A Look at Laid-Back Worship
The topic was brought up recently about “laid back” worship. Here’s a small portion with an example of what this looks like:
“He first said that there are two things he loves mainly, the first being the way they worship, since that is basically what their service in centered around. He said also that young people, teens, love to come there because they can come as they are, jeans, t-shirts, anything! He said people show up in Mohawks, tattoos, people scream, people kneel on the floor, people just sit with their heads down and hands folded, people raise their arms, and everyone is ok with it!”
So…this topic of the “come as you are” church is rather interesting. I happen to disagree.
We are certainly called to worship wherever we are at, and worship does not have to be done in an edifice that is specifically ordained for that sort of thing. It can be done at work, at home, etc.
HOWEVER, I disagree on the meaning of “come as you are”, as referenced in a church setting. I do not think that means we should all show up to church in holey jeans and muscle shirts, etc. God wants us to bring
our HEARTS to him as they are…no barriers. We are to come to Him as we are…with all
of our gunk and filth exposed to Him, asking for His forgiveness and mercy. While we can
definitely worship God in our day to day lives, church is special for several reasons. First of all, it’s special because it’s a day set aside as a day of rest and worship…and it’s also a day when the rest of the world specifically sees us. If we come dressed like work, it sends a negative message about Christianity. One of the reasons that we (men) remove hats when praying, wear “sunday clothes”, and close our eyes when praying, is to show a deep respect for the God we are worshipping. We are NOT equals with God! We are His creation, and we owe him respect and Worship. By our show of this, we show the world we are different.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried witnessing to people, and I have them say “One of the reasons I don’t like Christianity is because of all the hypocrites…nobody’s really any different.”
I personally have heard this a LOT, and it’s very true. One of the reasons is because we are revering God less and less, with such doctrines as “God is my buddy”, “He’s my right hand man”, and “God is my copilot”. None of these are true statements. He is our Savior, Lord, and Master. He is Ruler over all, not “OUR right hand man”, or the theologically incorrect statement that he is our “copilot”.
Doctrines such as these lose the reverence that we feel for God, consequently allowing us to believe we can wear what we want, say what we want, look like we want, etc. in church. However, we are told to be “in the world but not of it”, MANY times in the Bible. Often, this means staying away from the latest fashions, which may be immodest, or downright unchristian looking.
Paul Washer has an excellent series of sermons discussing this…and he makes a good point. We begin to be so caught up in the latest fashions that we look, talk, and think just like the world, except for the fact that we call ourselves Christians. This isn’t true Christianity. People should be able to KNOW we are Christians!
So while part of the reason that people are turned off from Christianity is because of hypocritical lifestyles, I believe the other part of the hypocricy comes from a dereverence of our Lord and Savior. I believe a large part of this is how we act in church as well.
Church has become more of a place for comfort rather than conviction! We’re told that we can “come as we are” physically, so we don’t have to make any effort. The sermons are almost always the “feel good” type, taking special care not to offend anyone. They usually involve the “promises” of the Bible, but neglect the “warnings”, just in case it might offend someone, or there might be an unbeliever attending who might be “turned off” by the warnings.
So, all of this to say, I disagree completely with the idea that we should be able to wear what we want and talk like we want etc. in church…it is a means of glorifying God and showing our respect for him. Do I think it is a sin? I don’t know. I haven’t come to a solid conclusion on that yet. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
10 Comments to A Look at Laid-Back Worship
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[...] Final Agent 17 created an interesting post today on A Look at Laid-Back WorshipHere’s a short outlineThe topic was brought up recently about “laid back” worship. Here’s a small portion with an example of what this looks like: “He first said that there are two things he loves mainly, the first being the way they worship, since that is basically what their service in centered around. He said also that young people, teens, love to come there because they can come as they are, jeans, t-shirts, anything! He said people show up in Mohawks, tattoos, people scream, people kneel on the floor, people ju [...]
Well, I personally disagree with you to an extent concerning the dress, but that may be due to misunderstanding on my part…lol. I don’t know if there’s room here to explain, though, so I’ll write out that stuff on the forum. Otherwise though, it’s pretty good
Eh…I don’t think the action itself is a sin – like you said, it’s about the HEART of worship…so if someone enters worship with a bad attitude, then that would be a sin. While I agree that how we present ourselves externally does somewhat reflect our inward attitude of worship, I don’t think we should ever go so far as to say that a certain standard of dress is required or else you are sinning. If we set up any sort of standard, we would be communicating that external appearance IS important…when Biblically it isn’t. Besides, what if the best clothes you have ARE shorts and a ratty T-shirt? Does that mean that you can’t worship God?
What about this:
1 Corinthians 9:19-23 (New International Version)
19. Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.
20. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.
21. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. 22. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.
23. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.
btw i dnt think tht means be like a sinner but rather to relate to them an be approachable to them
Wow…I have many random thoughts on this topic, which could turn into my own blog post at some point. If I can make them somewhat coherent…no promises.
Hypocrisy: People definitely are turned off to Christianity because they perceive Christians as being hypocrites. But I wonder if part of that is precisely *because* Christians dress up on Sundays, because church is so different than the “real world”, because our attitude and actions at church are so different than at any other time, because it’s not real. And because…that’s not how it’s supposed to be.
Reverence: Is unquestionably, undeniably, and absolutely important. God is holy and awesome and He *cannot* be taken lightly. He is to be feared…and yet we’re not to actually be afraid of Him. The whole idea of having to dress up on Sundays, and of making it so different from the rest of life almost seems to imply a difference from the way He can meet us on Sundays and the way He is with us in the rest of life. It makes it seem like we have to do something before we can meet God, like we have to be presentable and good enough…when there is absolutely nothing we can do that will make us so. There was a time when we couldn’t just go before God as we were, but the veil has been removed now. He is now Immanuel, God with us!
I may not be making any sense, and I don’t mean any of this to be attacking what you said! But these are just some thoughts I wanted to put out there.
Okay! I’m going to throw my hat into the ring here, so to speak.
I honestly don’t know if it should matter how we dress at church. Yeah, it’s nice to “dress up” or put effort into how we look as we meet. Yeah, I also think it’s nice that younger kids know that church is a place of respect. And so them dressing up is nice. (and come on, little girl’s dresses are so cute!)
But I don’t think dressing up should be mandatory. Like for those considering faith and those who are new to their faith or a scenario like that, I don’t think dressing up would be something they’d be “up” to doing. Sometimes, you just need to know that God accepts you the way you. Tattoos, piercings, blue hair, business suit, uniform from work, sweat pants, and all.
My only issue with closing your eyes while praying is this. Closed eyes + tired person = not a good combo. I’m just sayin’.
I will definitely say that there are people in the church who are hypocrites. I’ve known people who I would say are hypocrites. I’ve been one. I still am one, in many ways. It’s really hard in that way. It’s hard to be an example of what Christians should be like. For me, I know I’ve been hurt by people claiming to be doing the work of Christ. I know I’m not alone in that. I think that stops a lot of people from thinking well of Christianity. Like I know Ghandi said “I like your Jesus but I don’t like your Christians” or something to that effect. Honestly, how sad is that? But its really true and really telling of our faith.
Also, the way I see it, there are a lot of resources for “church” nowadays, too. So many churches have podcasts. It’s good to listen to sermons on podcast. So even though you may live on the opposite side of the country, you can still be filled and touched by awesome teaching. Also, my church offers a live webstream. We have people from all over the country and even all over the world watching live during the services. I think that is awesome. As believers, we’re all connected in that way. We can still be touched by awesome sermons no matter where we are located.
Okay, I think that’s all I have to say. You know I love you and respect you, Michael. You’re a good guy.
Thanks all for the above posts! Let me throw a little clarification in here, just briefly.
I don’t at ALL think that a certain type of clothing should be “required” by the church…I think that it is up to each individual to make that decision (as in, the church shouldn’t mandate dress codes for it’s members), but the INDIVIDUAL should hold themselves to a nice dress standard…especially modesty, which is unquestionable. I’m not talking about the unregenerate anywhere in here…they will learn what God wants after they are saved, and I do agree that we need to love them, and not criticize the way they dress (apart from certain modesty issues…I totally disagree with people that say “if someone comes in naked, we’ll accept them! Hallelujah!”).
So to sum up, it should be up to the individual (Christian) to hold themselves to a nice dress standard, and while I believe it is necessary, it should not be mandated by the church because it is a matter of the heart. If your heart isn’t right, you’re doing it because you are forced, and that leads to anger complications, etc.
None of this applies to unbelievers, except that have to be fairly modest.
Any more thoughts would be appreciated.
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I’m a little late to the party here, but I do agree with the dress thing to a point. It’s not quite just a modesty thing, it’s also not a competition to see who can “get away” with the most in regards to the dress, which is sometimes seen in those “come as you are”-style church services. You shouldn’t dress at church as if you’re begging for attention from the people around you. I believe in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus warned against doing things just for the approval (or disapproval, in this case) of others. With that, your reward doesn’t last in the slightest.
I hope I got my point across on that bit alright…