Just wanted to do a quick post about a youtube video I saw linked somewhere else. This is the video. On the surface it would seem to be a comment about how formulaic some church services can become. One thing the makers of this video do not tell you is that this can happen with any kind of church service, liturgical or whatever. The underlining goal of this video is to show how wrong so called "contemporary" services are by making fun of it.
In my studies of psychology I did learn that people are creatures of habit. We like routine and get through things that follow a pattern. It is comforting to us. You have heard it said that people do not like change and this is why. This is also why major life changes or illnesses or whatever can have a devastating effect on someone since it breaks the routine and the familiar. Now change is good but it should not be done without understanding and compensating for the consequences of that change.
Back to the video. What angers me about this video is: one the mocking and two the critiquing of the "formulaic contemporary" services why celebration in their own formula for a service. And I can say that by asking to be shown a church that does not have some sort routine in their service.
As Christians we need to get past this demonizing other people's way of worshiping. It is okay to question and point out errors but to out right mock and disregard someone worship and devastating to what we say we believe in. Christ did not want this. He wanted unity.
I did a bit more looking into this video and have to say this:
ReplyDeleteThe video was done by this church: http://insidenorthpoint.org/
a type of church that is presented in the video. It was not a critique of that type of church but more of warning. It was produced specifically for conference. I am still disturbed by the video but now understand more clearly what the intention was now that I understand the context. What disturbs me is that a lot of people will take this as a serious critique of this type of church by way of humor. What is even more interesting is that they were making fun of themselves and their own service. This showed that they know how to laugh at themselves. How many of us can do that about ourselves and our types of worship?