Sing4Him
June 2nd, 2008, 11:43 AM
Staged Worship Events: Can They Promote a False Gospel?
A review of a new book at Christianity Today raises the question: Can staged worship experiences create a false gospel? We’ve all seen these concerts spearheaded by Christian music stars. It’s the same question I was mulling over this weekend as I read Michael English’s book that came out in February, entitled The Prodigal Comes Home: My Story of Failure and God’s Story of Redemption. Many will remember the news reports back in 1994 when singer English turned in the Dove Awards he had won a few days earlier after his affair with a married woman, a fellow gospel singer he was touring with, resulted in a pregnancy. He bailed out of a marriage he didn’t want and descended into a life of drugs, strip joints, and a string of immoral relationships. What became apparent in reading the book was the strange, unreal world of gospel/worship performers where the lines are completely blurred as to where worship ends and entertainment begins. When the Christian pop subculture has its own line-up of celebrities who experience every bit as much money, glitz and glamor as the secular world, it is little wonder that things are not so good below the surface.
Performance-based, staged worship events can lead to a false gospel and false worship—so often what or who is being worshiped, if people are perfectly honest, is not the God of the Bible at all but the attractive star who is leading the music, (although the same can be said of choirs and organs in a more traditional setting where worship has become an “art form”). Michael English, who never seems to have had a real conversion prior to his gospel singing career hitting the big time, hit rock bottom with his drug addiction which continued until late 2001, and God used it to bring him to repentance. He now sings to crowds of 200 at churches instead of thousands in arenas, and his message is one of what God did for him in saving his soul. After reading his book that reads like a who’s who of gospel music today, you realize that back behind the celebrity, air-brushed images, there are a lot of people who need to know the Lord. It’s also a warning about what can happen to kids who are raised in a Christian environment, even a ministry one, and who can assume they are believers when they have never really come to know Christ. I operated under the same delusion growing up in a Christian family, and understand at a deep level the personal damage this can cause.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=826
A review of a new book at Christianity Today raises the question: Can staged worship experiences create a false gospel? We’ve all seen these concerts spearheaded by Christian music stars. It’s the same question I was mulling over this weekend as I read Michael English’s book that came out in February, entitled The Prodigal Comes Home: My Story of Failure and God’s Story of Redemption. Many will remember the news reports back in 1994 when singer English turned in the Dove Awards he had won a few days earlier after his affair with a married woman, a fellow gospel singer he was touring with, resulted in a pregnancy. He bailed out of a marriage he didn’t want and descended into a life of drugs, strip joints, and a string of immoral relationships. What became apparent in reading the book was the strange, unreal world of gospel/worship performers where the lines are completely blurred as to where worship ends and entertainment begins. When the Christian pop subculture has its own line-up of celebrities who experience every bit as much money, glitz and glamor as the secular world, it is little wonder that things are not so good below the surface.
Performance-based, staged worship events can lead to a false gospel and false worship—so often what or who is being worshiped, if people are perfectly honest, is not the God of the Bible at all but the attractive star who is leading the music, (although the same can be said of choirs and organs in a more traditional setting where worship has become an “art form”). Michael English, who never seems to have had a real conversion prior to his gospel singing career hitting the big time, hit rock bottom with his drug addiction which continued until late 2001, and God used it to bring him to repentance. He now sings to crowds of 200 at churches instead of thousands in arenas, and his message is one of what God did for him in saving his soul. After reading his book that reads like a who’s who of gospel music today, you realize that back behind the celebrity, air-brushed images, there are a lot of people who need to know the Lord. It’s also a warning about what can happen to kids who are raised in a Christian environment, even a ministry one, and who can assume they are believers when they have never really come to know Christ. I operated under the same delusion growing up in a Christian family, and understand at a deep level the personal damage this can cause.
http://www.sliceoflaodicea.com/?p=826