My Own Worship War

After I got saved, I attended a large church that had a blended style service. Occasionally we would pick up a hymnal a sing one or two songs from it. The other songs came from the words printed on the church bulletin. The service was led by a worship leader with a choir (usually on Sunday morning) and a orchestra.

On Wednesday nights, we had a worship service geared toward teenagers. When I started going it was one guy with a keyboard with drums and music he programed in the keyboard to go with the song. As we continued to grow, we were able to get a band to lead our youth worship services. I loved the music which were all praise songs of love to God and thanking him for all his has done with a hymn every once in a while.

Then I left for college where I felt the Holy Spirit leading me to join a traditional church. When I mean traditional, I mean piano and organ with only three hymns that we sang every verse of that hymn. Yes, we sang all five verse of Amazing Grace in the Baptist Hymnal. I felt this church was behind the time when it came to worship songs. I felt I was not worshipping God because the music was geared to all the old people of the church. As I looked through the Baptist Hymnal, I was surprised that some of my favorite worship songs were in the Hymnal. I did not remember ever picking up the Hymnal for those songs.

What also did not help was attending a college Bible study at East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) on Tuesday nights called "Timeout," where the service was contemporary with an acoustic night every once in a while. That was followed by chapel in the morning where you would have some college students singing like they were old people.

It was a two year battle of my own worship war when God began to convict me. It was during the summer of 1998, as I was serving as a summer youth intern at Sagemont Church in Houston, Tx. I was basing my worship of him on how the serve is done, instead of what he has done for me through the finished work of Christ. I began to worship not based on what kind of song or how its done, but on how great he is. I also began to learn that worship is not only words, it is giving God your best as you live for him all the days of your life. This was before Matt Redman's "Heart of Worship" became a popular song.

Today, I still have to fight my worship war that God convicted me of over a decade ago. However, I have a new worship war, which I feel will be an upcoming post. It has nothing with the style or how a worship service is suppose to be, but about how Biblically and theologically correct are the songs we are singing, which includes contemporary Christian music that is played on Klove and KMOC (our local Christian radio station).

Recommended Reading:

Let's Have More Worship Wars by Russell Moore

Old Hymns for Our Day by Mike Cosper