Music at Church: Entertainment vs Worship
Hey guys, I've been lurking for a few weeks now and you seem like a cool community. I especially love the love between those of different faith, specifically to/from the atheists here. Anyway..
I occasionally lead worship, and obviously it's something that I encounter pretty regularly. I'm from a fairly small city, and most churches are pretty low-key, but I also spent some time in Toronto (specifically the TACF, or Catch the Fire now) where worship events are bigger (and better funded) than most concerts.
To keep this short, where's the line between worship and entertainment? When I'm playing it's usually at the youth group I help lead. The church has no budget for lights and a smoke machine, let alone a decent sound system (we have one monitor - it doesn't work) and the band (myself included) doesn't take it all that seriously. We play and have fun and hope the kids do too. More importantly we hope that we can lead the kids in something real. I also attend a young adult church that's very worship-focused. They have the lights and smoke and hip, young, talented worship leaders.
Is there a problem with worship being "too polished"? Is there a problem with a worship budget in the tens of thousands? Is a well-practiced worship team "better" at worshipping than less talented people who love to praise God?
I worry that a lot of people confuse good music for real praise.
Posted Mar 25, 2012, 1:05 AM UTC