David Hansen's book, The Art of Pastoring is challenging me more than any book has in a while. I thought this gem on worship was too good to pass up. Enjoy!

"Maintaining worship as a vertical dialogue with God in which we eschew entertainment and press our minds and bodies into service is a battle against one of the public's deepest felt needs.

Boredom is so extreme in our day that people feel they are dying. Boredom makes people feel as if their central nervous system is winding down and shutting off. People will pay any amount of money to relieve boredom for the same reason that they will pay any amount of money for a pacemaker.

People want singing that excites and envelopes, special music that impresses, sermons that warm the heart, testimonies that make them cry and miracles that make their skin tingle.

Worship as entertainment, defined as the ritual excitement of the central nervous system to temporarily relieve boredom, is a shortcut to the believer's soul-deep satisfaction of serving God through vertically oriented worship. Entertainment is passive and is an effect wrought upon the participant by 'worship leaders.' Worship is active and requires effort expended by a thankful congregation of believers on behalf of a holy and merciful God, initiated and led by the Holy Spirit.

If we entertain our people, our church will grow. If we lead in worship, our church may shrink until it is composed of a group of people who want to worship. Then the church has a chance to grow based on the precedent of worship. The church that worships will have many visitors who never come back, and a few who cannot stay away."

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