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Author Topic:   Evangelical Support Group
macaroniandcheese 
Suspended Member (Idle past 3928 days)
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Joined: 05-24-2004


Message 186 of 331 (427246)
10-10-2007 3:47 PM
Reply to: Message 185 by Phat
10-10-2007 8:49 AM


Re: More on Spong
Worship is designed to enhance our humanity: to increase our capacity to live, our ability to love and our courage to be all that God created us to be. If worship makes us "religious" or "righteous" or turns us into being intolerant "true believers," then it has become nothing more than an act of idolatry.
Worship in most of our churches today is a mixed blessing. It is frequently the result not of careful study and critical planning, but of rote and tradition. Much of it is designed to keep us childlike and immature and to make a virtue out of chronic dependency.
i think this has more insight than you may even think. the new testament specifically speaks of not chanting but singing is psalms and spiritual songs. but i think that even signing can become chanting when it becomes rote. but i stopped singing in church (before i stopped going) specifically because of the tear between this and the wretched poetic license so many songwriters take and have taken. so much music, especially new music, is really theologically lacking. i stopped singing because i couldn't commit to the claims being made in the songs and the failure to be theologically irreproachable.
i think the better songs are the ones about us and about what we're to become. but those are so very few and far between. also, i really, really hate the drivelous, repetitive "modern" worship tunes that take four words and repeat in a weak melody specifically inteded to encourage swaying and weeping and collapsing and imagining great emotional bullshit. it's really disgusting.
given all that. i think there's a major flaw in the thinking about worship as something "required" of us. the chief end of man is to glorify god and enjoy him forever. but this isn't because he demands it, but because he's so awesome that we really want to. it's like that guy at your job who blushes if you say thank you but he always does his work perfectly and early and he makes everything work better. do you fail to give his an employee of the quarter award just because he didn't ask for it? this is one of the distinct issues i have with some of the biblical depiction of god. "i saved you from egypt, and now i demand these things from you." that's not why david danced naked before his god. he danced naked before his god because he really, really loved his god. you can't dance naked before a god who demands specific worship, he won't like it. but you can before a god who loves you and who doesn't require but appreciates the relationship you build that way.
Edited by brennakimi, : No reason given.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 185 by Phat, posted 10-10-2007 8:49 AM Phat has seen this message but not replied

  
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