The question needs to be asked: Are we in danger of worshiping worship?

The mood. The atmosphere. The melody.

The crowd. The emotion. Your favorite worship leader. Your favorite speaker.

The band. The performance. The feeling.

Are we being moved by the right things? Are our hearts aimed in the proper direction?

The problem with our worship culture is that we equate worship with an experience, a moment.

We end up loving worship more than we love God. We end up talking about worship more than we talk about God.

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There’s a lot of talk going around about the dire situation of contemporary worship music.

I can understand the complaints and am grateful for the conversations.

We’re after something that is real, Christ-exalting, true to the Word of God. Nobody wants to go from emotional experience to emotional experience, feeling good but lacking depth and understanding.

We’ve already discussed some of the issue in a post a few months ago that went viral.

But many of these complaints are centered on why contemporary music is terrible. We need more hymns. We need more theological depth. It’s an age old argument and a war that may never be resolved on this side of heaven.

Here’s the bottom line for me:

Contemporary and traditional worship must be backed by an obedient heart. If you’re willing to sing and shout but unwilling to do the will of God everyday, it isn’t worship.

If worship songs are your only spiritual diet, therein lies the problem. They were never meant to replace the Word of God and learning how to feed yourself from the Scriptures.

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