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What About Jacuzzi Worship?
GOD and a host of other great books and articles on a biblical understanding of the Christian life. WHAT ABOUT JACUZZI WORSHIP? Worship-in the sense of telling God his worth by speech and song and celebrating his worth in his presence by proclamation and meditation-has been largely replaced, at least in the West, by a form of entertainment calculated to give worshippers the equivalent of a sauna or Jacuzzi experience and send them away feeling relaxed and tuned up at the same time. Certainly true worship invigorates, but to plan invigoration is not necessarily to order worship. As all that glitters is not gold, so all that makes us feel happy and strong is not worship. The question is not whether a particular liturgical form is used, but whether a God-centered as distinct from man-centered perspective is maintained-whether, in other words, the sense that man exists for God rather than God for man is cherished or lost. We need to discover all over again that worship is natural to the Christian, as it was to the godly Israelites who wrote the psalms, and that the habit of celebrating the greatness and graciousness of God yields an endless flow of thankfulness, joy, and zeal. Neither stylized charismatic exuberance nor Anglican Prayer Book correctness nor conventional music-sandwich Sunday-morning programs provide any magic formula for this rediscovery. It can occur only when the Holy Spirit is taken seriously as the One who through the written word of Scripture shows us the love and glory of the Son and the Father and draws into personal communion with both. - J. I. Packer, CELEBRATING THE SAVING WORK OF GOD: THE COLLECTED SHORTER WRITINGS OF J. I. PACKER, Volume 1, Carlisle, England: Paternoster Publishing, 1998, p. 207. ISBN: 0853648964 Have a great week, Chip Stam Director, Institute for Christian Worship School of Church Music and Worship Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Louisville, Kentucky www.carlstam.org www.sbts.edu |