselves, and why does all our music sound so similar? Granted, there are a few Christians who really do create innovative music that is even recognized by secular critics as great (Sufjan, Danielson, Various Metalcore bands), but as a whole, the entirety of our "Christian Genre" lacks any effort to break the mold.
   
4. It's being used for profit. This part disgusts me outright - read this:

   WorshipMusic.com offers one of the best values in Christian music. Our mission is simple: to increase worship on the earth! Make us your one-stop store for worship & praise music by Vineyard, Integrity Music, Maranatha, Worship Together, Hosanna!, Kingsway, Passion/sixsteps, Hillsongs, Brentwood Benson and quality independent & import worship music.

   If nothing else is taken from this blog post, I hope that this would. I don't get passionate about a lot of things, but this just boils my blood. The fact that we're copyrighting and selling our words that are supposed to be for God is unbelievable to me, and honestly, I recognize it as outright sin. You can't serve the world and God at the same time: You can't write music to make money from, and write music acceptable to God at the same time. You just can't. An interaction between you and God should be between you and God. What if you started selling personal letters between you and your girlfriend? Think of even moreso how much of an offense that is when you're doing the same thing with your creator.
   
5. It's replacing true worship. When I say the word "worship" the first thing that will come to mind is probably singing. I think this is very weird. Whether it's been intended or not, our whole mindset of what worship is is now defined by the act of singing. Is that seriously all we're gonna give? Granted, I know lots of Christians spend lots of time serving and worshipping in many other ways, but why don't we ever define feeding the homeless as worship, or painting someone's house, or sharing what God has done in our lives, or trusting God instead of worrying about something. None of this is considered worship, and if I were to tell someone that I don't enjoy going to church and singing, I would probably be accused of (or atleast thought of as) someone who doesn't worship God.

Honestly, there are countless ways to worship God, and singing is just a very small part. I believe a big part of why Christianity in America is so weak today is that people have the mindset that the only thing worshipping God requires is 20 minutes of singing every sunday and that they're good for the rest of the week. No, worshipping God is much more than that, and it's an act we should be doing every day. Simply, giving the glory to God - whatever that may look like. I can't tell you what that's going to look like in our own life, that's up to you and God. I would suggest it as a topic of prayer perhaps? You might be surprised.

My roommate Kurtis suggested something cool the other day. What if instead of sitting around singing along to some familiar and overplayed song, everyone got an instrument and literally just made a joyful noise, singing out thanks to God. Even if you can't play an instrument, most of us can bang on stuff or sing to some extent, and while it may not sound the best, the whole group would be expressing themselves the best they could, with words from their own mouths and sounds from their own hands. I can only imagine a scene like that to be a sweet aroma rising up to God.

More good insights on this topic from Kurtis. We share mostly the same view - he articulates a few things better than I, as well as a different perspective. Definitely check it out. @ Integral Truth.