Modern Delusion Part 1: Worship as Spiritual Renewal

Issue 11

Many misguided ideas have found fertile earth within the modern contemporary style, but none so harmful to Christian worship as those which confuse the understanding of what corporate worship actually is. Once the purpose of the gathering is foggy or completely incorrect, we should not be at all surprised when the occurrences within that gathering look equally foggy and incorrect.

One very common misunderstanding within evangelical America is that the purpose of corporate worship is for personal, spiritual renewal. Now, I’m not denying at all that spiritual renewal happens as a natural byproduct of good and rightly ordered worship. But the mistake is in making it the purpose of our gathering. When the purpose of corporate worship is to give the congregants spiritual renewal, it has departed from its Biblical purpose of covenanting with God, confessing sins to God, praising and offering thanks to God, and fellowshipping in peace with God. When God commands us to come and covenant with Him, where do we get the idea that while we are meeting with Him we should be focusing on giving ourselves spiritual renewal? Certainly not from Scripture.

Across the entirety of a modern worship service, congregants (or customers) are presented with a welcoming website, an easy parking lot, wide open doors, and greeters with properly sanitized hands, big smiles, bulletins printed in color, and a full coffee bar. They are further relaxed by a quiet sanctuary, the dull sound of quietly gathering people punctuated by soft, easy music. The whole service proceeds without any sudden movements, progressing along either with a familiar formality or an easygoing lightheartedness. Nothing is done which might make the congregation ill at ease. Anything disturbing might hinder the effect of spiritual renewal.

The music carefully alternates between calming, sleepy tones, and exciting, catchy beats. The sermon is delivered in a non-confrontational, comforting fashion. Even if sin is discussed, it stays a the level of vague high-level spiritual origin sins, such as the fear of man, laziness, lust, maybe even pornography, covetousness, envy, and deception. But nothing political is brought up. No present-day issues, no specific sins with which the congregation personally struggles with, and no action items. It is assumed that the individual congregant will absorb the hints and information and adequately apply the high-level theology and basic points to everyday life. The sermon finally complete, another song is sung, and then it’s home to lunch and football. Kentucky Chiggers are playing the Minnesota Ticks today. The spiritual renewal has been accomplished—now it is back to real life.

When spiritual renewal is the main or even one of the purposes of corporate worship, we lose sight of what it actually is—God summoning and communing with His people through their spiritual sacrifice to Him. Spiritual renewal can happen in many places, some good and some not so good. It is a sad fact that the church, in seeking to be appealing to literally anyone, has found that if it becomes the place where people can get their ears tickled and their feelings invigorated, it is a very popular place to the wrong type of people—those who are seeking comfort instead of a saving relationship with Christ. Christians who are serious about their faith are not interested in this seeker-sensitive attitude because it is misguided, unproductive, deceptive, trite, and belittling to Christianity itself. Unsaved people who are serious about finding a real solution to their sin and depravity are not interested because, obviously, not even the church takes itself seriously—it performs activities and cheesy worship music and soft speeches. Those who do appreciate such things will enable such churches to exist. They will not be challenged, will not grow, will not deal with sin, and will eventually die out—either due to light persecution, apostasy, or simple disinterest.

And pagans are, generally speaking, not interested in church at all. But unlike many evangelical Christians, they can still see things. Consider the lyrics to country singer Maren Morris’s “My Church”:

I've cussed on a Sunday

I've cheated and I've lied

I've fallen down from grace

A few too many times

But I find holy redemption

When I put this car in drive

Roll the windows down and turn up the dial

Can I get a hallelujah

Can I get an amen

Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya

When I play the highway FM

I find my soul revival

Singing every single verse

Yeah I guess that's my church

When Hank brings the sermon

And Cash leads the choir

It gets my cold cold heart burning

Hotter than a ring of fire

When this wonderful world gets heavy

And I need to find my escape

I just keep the wheels rolling, radio scrolling

'Til my sins wash away

What’s unsettling about this song (apart from how chillingly accurately it reflects the attempts of a modern worship service) is that this woman is achieving the same spiritual renewal that she might find in today’s evangelical church—only outside the church. As a pagan, she doesn’t go to church—she’s not interested in confessing sin or offering herself up as a spiritual sacrifice or enjoying peace with God—but she does find a need to have spiritual renewal, especially as a way to cover up and forget her sin. And this uncovers something else: when the church decides to hypnotize its congregants into a happy, dreamy brain fog via their worship music, it is also enabling them to forget their sin instead of deal with it.

But Maren Morris has found another way to do the exact same thing, which is good for her because she doesn’t have to put up with the cheap, low-quality pop knock-off worship music, the sappy worship lyrics, and the cringy preaching. No, she obtains her spiritual renewal from getting in her car and cruising through the country music she finds on the radio. No church required. It makes perfect sense though—if church is for nothing but spiritual renewal and if it is also cringy, listening to the radio is an excellent alternative.

Of course, there is a whole spectrum of this sort of philosophy. Some (mostly mega-) churches seem to exist for nothing but some sort of spiritual renewal. Others will say that corporate worship is for praise and thanks, some say for education through preaching, and others for evangelism. We will have a good time covering all of these topics later. Many have combinations of all of the above, but they all stop short of the real intention of gathered worship.

This leads us to our next question of what is worship then? It is my intention to spring this culminating point after we have covered the inadequacies of the others. Until then, you may guess and heckle me to your heart’s desire.

Also! I and some family will be at the Fight Laugh Feast conference in Fort Worth this week. We will have a vendor booth for a side hustle of mine—if you’re looking for it I will also have a *small* Worship Reformation sign revealing my presence. If you are successful in locating us, be sure to stop by and say hello! We’d love to meet you.