Worship

“… our audience in corporate worship is not people. Corporate worship is not about pleasing people, whether ourselves, the congregation, or unbelieving seekers. . Worship in the corporate gathering is about renewing our covenant with God by meeting with Him and relating to Him in ways that He has prescribed. We do this specifically by hearing and heeding His Word, confessing our own sinfulness and our dependence on Him, thanking Him for his goodness to us, bringing our requests before Him, confessing His truth, and lifting our voices and instruments to Him in response to and in accord with the way that He has revealed Himself in His Word.”  ~ Mark Dever, The Deliberate Church (HT Gairney Bridge)

When I play one or the other of the keyboard instruments at church, I always try to take a few minutes as people are filling the sanctuary to Worship with music that I think God would like to hear. I play in the "classical"  style, which to the untrained is usually more solemn and slow, with a steady pace, or perhaps with a minimum of my own interpretation of tempo and tone. Most people call my playing old-fashioned and too solemn. Some, however, are thankful to be able to sit quietly, prayerfully, thinking about the God who made us and the Grace bestowed on us by His Son. 

Music "ministers" or Pastors sometimes tell me to play more upbeat and "happy" kinds of things so that the people will be in a more "happy" mood for "worship." That says it all: We have gotten in the habit of structuring our services for the entertainment value of the congregation and not to pay homage to our loving Creator whose death and resurrection paid for our sin.

I wonder how it is we have allowed ourselves to drift into the idea that our worship audience is people and not God? Shouldn't our worship model be more along the lines of the Cherubim who surround God's Throne crying Holy, Holy, Holy? 

I'm just sayin'....!