Transformed worship

Romans 12:1,2 (NASB)

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

We who are disciples of Jesus Christ are different. We are supposed to stand out. We live in a world that hates what we believe and hates Him in whom we trust. We are the counter culture. 

This is not in any way judging the worship styles of others, but rather a subject to ponder and consider, seriously and prayerfully. I will say, quite honestly, I do not know if I have an answer to the quandary, but here it is. The Apostle Paul talks about being living sacrifices and worshiping God with our lives. 

The early church sang "psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs." Obviously we know what the psalms were, but as to what hymns and spiritual songs would have been sung, what style they followed and so on, we can't really say because this has been lost to us. We can guess that the music focused on the holiness and worthiness of God, but beyond that, we have little to go on.

For centuries, the music of the church was completely different from the secular folk music the people sang in bars and festivals. The music of the Roman Catholic Church in the middle ages was primarily chanting and eventually some chorale music. The separation of sacred music separate from secular music was extremely important.

Luther and some of the other reformers were the first I know of to mesh sacred and secular music, often setting worship songs to the music of bar tunes. Some of the most cherished hymns are set to tunes that would have had bawdy and possibly unwholesome lyrics, but the people knew them. Of course, considering Luther's heart and mindset, it seems unlikely that he wanted to do other than give the common people tunes they could connect with so they could better worship God. The lyrics of his hymn writing are some of the most moving ever penned. 

Worship, in the modern Church, has become something of a spectacle. It feels less about actually connecting with God and more about making a show to entertain. This becomes more evident when we look at modern worship music. The argument that church music needs to compete with secular music so it will hold people's interest prevails. 

I'm not sure that's really so. If we are not supposed to be conformed to the world, shouldn't the music we use to honor God also not conform to the world? Worship is not about us. It is not about entertaining people. Worship is about giving glory to God. 

Are we allowing ourselves to be transformed by God and the Holy Spirit's work in renewing our minds, or are we instead being conformed to the world by copying their music styles so that we'll look cool? Isn't the message of the Gospel enough by itself without gimmicks? Do we really think God isn't able to use His word without our intervention?

Again, I'm not trying to bash Christian musicians in any way. I actually enjoy a lot of what is billed as "praise and worship" music. What I'm trying to do is start a thoughtful conversation on how we can give worship back to God instead of making it about us. 

God is the one who does the work of transformation. He can and will use us despite ourselves, but should we not still endeavor to worship Him just for the sake of worship? Why does it have to be about how many people fill the pews? When did we become so distant from God that we don't just follow His word and let Him do the work? 

God is bigger than us and His will is eternal. If we submit to Him and let Him do the work, His kingdom will benefit far more than when we try to do it our way.