Parody of a Modern Church

Sakal October 1, 2012 at 8:23 am

Fits my church exactly! Except they didn’t mention the 7/11 aspect. 7 verses repeated 11 times, or often more till I am totally bored. I get angry that no word is ever said about today’s world or prophecy. Everything is kept cushy and safe. I feel obligated to go to church because God said we should gather together, but the service is torture.
I look around and others have such bored expressions yet they get outside after the service and say it was wonderful. I often like the songs, and the instruments, but there is something about playing to a church group that is luke warm that ruins the atmosphere. When I was young no one needed to go on bathroom breaks or go for coffee refills during an hour service. Now there is a constant stream of people walking about, coming in late, or chatting during the sermon. Oh the formula forgot the “greet session” where we all jump up and introduce ourselves. And, there are greeters outside who warmly welcome. I went to one church for years and never really got to know anyone but we all put on a false front of being best friends.
I get a little from the sermon but get far more from my time on the internet. I just discovered your site to add to my collection. God is so good to provide the internet resources when the churches have dried up. I have been led deeper and deeper into Bible study by sites like yours. I have also found very few people in my church Bible studies want more than a p’shat level of study. I have sampled every church in my area and find the same thing. I am so glad to have sites like yours I can turn to. Many thanks!

David Baklund September 3, 2012 at 9:56 am

Actually it does matter singing what songs, concerning the song being “old”…scripture plainly says

“O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth.” Psalm 96:1

“A Psalm. Oh sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things! His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him.” Psalm 98:1

“He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” Psalm 40:3

“Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.” Psalm 33:3

No where, I repeat no where – does it say anything remotely like “sing old and tried songs of tradition to the Lord”…it is always sing a new, fresh, contemporary, now to the Lord. If anything God doesn’t like stale, uninspired, old songs that do not bring a fresh excitement & current interest to Him…because faith is always in the now. Yes we are to remember the great things He has done, but that is purely to inspire us to trust in Him today!

As far as the video, kinda lame if you ask me. This silly nitpicking on methods reeks of flesh oriented reasoning on what it means to reach people with the gospel. Just be yourself, if it means you relate to certain social groups better, then do it.

“To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” 1st Corinthians 9:22

Quit getting so pseudo-religiously hung up on methods, just because a more contemporary generation uses more flashy methods doesn’t make it anymore “worldly” than using more constrained methods that was popular in the world during the 40s & 50s. If the word of God is not compromised by philosophies of the world in the teaching for believers & the gospel is being proclaimed without compromise to the lost…the only problem I see is carnal believers with a false sense of what it means to be walking in the spirit whining.

Paul August 30, 2012 at 11:21 am

I liked it, and though I’ve never been to such a service (I don’t know whether they have them in Britain), I’ve seen video clips of churches in the States who do things this way. I don’t know whether the commenter who would like to see “sermon and worship one seamless, collective event where everyone’s input is solicited and encouraged” was joking, but I imagine that this would be like Bedlam. I think he was probably being sarcastic — particularly when he says, “Songs are spontaneously composed to solidify the emerging thread of the
message. But this is way too risky and unpredictable for most folks.”. A song I’d “spontaneously composed” would be an embarrassment to sing… And the video wasn’t targeting predictability so much as the cringe-making attempts by the church to be “relevant”: there’s nothing inherently wrong with predictability, and I think that one of the problems of the modern church has been thinking that there is — and trying to do unpredictable things rather than just sticking to the script God gave us.