WHEN WORSHIP BECOMES HYPE
Worship has been reduced down to an emotional experience. This is why many churches focus on the song service. Emotionally "uplifting" songs in a darkened sanctuary with dramatic stage lighting and a "Praise Team" that puts on a performance to help stimulate and manipulate the congregants has turned the weekly gathering in such a way that worship has shifted from seeking God through the preaching of the Word to making sure people walk away with an emotional high. I've seen what "emotionally saturated" worship services do. It gets people, especially youth, on an emotional high that eventually fades after a week or two. No one can hold that emotional high for very long because eventually, life happens. Things occur that cause those emotions to go in the opposite direction. Suddenly, they equate emotionally hyped worship services with "nearness" to God and when that "emotional high" wears off, then they wonder, "Why doesn...
