10 Worship Service Disrupters
NOSTALGIA
Nostalgia can cause a congregation to romanticize, idealize, and even embellish past worship practices to coerce present generations to perpetuate that past. The end result is worship that attempts to re-create divine moments, events, or even seasons based almost completely on the emotions that were originally stirred.
GREETING
The worship service Meet and Greet can cause anxiety sweats and heart palpitations for first time guests and congregational introverts. Some see it as shallow, contrived, and intimidating. So, what is intended to integrate can sometimes alienate.
NOVELTY
Novelty can cause a congregation to over innovate, over stimulate, and over imitate. Each Sunday then becomes an exercise in surpassing the creativity of the previous Sunday. So, when excessive worship novelty occurs, our focus is often on the creative instead of the creator.
PASSIVITY
Spectators attend or watch an event. They could be fans or foes depending on who is playing and what is being played. And it seems like they are in the game just because they are in the stands. If worshipers are never more than bystanders while others do it all for them, then are they really in the game? How can we expect them to transform from spectators into participators?
LOCALISM
If we aren’t exhorting our congregations and modeling for them how to worship not only when we gather but also when we disperse; then we are leading worship as an event that occurs only when we gather in our building. Worship is a daily rhythm, not a weekly location.
TRADITIONALISM
Worship traditionalism begins when we take a good thing (how we worship) and make it the only thing. Traditionalism has forgotten the foundational tenets of why we worship and landed on how we worship. Traditionalism always begins with what we prefer, what we’ve earned, what we like, or what our past demands.
CHEERLEADING
Cheerleaders generate spirit and rally enthusiasm. To motivate their congregations, worship leaders can sometimes display similar traits. But worship leaders are not cheerleaders. They can’t generate the Spirit of God through synchronized actions and song selections. Those actions might prompt, exhort, encourage, or even prod more response but they can’t generate the revelation.
EGOCENTRISM
We are created in God’s image, not He in ours. We should, therefore, step into His story instead of expecting Him to step into ours. Our worship acknowledges a conversation that he started and invites us to join. So, if we create worship just to accommodate our needs, then the god we worship looks a lot like us.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Little or no preparation is given to announcements that let the church know how to be the church when they leave after the service. The result is, consequently, a long-winded discourse of verbosity, clichés, and detours that have little to do with worship. Maybe we should spend as much time praying over and rehearsing our worship service announcements as we spend praying over and rehearsing our songs.
EXPERIENTIALISM
We can sing certain songs or even styles of songs because of how they make us feel but never move beyond those feelings to worship. So, if we don’t experience certain feelings because we don’t know or like the songs, we can leave the service believing worship didn’t occur. We don’t experience worship we experience God. Our response to that experience is worship.