Worship is for God. Anytime we try to involve ourselves, or what is relevant to us, is selfish. I think we can all agree that God does not change, therefore, as far as God is concerned, there is no need to change how we worship Him. Changing our styles of worship is of no benefit God. We tend to argue if it is right or wrong to change styles of worship. If we just ask the question, “Why should we change?” There is no answer that can be given that leaves our selfishness out of the equation. God does not need us to change, therefore we don’t need to change. To change our style of worship only satisfies our fleshly desires. So the real answer is that “we want” to change our style of worship (selfishness), so we do. It really is that simple. God did not stop responding to Orthodox worship. We became selfish and forgot that worship has nothing to do with us, and only has to do with giving to God. We would now need to review why we want to change our style of worship. I can only think of one good reason to change a style of worship. If God receives more glory, and He is more greatly praised, or reverence to Him can be increased, then we have a good argument to change a style of worship. I am not pretending to know which style of worship is the most holy one out there. Maybe the Orthodox church has had it wrong for 2,000 years, and we are slowly getting better at it! Maybe drums are evil, and maybe they are God’s favorite instrument so the more bass we have in a service, the more we truly worship God. I am not arguing “if” we should or should not change our worship style. I am just saying that we should be asking “why.” If the answer is that “we need” to be more relevant to the world. “We need” to change with the younger generations. “We need” to change in order to grow. “We need” to be creative. “We need” to… If anywhere in your answer you use the term “we” or even worse, “world” then your point is insignificant. Yes, “we” are subjected to a changing world, but not to a changing God. So if our style of worship is broken, it has always been broken. If our worship needs to change, then it has always needed to change. We have gone from kneeling with our faces buried out of such deep respect and reverence to Him in worship, to an electrifying emotional “engagement,” jumping up and down and shouting. I say…”If the spirit so leads then go! Ye who try to lead the spirit though, be prepared.” According to my simple, uneducated (no degrees from a Christian college, I just read the Bible) opinion, change of worship style is permissible if it glorifies Him more than our current style. If we change for the right reasons, then our relationship with God will grow stronger. Worship enhances our relationship with God, and brings us closer to Him out of our praise. So if the styles change for the right reasons, contemporary music should produce a better relationship with God when we enter into worship in that style. Therefore those who worship through contemporary style, should have a closer relationship with God and the generation that “we need” to reach through this music should be more spiritually mature than the last generation, and even those who worshipped in the first 7 churches. If, however, we changed worship because it was more emotional for us, we could be in trouble. The Holy Spirit is awesome! He can lead us in directions that we could never predict or even dream of. David danced wildly for his King (although not in the temple). Miriam played the tambourine. Instruments have been used throughout time for worship. I am not condemning nor condoning a certain type of worship. I am just saying that we need to question “why” “we need” to change worship. We certainly do not need to change to be more relevant to the world, or to grow our youth group, or to meet people where they are, etc… These are all the common answers we hear, and they are poor answers. They have no Biblical or Spiritual backing or relevance. In fact we are warned NOT to conform to the world. Someone tell me that God can be glorified more, or that God can be praised and honored at a higher level, and then you have an argument. Keep in mind that being glorified more, or honored more is on a spiritual level, not based on the number of people we can get to do certain types of worship. The quality of the worship is far greater than the quantity (Cain & Able). -Matt Gaiser

I think you have to realize that certain people can more easliy worhsip God through certain types of worship. I have been in many different types of worship services through my life - - and I have found that when i can't understand what I am singing about - - and the music doesn't sound joyful to me - - I'm not really worshipping - -I'm merely reciting - - but now the church I am attending is contemporary and I can REALLY worship God - - and it's not because I'm being selfish - -I'm not going to the service to be "entertained" but the enviroment is a more comfortable one for me to honestly worhisp God -- and also the musicians are also worshipping when they play their music -- I know a lot of musicians who don't feel comfortable singing but when they get behind a drumset they can let loose and let all teh glory be Gods. Worship isn't about the sound or style - - and we should worship God through evertying we do - - not just Wednesday or Sunday - - and The Bible says to "make a joyful noise unto the lord " -- it did not say " you must worship God through singing hymns and organ music."

[b]MaddMatt wrote:[/b] [quote]Worship is for God. Anytime we try to involve ourselves, or what is relevant to us, is selfish. I think we can all agree that God does not change, therefore, as far as God is concerned, there is no need to change how we worship Him. Changing our styles of worship is of no benefit God. We tend to argue if it is right or wrong to change styles of worship. If we just ask the question, “Why should we change?” There is no answer that can be given that leaves our selfishness out of the equation. God does not need us to change, therefore we don’t need to change. To change our style of worship only satisfies our fleshly desires. So the real answer is that “we want” to change our style of worship (selfishness), so we do. It really is that simple. God did not stop responding to Orthodox worship. We became selfish and forgot that worship has nothing to do with us, and only has to do with giving to God. We would now need to review why we want to change our style of worship. I can only think of one good reason to change a style of worship. If God receives more glory, and He is more greatly praised, or reverence to Him can be increased, then we have a good argument to change a style of worship. I am not pretending to know which style of worship is the most holy one out there. Maybe the Orthodox church has had it wrong for 2,000 years, and we are slowly getting better at it! Maybe drums are evil, and maybe they are God’s favorite instrument so the more bass we have in a service, the more we truly worship God. I am not arguing “if” we should or should not change our worship style. I am just saying that we should be asking “why.” If the answer is that “we need” to be more relevant to the world. “We need” to change with the younger generations. “We need” to change in order to grow. “We need” to be creative. “We need” to… If anywhere in your answer you use the term “we” or even worse, “world” then your point is insignificant. Yes, “we” are subjected to a changing world, but not to a changing God. So if our style of worship is broken, it has always been broken. If our worship needs to change, then it has always needed to change. We have gone from kneeling with our faces buried out of such deep respect and reverence to Him in worship, to an electrifying emotional “engagement,” jumping up and down and shouting. I say…”If the spirit so leads then go! Ye who try to lead the spirit though, be prepared.” According to my simple, uneducated (no degrees from a Christian college, I just read the Bible) opinion, change of worship style is permissible if it glorifies Him more than our current style. If we change for the right reasons, then our relationship with God will grow stronger. Worship enhances our relationship with God, and brings us closer to Him out of our praise. So if the styles change for the right reasons, contemporary music should produce a better relationship with God when we enter into worship in that style. Therefore those who worship through contemporary style, should have a closer relationship with God and the generation that “we need” to reach through this music should be more spiritually mature than the last generation, and even those who worshipped in the first 7 churches. If, however, we changed worship because it was more emotional for us, we could be in trouble. The Holy Spirit is awesome! He can lead us in directions that we could never predict or even dream of. David danced wildly for his King (although not in the temple). Miriam played the tambourine. Instruments have been used throughout time for worship. I am not condemning nor condoning a certain type of worship. I am just saying that we need to question “why” “we need” to change worship. We certainly do not need to change to be more relevant to the world, or to grow our youth group, or to meet people where they are, etc… These are all the common answers we hear, and they are poor answers. They have no Biblical or Spiritual backing or relevance. In fact we are warned NOT to conform to the world. Someone tell me that God can be glorified more, or that God can be praised and honored at a higher level, and then you have an argument. Keep in mind that being glorified more, or honored more is on a spiritual level, not based on the number of people we can get to do certain types of worship. The quality of the worship is far greater than the quantity (Cain & Able). -Matt Gaiser[/quote] Okay, well alot of thoughts were working on in my head as I read it, so I'll try to get it all down. First, the Bible says to be in the world, not of it. If you think of that, I believe us Christians have failed with that perspective. We have become of the world, therefore doing worldly things. Anyway, I think us Christians have recognized our mistake, ergo, we have tried to fix it. In doing so, I think we may have made some mistakes, yet have made improvements. When I say mistakes, I refer to things such as worshipping with such styles as the hip-hop, rap, and other worldly music styles, but I also believe that in doing so we have drawn more people to the kingdom of God with true acceptance as their Personal Savior with this style of music. My question to those who think we don't need to change our worship is why not. If it gives more glory to God in doing so, why not. I believe God wants glory, not just worship. If we change our worship, giving more glory to God, won't he be satisfied. I agree Christians need to come back to the heart of worship, but my question is how to find it. Reading the Bible is a great source, but we need to search deeper than that... we need to search our hearts.

worship is from the heart.... If you worship GOD from the heart, then it doesn't matter the style, genre of music...it's the heart that matters... When Samuel was going to anoint one of Jesse's sons as the new King to Israel, GOD told him to not look at the outer apperance, for GOD HIMSELF looks at the heart