Contemporary Worship Services

[nebula]

Amen, yod!

[ayin jade]

I have closeness to God in prayer. Music is nice to listen and sing to, but my closeness to God isnt derived from music, no matter what kind.

Edited for clarity: This means all music styles are fine for me, altho I tend to prefer to listen to some more than others.

[apothanein kerdos]

Again, worship is an act of service...when we sing 99% of the time we are praising, not worshiping...and I'm quite sure that so long as we are giving our best, God is pleased with our praise.

As Five Iron Frenzy sings:

In a field of yellow flowers,

underneath the sun,

bluest eyes that spark with lightning,

boy with shoes undone.

He is young, so full of hope,

reveling in tiny dreams,

filling up, his arms with flowers,

right for giving any queen.

Running to her beaming bright,

while cradling his prize.

A flickering of yellow light,

within his mother's eyes.

She holds them to her heart,

keeping them where they'll be safe,

clasped within her very marrow,

dandelions in a vase.

She sees love, where anyone else would see weeds.

all hope is found.

Here is everything he needs.

Fathomless your endless mercy,

weight I could not lift.

Where do I fit in this puzzle,

what good are these gifts?

Not a martyr, or a saint,

scarcely can I struggle through.

All that I have ever wanted,

was to give my best to you.

Lord, search my heart,

create in me something clean.

Dandelions

you see flowers in these weeds.

Gently lifting hands to heaven,

softened by the sweetest hush,

a Father sings over his children,

loving them so very much.

More than words could warrant,

deeper than the darkest blue,

more than sacrifice could merit,

Lord, I give my heart to you.

[eagleswings]

Amen, yod!

i second that amen to yod.........

[Knight of Christ]

Yo man i am not going to put you down for not likeing contempeory music. We all have are own music in wich we feel closest to God and i my self am in the belife that any type of music can be used to glorify the lord Jesus Christ.

I my self at least when it comes to the topic of music feel closetest to Jesus through hard rock groupes like White Cross and the like others maby this works with rap (not the ganster stuff).

In this pitacular area of worship we can be free to choise wich type of music we would want to lestion to on a regular bassis.

Now as for in serivse i would rather here classical music or hyms it just fits better to me.

Unfortuantly us down here don't have a lot of places where the church has a full range pipe organ, maniely becouse those things are expencive to have built and extramely hard to mantain even if you have someone who is qulified to do so.

Mosy churched strugle just to keep aflote and can't afored it.

I my self don't like going to big churches becouse the experances are just to impersonal makeing it harder to express my faith to others around me, that and the fact that most ppl who go the the largest ones usealy go becouse they have allways gone there or just to be seen, all the wile pasteing fake smiles on there faces and facking tru belife or faith.

So i usealy prefer the smaler country churches becouse there is a lot less of that. They may noe be able to aford a lot of the this there bigger brothers have but you can tell that they are a lot happer and tthere true belife and faith is out there plain for all the world to see.

[Keith]

I have closeness to God in prayer. Music is nice to listen and sing to, but my closeness to God isnt derived from music, no matter what kind.

Edited for clarity: This means all music styles are fine for me, altho I tend to prefer to listen to some more than others.

This clarifies how I feel, too. I'm not much of a music person at all. I don't own any CD's, nor do I listen to the radio. My music comes from the worship service at church. My personal times with God are spent in words, reading and silence and His presence is always there.

I appreciate how yod worded it. I think sometimes we think too strictly. "Worship means music at church, so what do you like?" That's not true. I don't like rock, pop, metal, rap, etc., so that style of music (heavy drums or electric guitar) doesn't bring about an atmosphere of worship for me. But yod is also right that, in those instances, we should press through and worship Him anyway.

Personally, I think that's one reason why I'm not much of a music person. Not that there's anything wrong with music, of course not! FOR ME, one of the reasons is because I've seen too many people use music to work themselves up for whatever reason. In the world and in the church.

I understand that music can comfort, bring about an atmosphere of worship, and help people express emotions when they can't find the words. And that's great! In a way, music has it's "dangers" too. Some people use music to manipulate the emotions of others and some people "need" music to express themselves.

I guess what I'm trying to say, bottom line, is that depending on music to always help you feel a certain way is a type of "emotional masterbation" and leads that person to depend on, and be led by, their emotions.

Now, please don't flame me. This is just my view, if you disagree I'm not going to argue. Music, is a gift from God and it's absolutely wonderful, I understand that. I'm just saying that there are misuses of it, too.

[Guest pastormitchell]

It is a false notion that music brings us closer to God or that it brings us into the presence of God. That cannot be backed up with scripture. Some claim that their experience in the matter is the standard for determining its validity. Whether we are singing, serving, praying, studying Gods word, we should always find ourselves worshippnig God.

I do not appreciate contemporary style music for the most part. My wife however does. Recently she introduced me to casting crowns. The music normally would distract me but the message of their songs comes through clearly and in a doctrinally sound way. I do listen to them from time to time but for the message and not the music.

Being born again we have no need to be brought into the presence of God as we have his very Spirit dwelling within us. And our standard for living in any occasion is only his word. All experiences must be measured by that. If the music whatever style has become a motivation for a sensual heart and distracts us from true worship then it has become an idle.

The song needs to have a Christ exhorting message else it has no godly value.

[eagleswings]

How wrong you are pastormichell satan himself was created with beautiful musical instruments inside music has power to glorify evil or to glorify the one and only Living God............. King David himself was a worshipper and wrote many many songs, hense the book of psalms i am so sorry you have never had an experience in worship from your heart to the Lords for it truely is a beautiful beautiful and so holy experience as you tune out everything but the Living God , and funny how when saul was visited by and evil spirit that only the playing of david on his harp could make it go away...................... when paul and silas praised and worshipped the Lord the prison doors were unlocked ................... oh theres is Power in true worship ohhhhhhh yes the walls of jerico came tumbling down with shouts of Praise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! psalm 149 6 Let the High Praises of God be in Your mouth; and a two-edged Sword in thier hands

8...... To bind thier kings with chains, and thier nobles with fetters of of iron

do not mock what you do know nothing about

[WayneB]

How wrong you are pastormichell

I think you misread what brother mitchell wrote. He did not say that music doesn't have a place in the church nor did he say that it was not a catylist for setting the tone in a worship service. What he said, as I understood him, is that it is not about the music. It is ALL about worshipping our Creator, the Most High, and we are to sing His praises, study His Word, pray without ceasing, serve Him with a humble heart, and so on. ALL these things are a form of worship and brings out the Christ who dwells in us.

The power is NOT in the music but in the Holy Spirit. Anything else is just "feelings".

[EricH]

Worship is not about me, it is about God