Jo (the wife, the boss) read an interesting article at Christianity Today about what is euphemistically called "contemporary worship." It's well worth a read, and the URL is http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/june/culturalmedium.html.
From my advanced age, it doesn't seem to be as big a problem as it does to some younger pastors. Part of the reason is that I've been seeing this kind of stuff for almost 30 years. It's made headway with people who don't really care about the Scriptures, and may not care that much about Christ, and it has certainly drawn the attention of some people. At the same time, there's something obviously lacking, as demonstrated in the self critique that Willow Creek did on themselves a couple of years ago. In effect they said that they had spent millions of dollars and made people comfortable, but they hadn't made them Christian disciples.
It reminds me with conversation I had in the mid-80s with a DCE at a neighboring congregation. The DCE had been concerned about whether people are turned off by the worship service. I made a comment that worship was going to be the easiest thing they did in their Christian life. It made no sense to me then, and makes no sense to me now, to worry about worship and not be concerned about how Christians will live a life of faith, how they will struggle against doubt and temptation, how they live their Christian life in a world that will, at the very least, make fun of their profession and life, and, at worst, will kill them for it. It seems to me that worrying about worship and whether it's "contemporary" or not is definitely missing the mark, and is not helpful for the individual Christian as they live their Christian lives in a sinful world.
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