Even the parody of this sort of service seemed vastly more worshipful and honouring to God than the self-serving honouring of dusty traditions found in churches from my church background (Church of England). The deliberate attempt to engage the emotions in such church services is to be lauded not condemned.

I should be laughing at the self-mockery, but I’m just sad.

I think the point of the parody is that this format is now its own self-serving dusty tradition as was found in my church background (Assemblies of God). At least in the old traditions, they point me to Christ and him Crucified for my sins and are for that reason vastly more ‘worshipful’. The deliberate attempt to engage emotions should be condemned not lauded, first we should apply the Word especially the Gospel of Forgiveness, in spite of emotions, and then no doubt joy will follow – but even if for that day it doesn’t emotionally hit us, the Word is is True and not negated by our fickle feelings.

Perfect, right down to the tattoos!! I was “into” this awhile in my young adult years… I have to say that the overwhelming idea amongst the contemporary worshipers was who can “get closest” to God. If you didn’t sway, or cry, or speak in tongues, this was an obvious sign to others that your faith was too weak, and you needed to go through a “season of growing”. The point is that I finally learned my relationship with God is NOT due to ANYTHING that I can do. I rely wholly, entirely, on what my Lord has done for me. I never found that Truth in the contemporary movement. Only guilt. But that’s just me.

“Give as you feel led, but… we’re tracking.”
“Long prayer… so the worship leader can get back on stage.’ (wink)
Brilliant!

The ubiquitous complaint about the liturgy is that it is ‘scripted,’ but here we can see that no one is fooled, the Emperor has no clohtes; contemporary worship is not only scripted, but it is pretentious, vain and manipulative as well.

PS, LOL’d at the fake honors at the end, “Informally dressed pastor, Edgy T shirt and the much lauded “Papyrus Font” award!

I was jotting down some thoughts on this issue and they came out sounding somewhat like proverbs:

Bright lights and loud drums; dim lights and stodgy organ playing — either can get tiresome.

Misdirected zeal; lack of zeal — neither is best.

Mindless habits; mindless change — traditionalism and conceit of the present both miss the mark. Let each generation examine both the old and the new and cherish what gives God glory.

Authentic hope and joy flowing from the reiteration of the authentic Gospel and from authentic expressions of love for one another — that is desirable.

This seems like it was actually MOCKING contemporary so-called “worship”, not supporting it.