Hmmmmm...

I have been on a fantastic reading spree. The last three or four books that I’ve read concerning professional or spiritual things have been tremendous. It figures that eventually I would run into one that I am not so high on.

The book is called Return to Worship, written by Ron Owens. I actually bought this book way back in Kalamazoo where I was the worship leader. Yeah, five or six years ago… and I’m not even done with the book. I picked it up initially because I liked the format. This guy writes each chapter like a letter to worship leaders, pastors, worship band, etc. It was a neat concept and he has some great thoughts about worship in general at the beginning of the book…

I decided to start reading it again because I am tired of being in the middle of a hundred books and never finishing any of them. It’s starting to drive me a little nuts… so I’m trying to polish this one off next. Here’s the problem… I’ve read chapters 27 through 31 over the course of the last couple of days… and I’ve disagreed with or questioned at least one point he makes in each chapter.

For instance, in chapter 27, he suggests that the style of the music can cancel out the lyrics. His premise is that if the music is too rocky… it diminishes the message of the song. I guess he is warning worship leaders to be sensitive to use appropriate music... which is good advice… but in doing so he illustrates his faulty premise with an example OUTSIDE of the context of a worship service. (in the world of radio) He faulty premise? That if it doesn’t ‘sound’ Christian… it doesn’t matter what the lyrics are. Look, I’m not a fan of metal… in fact, I hate it. I can’t listen to it and I don’t want to… but if Christian artists are using that music to reach out to people whom I could never connect with… go for it! Who am I to stand in the way of that?

In chapter 29, he centers his whole letter around the issue of not allowing non-Christians to play on the worship team. This is a sensitive issue, to be sure… and for me it probably comes down to what context I am serving in. My problem wasn’t that he was raising the issue… but the reasoning he gives behind it. He writes: “According to our Lord Jesus, the first and greatest commandment is ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ The second was like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ We have reversed the order."

Another faulty premise has been exposed… he suggests that churches which put non-Christians in a worship band are choosing the second command over the first command. Here’s my problem with that: He makes it seem like we have to pick one command or the other… and that we couldn’t possibly be accomplishing both commands together! Regardless, who am I to judge the motives of churches that decide to go this route? Most of them would probably say that they are trying to minister to the non-Christian… which seems to be something that Jesus would really like to see happen. I don’t know. Again, I don’t have a problem raising the issue… I just have a problem with his reasoning.

In chapter 28 he criticizes repetition in worship… even though repetition is constantly used throughout scripture as a devise of learning and remembering. In chapter 30 he makes a case for stifling applause during the worship service. In chapter 31 he basically suggests that we should not talk with each other before the start of a worship service… but we should be preparing our hearts to worship. He makes some good points… but he approaches all these issues with what I perceive to be an 'all or nothing' approach. He strikes me as being very boxed within a certain mold of worship and if something doesn’t quite fit within his box… he rejects it altogether.

Okay, that’s my rant for the month. If you’ve read this far… thank you for humoring me. G’day.