By Chaplain Mike

Yesterday, a spirited discussion ensued regarding my “Rant as a Loser of the Worship Wars.” I think many of the comments missed the point of the post. So I thought I’d post a clarification. I hope this makes the most important aspects of what I was trying to say clear.

• When I say I am a loser in the worship wars, it is not just because most churches today have chosen a style of music that doesn’t suit me. I like and play all kinds of music, and have used a great variety of styles in leading worship.

• When I say I am a “loser” in the worship wars, I mean that I feel the evangelical church took “worship” away from me. It changed the definition and ethos of worship. The church growth strategy that has overwhelmed today’s evangelical church uses music as a tool to attract people to church and stimulate them into particular emotional states, then calls that “worship.”

• When I describe my new friend as a “casualty” in the worship wars, it is because of the way her church and church leaders dismissed her. I feel for her because I think it shows that this church growth mentality has also changed the way we understand “church” and “pastoral ministry.” She became a casualty of that change.

• “Church” has become a corporate entity with a mission in the marketplace. My friend’s gifts and contributions were considered “last year’s model,” no longer capable of being used because “we’re about catching the next big wave,” not continuing the past.

• “Pastoral ministry” has become about envisioning, providing charismatic leadership and powerful preaching, and not the cure and care of souls. The code word is “leadership.” Rather than seeing themselves entrusted with a family of individuals and called to encourage a community of spiritual formation that will lead them to depth and maturity, today’s pastors think it’s about vision, strategy, stirring up the troops, deploying them, and keeping them active in growing the church.

• Now the bottom line is, when you start defining church and ministry in these terms, you have departed from NT ecclesiology. The church, the Body of Christ, the fellowship of believers is no longer practically understood as the whole family of God; it’s just those who are strong, active, and attractive. The old, the weak, the shut-ins, those with limited gifts or resources, and friends like mine who have gifts that no longer fit with the program are made to feel left out. It’s no longer the pastor’s primary duty to know and feed his flock—all the members of his flock—but to motivate, equip, and use the strong to fulfill the mission.

So, my friends, you see that these posts are not about music per se. Wars in the church over music styles is one manifestation of a much deeper, more fundamental problem.

• Is our church a congregation for everybody? Do we honor our elders, for example? Do we involve our children? When people look at our church and attend our services do they see both unity and diversity? Do they see people loving and getting along with each other despite different tastes and preferences? Do they see a willingness to humbly learn and grow in areas that might make me stretch so that I can appreciate those who are different from me? It’s about character, humility, Christlikeness, love, not about putting on a slick program (no matter what style it may be).

• Do our pastors and church leaders grasp that their first duty is to love God and love people? To deal with the specific people God brings and to work with them on a personal level? To form a community and environment for them so that they may experience spiritual formation? To walk with them in their daily lives and have conversations with them in all the situations and seasons of their lives? The pastor’s calling is not to be a visionary or a program director.

• Can we embrace the simple concept that we gather as believers for worship, and then scatter into the world to do our service? “Worship” was never intended to be an outreach to the lost and unchurched. So, worship together as God’s family, with grace and hospitality, of course, to those who may visit you. But then learn that the “Christian life” is not one lived in the confines of the “temple” (the church program). Make Monday-Saturday your primary context of outreach and service and attraction to Jesus Christ as you live out your vocations in the world. We are called to win people by our lives, not by having them attend an entertaining program.

What the church needs now is repair of the ecclesiological foundations. I hope this clarified the intent of yesterday’s post. Get this stuff right, and you can play the didgeridoo every week in worship for all I care.