August 5, 2002

Matthews: Worship wars are 'silly' battles with dire consequences
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___FORT WORTH--The praise and worship battle raging in churches is a "silly war," but it has dire consequences, Christian musical artist Kyle Matthews believes.
___The worship war is silly because it's unnecessary and damaging, noted Matthews, a composer and performer from Nashville, Tenn., who led a seminar on worship during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly this summer.
___"If anybody wins, we all lose," he said. For example, advocates of traditional worship sometimes are guilty of failure to reach out to non-churched people

KYLE MATTHEWS

from outside the church culture, he explained. But supporters of contemporary worship often ignore the value of tradition and the lessons of church history.
___Unfortunately, many churches are being torn apart over worship style, said Matthews, who often leads worship in as many as three churches in a weekend.
___"Worship conflict is creating career crises and church crises all over the country," he reported. "It is 'the' issue today of what makes or breaks a church. It is a travesty that the church would allow itself to denigrate to such a place where style would become the conflict."
___However, the battle to win the worship war is "unwinnable," Matthews said. He cited religion researcher George Barna, who has learned culture "reinvents itself" every three to five years. So, when a church or worship leader determines one style is best or most effective, it probably will be superceded or out of date before long.
___Matthews suggested churches move beyond the worship war by recognizing four aspects of authentic worship.
___ Worship should be transformational. "It needs to be about transforming personality--not about idolizing Christ, but about following his kingdom," Matthews said.
___That transformation points toward a key element of worship, changing people, not a commonly described goal of worship, exalting God, he added.
___"Worship is not 'God gas,'" he explained. "God doesn't need it to go. We need it; God doesn't."
___As worship strengthens believers, it "speaks to all aspects of human personality," he said. "We need silence to be transformed; we need biblical education; we need confession, the doorway to worship; we need a good word to go out on."
___ Worship needs to be intergenerational. Church is the only place where people can go to participate in regular multi-generational experiences, Matthews said, noting schools and other institutions routinely segment people according to age.
___But intergenerational relationships built at church, particularly through common worship, can be healing and educational, he added.
___"We really need each other for worship," he said, but "style proposes to divide us up" demographically and generationally.
___Despite common expectations, worship style need not divide along generational lines, he observed, citing trends of young people toward highly liturgical Episcopal services and senior adults flocking to jazz worship.
___ Worship should be identity-revealing. Worship provides people with "a time to remember who and whose we are," he said.
___While Christian worship is "distinct from culture," its values often "ape culture," particularly reflecting a strong desire for money and security, he said.
___But the larger culture actually is hungry for a modern reinterpretation of faith-inspired feelings and understandings that have been common to people through the centuries, he said. "A church is to be a repository--a place to hold on to the tenets of the faith until we're ready for them."
___ Worship ought to prepare people for missions. "Rather than style-driven, worship needs to become content-driven," Matthews said, recalling that Jesus talked about worship by quoting the Prophet Isaiah's demand that fasting and worship result in feeding the poor, clothing the naked and delivering justice for the oppressed.
___Citing Barna's research, he maintained that people will be drawn to worship because they are given opportunities to do ministry rather than compelled to minister because they worship.
___And those opportunities will grow from understanding God's plans for people, he added. "Worship should begin with the word (Scripture). We may give (worshippers) what they want and never give them what they need."
___

Get printer-friendly version of this story


Send this story to a friend



News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.

---

Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook