There is a movement going on right now in the realm of worship that is all about "original contemporary music, songs and choruses, in highly stylized, professionally produced stages, filled with lights and dry ice clouds, all of which are designed to usher us into the presence of God and prepare us to receive from God.
Like Israel's reliance upon the ark, or the temple....we forgot that it is a living God that desires not our technical expertise, but our presence and our hearts, in repentance and humility. It isn't a show...its a time of taking off one's shoes, for you are in the Holy presence of God.
Worship for the sake of worship, following a form or formula, seeking to "manufacture" God's presence, is nothing more and nothing less than idolatry.
True worship will result in a broken, humbled person, connected to a living God, for the purpose of service to Him, by loving others. Its not about "feeling good"....its about servant-hood and intimacy with Jesus.
Sometimes that intimacy can be frightening....but, ultimately, it is freeing. For intimacy demands a letting go of the world and things, and concentrating on the presence of God. It sets us free from the piercing gaze of critics, deafens us to the gnawing voices of the cynics, releases us from the bonds of fear and shame. As the chorus goes, when we..."look full in His wonderful face...the things of earth will grow strangely dim."
I'm not discounting professional musicians and their ministry in music. I'm simply saying that we cannot rely upon that mastery of music as a replacement for humility, or as either a replacement for, or tools to usher in, the presence of the Holy Spirit.
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