Worship Without Understanding Isn’t Worship
“Entertainment disguised as worship isn’t worship. It’s idolatry. Ignorant worship is not worship at all. The ultimate authority on worship is Jesus, and He explained Himself very clearly in John 4.” - P&D
Worship without Meaning
This is one of the challenges I always had with instrumental special music. It never felt right. First special music often shifted more of the focus on the performer and the performance than does corporate worship. Second, without words, it was just a beautiful melody/harmonies being created on a stage in front of everyone. If you knew the words, great, maybe you can sing along in your mind. But most oftentimes people may know some of the words or mainly the first stanza, and visitors or tunes unfamiliar to most, would not have the words. It was always a weird ritual to have special music from my perspective, despite that was the de facto standard growing up in fundamentalism.
I’m very much on board with this in spirit, but there are some problems with the argument. This is kind of rambling and wordy, because I’m thinking as I type, so… maybe ask an AI to summarize!
John 4 is clear about oughts. God ought to be worshipped knowingly, in spirit, and in truth.
Jesus doesn’t really say that the situation is all-or-nothing though, when it comes to ignorance, and this is a good thing. Who of us fully knows God? Along those lines, the apostle prays…
9 And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, 10 so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him: bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; (Col 1:9–10)
And also…
14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. (Eph 3:14–19)
Add Rom 11:34-36 and others.
So my point is that knowledge is always partial and, to some extent probably incorrect.
I would add also that musical worship in the OT in particular is full of references to the aesthetic and to enjoyment.
So, I’m sympathetic to the “let’s not do entertainment and call it worship” message. Very sympathetic. And supportive. But the situation is complex. There isn’t really a black and white line between the two because we’re humans. The highest “entertainments” are beautiful, challenging, soul-nourishing, and educational even when they are not attempting to be “worship,” per se.
In the Psalms there are several references to the importance of instruments, and the passages don’t really say “these are just accompaniment” either.
If we switch mediums for a minute: What if someone paints a painting and depicts the ruin of the world and the coming redemption (Rom 8:22-23)? There are no words. For the painter it was an expression of faith. Christina Rosetti or someone writes a poem and it’s full of Christ and gospel themes, though many don’t see them there. And she was Anglican so maybe didn’t quite “get” justification fully. Are these works entertainment or worship? Handel writes The Messiah. Many Christians have sung the hallelujah chorus without even knowing what hallelujah means.
But we’re really talking about congregational worship, right? So this is where at least part of the argument is stronger. It’s not really about “entertainment bad, worship good” but some essentials of knowledge and truth are vital, because music and singing in the local church worship context has special purposes.
There are obvious extremes where the content is wrong or super thin or super vague and all the energy has clearly gone into an intense performance rather than an intense message. Then there’s a lot of range where the difference is pretty murky, because it’s supposed to be beautiful; we’re supposed to enjoy it; it’s supposed to help truth reach our whole being, so it’s supposed to be emotional as well as instructive. If we do it perfectly, it will be a bit entertaining and we’ll also be a bit ignorant.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
If you knew the words, great, maybe you can sing along in your mind.
I'm ok with this. It can be beautiful and it can remind you of words you know. Fine.
Means of grace always operate through the understanding. ~J.Edwards (though I can't find it!)
Entertainment disguised as worship isn’t worship. It’s idolatry. Ignorant worship is not worship at all.
I agree that true worship must be 1) in spirit and 2) in truth.
But: "Entertainment disguised as worship isn’t worship." -- That's a pretty provocative statement. I was hoping Schaal would circle back to defining "entertainment" as he's using it in that statement.
IF entertainment means "meaningless amusement and distraction" (something people find beautiful AND is empty of content), then he's right.
BUT if entertainment means "something people find beautiful," then we don't have enough information.
As I read the article, I'm struck by what I view as a disconnect between most of the article and the last paragraph, because the Samaritan woman would have seen the incense and such as part and parcel of the liteurgeo, whether it was in Jerusalem or Samaria. That doesn't make it right for the New Testament era, but the "bomb" Christ drops on her is that true proscuneo will be centered on neither city.
Now I would agree that in the greater New Testament context, we will get to a place where spectacle is, if not outright condemned, having a very minor role. However, I'd view that as part of the greater New Testament context, especially passages like those in 1 Corinthians.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I think “entertainment disguised as worship is…” Is defensible. But it’s the kind of generality that tends to get rhetorically abused. It can be a handy club for clobbering things.
A closer look: “entertainment disguised as worship” presupposes either that the two are completely distinct things to begin with (would be hard to establish that) or that there is a kind of scale with “completely unpleasant worship” at one end and “pleasant but not too pleasant” in the middle and “pleasant but not worship anymore” on the other end. Something like that.
It sounds unlikely, put that way, and I probably have the axes wrong. Because I do think it’s a matter of balance and it’s possible for the “enjoyment” elements to become so dominant it’s not worship anymore at all in any meaningful sense. But enjoyment is supposed to be part of it. Otherwise, why use music at all? Humans immediately enjoy or dislike music when they encounter it—or maybe aren’t sure if they like it or not, but the aesthetic sensibilities immediately engage, even if they don’t land somewhere right away.
It’s like eating food. You enjoy it to varying degrees or dislike it to varying degrees. But taste and enjoyment are never completely uninvolved. They’re not supposed to be. We are not supposed to “dislike” worship music. And we’re not supposed to “not care.” It’s meant to be enjoyed. But enjoyment is also not really the point.
So, as with so many things human, it looks a bit unavoidably messy to me.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
If someone is extremely gifted in music and they direct that toward God in worship, it will sound good and will even be appealing to those who are created in the image of God. Thus, it will result in a level of entertainment even if the intent were worship.
On the flip side, there are those who are not gifted in music. Some people are physically tone def or have other challenges and no matter how hard they try, the sounds that come from their mouths will not be all that appealing to those around them. That does not mean that they cannot still make a joyful noise unto the Lord and that they cannot worship him in song. I cannot help but wonder if much of the decline in congregational singing- worship- has been caused by the expectation that only the gifted should partake. I believe that we need to reverse that and that no matter who poor the sound coming from our mouths is, we should all be making a joyful sound of worship unto our Lord. Having said, that if I know that my sound is off, I want to keep the volume to a level that does not distract others from worship or draw attention to myself, but that should be true regardless of the quality of my singing abilities.
Discussion