Beware of Mistress Sentimentality and Her Little Brother Hype
“The difference between godly emotion and sentiment is tricky, that is why I needed to write this post. Sentimentality takes the will captive to do her bidding. Whereas, healthy emotion and feeling are servants to the intellect and will.”
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The writer of this article, Chris Weeks, is the pastor of Kent City Baptist Church-a large GARBC church (1000 Sunday attenders) that happens to utilize CCM praise music in their Sunday Services. Weeks uses his blog to teach his congregation. In this post he teaches about the dangers of sentimentalism and hype which can manifest itself in many things and even styles of music (but in their context, CCM praise music)
She loves Christian Praise and Worship concerts that feature beautiful people, perfect staging, skinny jeans, and crowds feeling the presence of God in the finely tuned and expertly programmed concert. This is where her little brother Hype can be found. He is present when a whole crowd of sentimental people feel the buzz of excitement all at the same time. Hype convinces you to believe the bigger the crowd, the louder the noise, the more true something must be. And if emotions are not riled up, God must not be present. (See 1 Samuel 4:5 & 10 to see how Hype got Israel slaughtered.)
My point is there is a way to teach Biblical discernment without throwing away the baby with the bathwater. I would argue that those who are labeled “convergent” (which I believe can be defined as the middle ground between fundamentalism and conservative evangelicalism) have not compromised, but rather are modeling a Biblical way forward in dealing with certain cultural issues.
Loved it. Not too many warnings end with Hall & Oates, though.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
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