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What about “seeker-sensitive” worship?
Scripture flatly tells us that no one naturally seeks God (Romans 3:11) unless God himself first does the drawing (John 6:44).
Biblically speaking, it is God who seeks worshipers, not the other way around (John 4:23, 24). The very premise of “seeker-sensitive” worship is
for this reason misdirected. Even further, the focus of the seeker-sensitive movement is to create worship that makes the unbeliever feel welcome
and unthreatened. The problem with this is that it makes people—and unbelievers at that—the focus of worship instead of God. Secondly, it assumes
that the worship experience for the unbeliever is supposed to be comfortable—something that 1 Corinthians 14:25 says to the contrary. It is
precisely the inescapable presence of God that leads the unbeliever to the knowledge of his own sin before God—and into repentance.
What about contemporary music and instruments?
Although many traditionalists do indeed object to modern music styles and instrumentation, there is nothing inherently
wrong with either. In fact, the Psalms challenge us no less than six times to “sing a new song.” If Scripture regulates worship, then
Psalm 150 seems to establish that just about every instrumental category is acceptable—from stringed instruments to wind instruments.
Although it may very well be appropriate to raise the question of performance in connection with contemporary music styles—that is, the
tendency for contemporary praise bands to take a performer’s stance and the congregation to adopt an audience stance—no argument can be
made biblically against the use of modern music and instruments.
Can’t worship include evangelism?
Developments over the last two decades have made it necessary to more clearly articulate what was for centuries
biblically understood: worship is for believers. It is one thing to say that worship can include evangelism, but it is another to
make evangelism the focus of worship. The primary focus of worship is not to bring people to Christ—it is to bring believers in Christ
together in praise and devotion. For this reason the goal of worship is not evangelism. If such were the goal, then that goal would
be in conflict with our first and primary principle that worship is about God. This does not at all conflict with the fact the church
has been called by the Great Commission to take the Gospel into all the world; in fact, as John Piper has capably argued, evangelism
and missions exists because worship doesn’t:
Worship…is the fuel and goal of missions. It’s the goal of missions because in missions we simply aim to bring the nations
into the white-hot enjoyment of God’s glory….But worship is also the fuel of missions. Passion for God in worship precedes the offer of
God in preaching. You can’t commend what you don’t cherish (Piper, Let the Nations Be Glad!, p. 11).
The Apostle Peter speaks similarly when he writes: “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9).
God has chosen for himself so that we may worship him, both now and forever! Worship is the goal of evangelism—but evangelism is
not the goal of worship. God’s glory is—and because of this Christian worship is for believers.
This doesn’t at all mean that unbelievers are unwelcome in worship or that worship ought to be intentionally
inaccessible to them. To the contrary, we ought to delight in bringing unbelievers to observe the reality of redeemed sinners
worshiping their redeeming God; in so doing we ought to make sure our language is as clear and plain as possible. As a result, it
should be our prayer that God will confront unbelievers who are present through the biblical presentation of his character with the
reality of their need of a savior (1 Corinthians 14:24, 25).
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