Theological Thursday --- Me Church (Part 1)

'People are so often caught up in their activities that they tend to worship their work, work at their play and play at their worship'. --- Charles Swindoll

In the Hebrew, worship is literally translated as "bowing low before in reverence". As Chuck Swindoll notes in his quote above, many have turned their worship into their play time and have lost the aspect of reverence for their King. Biblically, there is definitely a time to work, a time to play, and a time to worship...but certainly not a time to get the three of them confused.

In this two-part post about the "Me Church" (where people attempt to make their personal preferences absolute truths...such as the church should only sing hymns) one of the first areas that take people down a road they shouldn't be going is the music part of worship. The point of any worship is to bring glory to God, not to give you an emotional feeling, make you have fun, etc (although these things are not wrong...it should not be your purpose or goal). You should be able to worship with a 20-piece band or with no instruments at all. The point is bringing praises to the one who paid our debt and taking your focus off of yourself.

But it can get worse....we can get into a habit of making the church all about us in all aspects (not just the music). More about that next week. In the meantime, if you are one of the people who prefers to make worship more about you then about God, here is a product you might enjoy...