Thursday, August 14, 2008

Video of the Month!

Okay, I have to be honest-this just makes me laugh.





Yes, I wasted 15 minutes of my life watching it too and, like you, I feel stupider having viewed it. That being said-I have some questions:

1. Am I the only one in the room that wonders how college age kids don't think this is absolutely retarded?

2. Do you get the feeling that most of those kids were "messed up" before they got to church? Maybe, like, in the parking lot with some rolling papers and munchies?

Anyway, I think this can be useful to us. Obviously, we can have a bunch of knee jerk reactions to it, but what is really wrong with it? If you had to explain it to someone, what would you say?

Take your best shot, but stay conversational - don't get preachy. ie: "This is what is wrong with the church today", etc. Really try to explain why we don't believe this is of God. Make sure you don't make fun of how anybody looked (ahem: worship leader), just stick to the facts. Okay? Alright, let's hear it...

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

"We love the Lordy" ????what??

OK well, I am trying really hard both not to get preachy and not to judge....

What comes to mind is that I really dont hear anything in the music that sounded edifying to the church or to God.

First thought came to mind was it was just a bunch of kids listening to a groovy beat dancing and having fun. When music is rambling on and saying the same thing over and over again, we have to ask ourselves, what use does it have?

Kind of like Tim Hawkins funny stand up comic, who makes funny of us who pray saying Jesus name or Lord 38 times in a prayer. We don't talk to our friends that way, Phil, Phil, Phil, Phil, will you come to , Phil , Phil, lunch with Us Phil, Phil, PHil.

Charles

Anonymous said...

I really didn't K yer too much for this. I wonder though if there was any authentic worship in the heart of any of them and if Jesus would look past the mess and see it. I don't get it. I agree with chas.
Things that make you go humm.

Phil said...

Ok, John, you got a belly laugh out of me on that one.

Anonymous said...

I agree with everyone else...this blog was a great idea and I think it is a good tool for us to learn from one another.

Okay, I am quite disturbed by the video. I don't really have much to say except, "Where is the fear of the LORD?" You won't find any support in the Bible for this kind of behavior in a worship service. What's interesting is that when you go onto youtube and look at all the comments people made about it, there is only one passage used to defend this behavior, and it is used out of context. Let me explain:

I've heard this teaching/mindset before. They use the scripture that says that David danced before the LORD in the sight of all the people and "disrobed" himself and said, "I will become even more undignified than this" (2 Sam 6:20,22). They say, "David danced naked before the LORD!" I'm not sure, but I think David probably at least had some sort of undergarment on. It says in verse 14 that he was wearing an ephod, which is an upper garment.

Anyway though, right before this happened, God had just struck Uzzah dead for merely touching the ark! We have every reason to fear God, just as David did after the Uzzah incident. In other words, let's not call the ALMIGHTY, SOVEREIGN LORD of HOSTS "lordy."

I invite you to read 2 Sam 6 because the whole chapter has a very interesting context and seems related to this video.


It excites me that all of you "elderly" men are sharpening each other on this blog. Now we just need some women to join in...
where are you, ladies?

Anonymous said...

It gave me a rash...(figuratively speaking, of course)!

Anyway, a couple of good,"elderly" words describe my initial impression - worldly and irreverent. Not that I have to approve of all Christian music, but we do have a responsibility to test the spirits, as to how Christ is honored, etc.

I'm (barely)old enough to remember the old Wesleyan/Pilgrim custom of everybody waving their hankies* to a song in worship (As kids we thought THAT was gross), but everyone kept their socks on, thank you very much.

Also I remember some of the old Negro spiritual songs of the South used the word "Lordy." I'm not sure if it was frowned on in that context by some.

david m.

hankies* = squares of white cloth used prior to the invention of kleenex... ;0

Phil said...

Thanks for everyone's input. I've been trying to nail down exactly what it is that bothers me about it- besides the obvious sacriligiousness (yay - new word!)and the fact that it is just rediculous.

I think what bothers me the most is the seal of approval that the pastor puts on it. He qualifies it as something that God is doing outside the box (or cake in this case)Yes, people are dying in China for the Gospel, but God chooses to work in America by having young adults jump up and down to rehashed 80's tunes.

Now, if you get excited about jumping up and down to 80's tunes - I have no problem with that. Just don't say that it is something God is doing. It minimilizes Him and makes him look like a fool(in my opinion).

Everyone is so afraid to criticize something that someone else is doing out of supposed zeal for God that we are unable to call something for what it is. Instead, we have to say, "God is doing something new!"

If i was a non-Christian, I think I would look at these people and say, if that is all God can muster up - no thank you.

Phil said...

Oh, and one more thing...

It's not the party atmosphere or the jumping up and down that bothers me. It's the complete emptiness of the lyrics and the lack of substance of the whole thing.

What category does this fit into? Evangelism? Discipleship? Equipping? Edifying?

The only category that fits is Mindless Entertainment(remind me to get a banner made for the sanctuary).

And again, mindless entertainment has it's place, but in church? sigh. We've again set the criteria for "God is doing something" as an emotional high, a religious frenzy, instead of true revival which is marked by, among other things, tears of repentence, holy living, and the like.

I think a great study would be the great revivals that have happened in the past. Tomorrow's post will be along that line...

Anonymous said...

It's really hard sometimes to say things that don't sound preachy and I am certainly not a biblical scholar. I watched this thing and while on the surface it is amusing I found myself disturbed and saddened. I use caution when looking at something like this.
Phillipians 1:12-18
I don't know all that was taught that night but from what I saw, I suspect it was of little substance.
I don't know the motives were but I certainly didn't hear the Gospel being preached. In fact when they all started chanting and dancing I immediatly thought to myself that this is what it must have looked like to Moses when he came down from Mount Sinai in Exodus.
I invite you to re-read:
Exodus Chapter 32
I kept looking for the golden calf.
I guess it's cake these days.
I read it and then re examined this little clip and it's kinda scary.
Sadly these types of events are being passed off as praise, worship and dare I say it......church.
Martin

Adam Smith said...

wow, that was great! whats everyone hatn on rick pino for, he really has some original ideas...i wanna try that sock song sometime for youth on wensday nites!!!

FourthRowLeft said...

Alright I am going to come out and finally say this publicly. I don't like either the video or some of the comments. ( I wouldn't be commenting on the video to anyone, except for the fact that it is out her for all to see anyway and there have been several chiming in.)

The main problem I have is publicly criticizing other believers. I know some might argue "Are they believers - do they qualify?" I don't know.. and neither does anyone else. Only the Lord knows. Yeah, maybe they were off track that day (or more than one day - I don't know), but publicly taking them down is not cool in my book.

My last thought - I don't think we need to spend time criticizing other believers - we are better served to spend time talking about what God is doing in our church. We are down on them for leaving God out of the picture - lets not do the same by conversing about what we think they are doing wrong. The better subject is what is God going to do at Dayspring.

I will be installing a security camera at my front door so I can see when the lynch mob has shown up. :-)