Augustine shed light on a very important idea that worship is not supposed to be just like every other kind of music. I used to have friends who went to an extremely restrictive church where the pastor believed and constantly proclaimed, "If during worship your toe starts tappin' before your heart starts movin' then it ain't Christian!" While this statement may be kind of excessive, it does reflect the same truth that Augustine touches on. Worship is meant to teach and to help one grow closer to God. It is not about trying to reach an emotional or spiritual high, it is a time a place where we, as Christians, should be striving to focus intently on the words we are singing. This leads to my second point. Our intent and heart posture when worshiping God is always going to be a necessary thing when it comes to truly worshiping, but if the songs we sing don't necessarily reflect the truths that we are trying to live out and apply to our lives, then we are never going to gain any improvement within our relationship with God through worship.
These are just some of the thoughts that I had as I was reading the passages. Do any of y'all have any thoughts or ideas?
P.S. I commented on Addison Zanda's and Haley Riddle's posts.
I wrote about the same idea! It is a legitimate issue, especially right now. So many worship songs could be confused with love songs and others sound so cool that no one questions the lyrics. I added this verse in my post: "But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." John 4:23-24
ReplyDeleteI agree this is an extreme problem now because we have many songs hyper focused on what the music songs like rather than what the music says. all worship music should be built on the foundation of scripture. Something that Augustine seemed to have heartedly mention is the need for good music too because it might draw non believers in based on the music before they discover the words. Quiet by elevation rhythm is a good example of this.
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