entertainment or worship?

Are we having fun yet?

That's the title of an article about the changing values of the workplace in the latest Utne Reader (March-April '08). It reminded me of the changing values in our places of worship.

I love visiting cathedrals partly because they are rich with visual depictions of the central stories and truths of our faith (it starts in the architecture and includes the stained glass and statuary, but don't get me started).

But today's houses of worship (at least the American Christian evangelical ones) look more like theaters. The dominant value isn't worship, re-telling and re-living the Gospel, but entertainment. As a public speaker on Sunday mornings I'm always wondering if I'm funny enough, or interesting enough, or poignant enough. And I know the same pressure is on the worship band and everyone else who leads in worship.

Entertainment has become the dominant value of American culture. One could trace it all back to Sesame Street: Big Bird and Elmo have made it a requirement for all education to be fun. And now worship has to measure up. We justify it by making sure it's Christian entertainment, but it's entertainment nonetheless. (We shouldn't even say we "go to church" because we ARE the Church, but that's a whole 'nother line of thought.)

Maybe I'm being overly cynical. As embodied spirits we have to pay attention to how time and space and our senses affect all of our activities. But how many people who say, "I can worship God anywhere, even on a golf course" actually worship on a golf course? The problem is, how many of us are really worshiping in our worship services?

There are really only two primary reasons for worshiping together: to publicly say who God is and to publicly form who we are. We are God's people and by publicly declaring who God is and re-telling the story of our redemption we are being shaped by the Spirit. Everything on a Sunday morning should be a vehicle for worship: songs, readings, prayers, sermons, communion, even the time of greeting each other ("passing the peace").

"True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks." John 4:23