It doesn't resonate with me at all. Rock concerts, using the phrase 'partying', having a setting where stipulating sexual apparatus isn't appropriate.... Are kids that stupid today, that we need to redefine what these words mean to reach them, and are we really thinking it is a good idea to intermix the world with our youth to this degree? I guess the thinking is that this culture is so powerful, we need to look as much like it as possible to reach today's youth. I suppose the thought is that Christ and His word aren't enough; the message needs to be so worldly looking that unbelievers feel comfortable waltzing on in and sitting down (barefoot, unshaven, with a cup of designer coffee and some ink perhaps) next to people who talk and look almost exactly like them. We make them think we are just like them so they are not offended in any way, then we sneak in a little Jesus. Before you know it, we have a church and a world that are nearly twins. Only in the end, I'm not sure who is actually saved and who isn't. Maybe it was the loud, rocking music that clouded my thinking.
Somehow I just can't begin to imagine trying to sexualize (ok, massage for those of you not on board with my wording) the message to sell it to my offspring, or anyone else's. I don't home educate so that we can toss our kids in to worship (or pseudo-worship) settings with anyone and everyone; talk about clouding one's thinking. I hope to raise up mature, clean-cut, godly children who are a light in the darkness. I'd like to believe there is something really great happening in these places I'm talking about, but something in me, and the voice of my godly husband, reassures me that no, they are off-track.
I'm going to read some D. Martyn Lloyd Jones.
This culturalising has accelerated in the last decade, i.e. immodest dress, Starbucks vicariously balanced on centuries old pews, country-fied worship, "try outs" for choir (?!). Devastation has occurred due to under-shepherds, elders, and deacons failing to guard the flock in a misguided quest to be relevant; thus, goats abound. Christians are called to be not just light but salt (Mt 5:13; Lk 14:34-35) apparently, it is just not hipster. The result, Fanny Crosby out, "jesus culture" in; or, sexualizing so-called worship to the degree that one is hard pressed to discern if a song is about a lover, friend, or whatever. Thankfully, not all modern day worship has sunk so low.
ReplyDeleteYes, thankfully~well put, sister.
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