YOU'RE NOT GOING TO HELL, WE'RE JUST HAVING SOME FUN!!!

Today, I was sent an e-mail of a Church Anniversary service where the people had to dress in a certain color due to their generation. For instance, those born before 1946 are called "Builders" and those, in this congregation who fell under that genre, wore black. Those born from 1946-64 are called "Boomers" and they wore brown, from 1965-83 the people are called "Busters" and they wore gray, and from 1984 until now they are called "Bridges" and they wore red. And the idea this church was promoting was that they minister to all four generations of people.

And while this ministering to various generations should be honored and there is nothing inherently wrong with having the different generations dress in certain colors for such events, what disturbed me about this clip is that the pastor had the people get up and dance to certain songs of their generation like "they did when they first heard the song". So you have people slow dancing in the church and doing modern dances within the worship service. And this leaves me to ask the obvious question: What has happened to the reverence in our worship services?

Would we see this kind of behavior in the days of Moses? How about with Christ? How about the Apostles? Would we see it in the days of Luther, Calvin, Edwards, Spurgeon, or even as recent as 20 years ago? To quote Lance Lewis, the church is not being separated from the world, we are mimicking it and they are laughing at us.

And on top of all this, the Pastor kept saying, "You are not going to hell because of this. We are just having fun". And from a Christian perspective, this is true because our salvation is in Christ. So, a Christian need not be afraid of getting eternally condemned because they dance to "My Girl" in the worship service. But does this statement give us the right to act any way we want when we come into the presence of God? For instance, would we wear sneakers and jeans to a meeting with President Obama because we were certain he wouldn't throw us into federal prison for such? Equally, if we have a high ranking position on our job, does that mean we can blast music and "cut a fool" because there is no fear of being fired? I think not! We give reverence where reverence is due. And if we can put on our best and show respect towards Obama or our bosses, how much more should we show reverence to the very One who gave us life and gave His life for our redemption?

And in a postscript to this Pastor's statement, what about the unbelievers who went to this service and came away with the idea that the church is no more than a big club? What about those people who were desiring to see something that service that would distinguish the church from the world, but saw the same sinful mindsets and ideas that they are always around? And, even worse, what about those who came in as skeptics and felt like their criticisms were justified? In other words, while the statement holds true for believers, it doesn't hold true for the sinner because they are still locked in their sins and this could've been the last opportunity they had to hear the Good News about Christ.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am not taking an R.A. Torrey approach and saying Christians should not dance or go to movies. However, when we come together as a Body to worship the LORD, this is not the time to listen and dance to The Temptations or Kanye West. It is a time to humbly honor and praise the LORD of Heaven and Earth through His Son, Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that is what the church is commanded to do. To exalt the excellence of Christ and to distance themselves from the world. And until or unless we do this, church services like this will slowly swallow the church's objectives into chaos.

To see the video of this service, click here