Ask most any Christian about the focus of worship and you are likely to receive an immediate 'Sunday-school' answer: "The focus of worship is God!" With those words still hanging in an imaginary comic book text bubble in the air, a follow-on question about the worship style may generate hesitation and may even spark a passionate debate, revealing a competing interest in questions about worship: we as individuals.

Our society is consumer-based. Everywhere we turn we are blasted with messages competing for our limited time and resources in an attempt to get us to choose Product A over Product B. Unfortunately, in an attempt to be 'relevant,' 'missional,' 'exciting,' or (insert most-recent church 'marketing' buzzword here) and lure the unchurched in the front doors, the church has followed suit. Almost without exception, discussions of worship style end up ultimately focusing on appeal to people. While I am not one to advocate a one-liturgy-fits-all approach to corporate worship, the way in which we have approached worship styles in the church has completely changed the focus of worship from God to us.

Responding to an email on the purpose of worship, Frederica Mathewes-Green recently wrote a powerful essay calling out this shift in emphasis from God. I encourage you to read her entire response, but one particular aspect struck a chord with me. She writes:

If, instead, we focus on attracting outsiders, it will feel to them like every other advertising pitch they encounter. The church can never compete with the world when it comes to entertainment. The world can give them more enjoyable diversions than we can, and can do it without requiring them to leave the house on Sunday morning. If we are successful in attracting people to the church on the basis of fun and entertainment, we’re guilty of false advertising, for Christ promises us nothing in this life but a cross. But if we worship with whole-hearted focus on God, they will see something they encounter nowhere else in their lives. They may not at first see Christ, but they can see that we see something, and that gives them something to think about; that’s how faith begins.

She nailed it. If the focus on our worship is us--that is what entertainment is about, after all--we will continue to fail. The world will always provide a better alternative. Not only that, but we will have sorely missed the true focus of worship in the first place: the Triune God.

photo credit: Creative Commons | Lawrence OP via Compfight