Not Your Mother's Sunday Worship
Writer Comments on Emotionalist Trend Among Baptist Youth
North Texas Daily, 9/6/01

I never thought I would see the day-- Baptists dancing and moshing in the aisles.

The denomination that fought for so long to be separate from the world and change the culture is now using popular trends to energize its youth.

I had the pleasure of attending the Focus conference with the NT Baptist Student Ministry over Labor Day weekend in Arlington. I came expecting a typical conference, with maybe a few contemporary Christian songs for the audience to croon to. To my surprise the worship band, which sounded remarkably like U2, started off with a decibel level to shake the seat I was in. All around me, my fellow collegians began to rise and clap their hands with enough exuberance to put a teenage ‘N Sync groupie to shame. The worship style involved more charisma than I have ever seen with this denomination before.

Now for those of you unfamiliar with Baptists (those of you not from Texas), less than 50 years ago, dancing was considered a sinful activity.

Saturday afternoon, I attended the workshop, “Postmodern Pilgrims,” a presentation geared toward analyzing what the term “postmodern” means and teaching ways that Christians can appear more attractive to those in generations X and Y.

Gone is the era when worshippers craved philosophy and long sermons from a preacher standing up at a pulpit. Postmodern worshippers demand Power Point presentations and talk show-style formats. Goodbye singing from a hymnal, and hello bass-thumping praise choruses. An increasing number of churches are embracing these trends by segregating the faithful into “traditional services” and “contemporary worship.”

Among the more innovative contemporary services are light effects tailored to the mood of the message, food and coffee during the service and video clips and sound bites for comic relief.

I am not against this change entirely. I think it’s about time the stagnation of bland oratory be challenged by a brave, new movement. The popular Simpsons sterotype, Reverend Lovejoy, is an image the postmodern Christians should endeavor to shake. And as Paul stated in his first letter to the Corinthians, “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”

But I question if this method of appealing to the senses is new. Churches throughout the ages appealed to the senses through lighting candles, burning incense and staining glass windows to create an otherworldly worship experience. Even Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, ordinances Jesus Himself authorized, make use of participation and sensory experience.

I am also reminded of two camps of non-Christian thought in ancient Greece—Epicureans and Stoics.

For those of you not familiar with Epicureans and Stoics (those of you not born in ancient Greece), the Epicureans generally taught pleasure is the ultimate goal of man, and is a reward for doing right. Stoics, however, encouraged depriving oneself of certain pleasures, so that the mind may be free of the tyranny of passion (think Mr. Spock with an occasional smile). While the Stoics advocated a complete detachment of mind from body, the Epicureans embraced pleasurable emotions as the chief goal of the body. The controversy goes on even today.

I would say we live in a very Epicurean age, one in which even college students are more concerned with tactile pleasure than educational or spiritual enlightenment. If you don’t believe me, try randomly discussing politics with a classmate. Good luck getting any kind of intelligent answer that isn’t seemingly ripped off of the opinion page of Rolling Stone.

I must lament my fellow Christians are often confusing emotional warm fuzzies with the presence of God. A form of Epicureanism has swept our nation, and is now represented in the church.

I believe that God can move upon us gently and unexpectedly, sometimes causing great joy, but oftentimes causing severe moral conviction. As it says in Ecclesiastes (and in the old Byrds song), “To everything, there is a season.” We must be ready to accept ecstatic highs with depressive lows. We must always temper emotion with rationale.

If we are only looking for an emotional experience in worship, does our quest for spiritual truth boil down to a search for the most fun religion? How about morality—Do we only seek that which makes us feel good? What kind of trouble would that get us into?

Maybe I’m just a little old-fashioned. However, it was nice to let it all loose at the conference for a change. Not too shabby for a group of Baptists.