Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Ponder Anew

Home
Evangelical
Making Room in the Sanctuary for God’s Great Dance Floor

Making Room in the Sanctuary for God’s Great Dance Floor

Last updated on: July 18, 2017 at 3:21 pm by Jonathan Aigner

Making Room in the Sanctuary for God’s Great Dance Floor 2017-07-18T15:21:32-05:00 Jonathan Aigner

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

A few weeks ago, Christianity Today published an article by Jeff Neely called “Wait upon the Drop.”

The bass drop, that is.

Yes, churches in this country and beyond have begun to incorporate electronic dance music (EDM) to, in the words of the author, “elevate praise.”

The Church of Right Now

Russ Jones, Pastor of Worship Arts at The Crossing, a non-denominational Tampa congregation, says that EDM is a perfect fit for them, especially their youth ministry, as “that’s their culture right now.”

Did you hear that?

Right now.

This is what their “right now” sounds like at The Crossing.

The momentum of the jesusy EDM movement is undeniable. Even worship superstars like Chris Tomlin are incorporating it into their routine. Here’s Tomlin’s version of “God’s Great Dance Floor” at Passion in 2013.

Gettin’ Jiggy Wit Jesus

There were two quotes in this piece that caught me off guard:

“[EDM] gives permission to have fun and jump around. When you look out into the congregation or the crowd, everyone is just jumping to the music. And I feel that is the beauty of EDM—you can’t not jump to the beat.” – Aodhan King, Hillsong Young and Free vocalist.

Right. That’s what EDM is supposed to do. It’s not supposed to draw out the voice of a congregation. It’s supposed to make people want to move and leave their rational selves behind. And buy music. And stay in the club longer and spend more on drinks. It doesn’t facilitate the liturgy, it hijacks the liturgy, making it something else entirely. It’s more about letting go, giving in to a medium that cannot elicit the gravitas and sobriety needed for the holy work of God’s people.

“’It bridges something primal in us,’ [Scott Blackwell] said. ‘That’s something God put there, and it can be used for good or bad.’ …At the same time, people need to follow their own convictions, Blackwell said. If a person finds that listening to Christian EDM personally elicits sinful temptations, ‘then you know what, you probably shouldn’t do that.’”

But what need do we have to be primal in worship? [And if we really feel the music itself could elicit some generic “sinful temptations” in our congregants, why would we use it in the first place?] Certainly, there is room for a complete range of human emotion. Joy, enthusiasm, and amusement can all be present. But the task we’re supposed to be about is never one of complete abandon. Our charge in this world is a serious, sober one. We’re not called to check our brains when we worship God. In fact, as humans with [perhaps more or less] developed prefrontal cortices, why would we even want to completely give ourselves over to our primal, limbic urges, especially in worship?

Same Song, Second Verse, Chorus, Bridge, Repeat Chorus

My response to this entire article was one of grief and dismay. We still haven’t learned. The church in each recent generation has done its best to leverage cultural trappings, primarily commercial music, to bring people in. But every study done, every survey taken over the past few years demonstrates the failure of this strategy.

It’s not working, church. And it’s certainly not sustainable.

Never was the title Christianity Today more appropriate. This is certainly not the Christianity of yesterday, nor is it the Christianity of tomorrow. It is only today.

As quickly as they appeared, these latest incarnations will fade away, leaving the now not-so-young adults with a church they don’t recognize. By and large, they will wake up one day without any real connection to the saints gone before, nor the masses that follow. The only tradition in contemporary church culture is reinvention. That is the only Lord and Savior they seem to know. And as those winds of pop-culture blow, a new generation will come on the scene, with their own entertainment language. Their god’s great dance floor will be swarming with newer, younger, trendier versions of themselves.

We’re promised that Word and Sacrament are enough to sustain and strengthen us. But we’ve decided we must know better.

The contemporary church’s mission is coming clearly into focus: to help young people dance Sunday morning away for a few short months or years, and hopefully get them to follow some sort of jesus in the process.

But the jesusy bait and switch simply doesn’t work.

You might be able to leverage current entertainment to get butts in your seats for a while. But they will only stay as long as your product remains the same.

Because you won them with the music, not with the message.

Not the gospel message, anyway.

Church, when will we ever learn?

Photo:
Flickr, creative commons 2.0

Uncategorized

Previous Post

July 5, 2017

Make Worship Great Again

Next Post

July 18, 2017 But Seriously Chris Tomlin, Good Hymns Don't Need Your New Choruses

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Church of St. YouTube congregational singing congregational song contemporary critiques corporate worship Hymn of the Week hymn singing hymnody and hymnology hymns masturbatory worship Uncategorized worship Worship Quotes

Select a Month February 2023 January 2023 October 2022 September 2022 April 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 November 2019 September 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What is the main theme of Galatians?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Justification by faith Spiritual gifts Church discipline Love above faith