Fair warning — this is a very cynical post. It doesn’t mean to assert that every experience is or will be this way, but the sad truth is that more likely are than are not.

I used to be a worship leader. That is, I used to lead a band standing on a stage in front of hundreds of people singing spiritual songs. It was a tremendous experience, and one which I cherish to this day. It’s a great feeling to feel the Spirit move in worship. But it’s also a great feeling to know that I helped the Spirit to move…or maybe that I caused the Spirit to move. Looking back on that time (now that some years have passed), I find myself questioning what it was that I actually accomplished. Did I really do anything that God wasn’t already planning on doing in that service? Was anybody really touched by God’s presence — or were they simply impressed with our musical ability? Did anybody’s life change as a result of our worship?

Or, just as a can of cheap room freshener can temporarily remove the smell of rotting garbage from a room, did we only manage to cover up people’s real problems for a short time with music and singing, just to have them return as soon as the service was over (and the “fragrance” dissipated)?


If there’s one crazy, messed-up controversial topic in the Church today that shouldn’t even be an issue – it’s worship. There are so many styles and choices — traditional versus contemporary, instrumental versus vocal, piano versus organ, multimedia versus hymnals, liturgy versus flexibility, charismatic versus conservative, festival atmosphere versus intimate room, drums versus…well, just about everybody. ;-)

Worship in today’s Church is an emotional issue — largely because of the emotion that it can envoke. But what is really happening in our worship times? I argue that it is a sensation. More specifically, worship in American churches exists more often than not to provide a contrast to the sensations common in our everyday lives. Just as our skin will quickly grow used to a hot surface (so long as it is not burned), so will our senses and sensations get used to the particular stimulating environment we’re in. For some, worship is an over-stimulating experience and therefore not enjoyable. For others, “bland” worship doesn’t provide enough contrast in sensation to hold their interest. When the “mix” is just right, we tend to call it “good worship.”

But doesn’t the Bible command us to worship God? Aren’t we being obedient creatures by gathering in our churches and praising God together? Doesn’t the Spirit really move among us in such times?

Of course, the answer to the first two questions is unequivocally “yes.” But perhaps not so for the third. You see, many things can cause our spirits to move — and it’s not always God’s Spirit. Show me a vibrant, energetic worship service and I’ll raise you an NFL football game. Or a political rally. Or a rock concert. Our brains are wired to act certain ways in certain circumstances — and our hearts are wired to seek out those things because we like how they feel. We seek a contrast in sensation. Why else would we qualify an otherwise perfectly obedient gathering of the Church with such phrases as, “The worship was just okay, but I liked last week’s better.” To be clear, that’s something that would be appropriate to say about a sporting event, or a political rally, or a rock concert — but not about a gathering of saints committed to the purpose of building each other up as they seek to please and glorify God.

The dangerous ground I’m treading here is that for many of us, worship has become another man-made entity created for our enjoyment and not for Christ’s ultimate glory. Well, let me stop treading and jump right into the deep end of this trap: For some, the weekly worship service is to the Church as watching a porno flick is to marital intimacy in the bedroom. It can be the most exhilarating yet artificial, manipulative, damaging element in a person’s relationship with Christ. It tricks us into believing that what we feel is real, when in fact it is all just an illusion based on things that we know will scratch man’s spiritual itch, so to speak.

So what are the evidences of true worship? How do we know that we’ve done right by God when we gather together and praise Him? I don’t know for sure — but I do know that this is a broken world, and we are a broken people. The often mis-quoted words of the late United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart come to mind, “…pornography” was hard to define, but that ‘I know it when I see it.’” [Stewart later recanted this statement in a subsequent ruling.] But the point is there nonetheless — there exists a fine line between true worship and “spiritual itch-scratching.”

When the small group of us answered the call to form the church planting movement called Crossroads, we had to spend a lot of time in prayer and discussion about what our worship would look like in the homes and small groups making up the various churches. It didn’t help that each of us at the time was an experienced worship leader in the manner described above. How would that work in a small group? As the movement grew, how would home churches who didn’t have a musical person in their midst even be able to worship? Could we ever hope to re-create that same kind of invigorating contrasting stimulus which we all experienced in “big church?”

Frankly, I’m afraid to try. When we worship in the small churches, it feels different than the big churches. We read more scripture, we pray together more. We share words of encouragement with each other, and we share griefs and hurts. We seek to recall ways that God touched our lives since we last met together. And yes, we sing. The one thing that I would change about how I see our small churches worship is that I would discourage the practice of there being one “leader” who plans and executes the service. We still do too much of that — mainly because it’s easy. When we’ve experienced real worship, it’s when everybody brings something to the service. It’s exactly the same as a true love relationship — one person can’t exert love on another. They both have to love and bring expressions of that love. The best worship times are those when God’s Spirit comes to light — not because He “just showed up,” but because He was there all along and we finally saw Him as He is. Even more beautiful is the realization that the Christian life is about living every day in that same spirit of worship and fellowship with our Creator, Savior, Healer, Comforter and Friend — and each other.

True worship is an expression of a contrite heart. True worship is acknowledging that God is God, and we are not. True worship doesn’t induce a “high,” but rather flows out of an already-present desire to show love.

True worship is always fresh — no aerosol cans required. So whether your worship is traditional or contemporary, instrumental or vocal, piano-based or organ-based (or guitar), a multimedia production or uses simple hymnals, liturgical or flexible, charismatic or conservative, a festival atmosphere or an intimate room — try to make “taking out the trash” part of your regular worship experience.