![\"hillsong\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/561\/2016\/02\/hillsong.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nChristian culture\u2019s boycotts rarely do any good. They generally make us look arrogant, aloof, and disconnected, all the while increasing publicity for whoever we\u2019re all riled up about.<\/p>\n
Anyone remember the Southern Baptists and their bizarre Disney obsession about 20 years ago?<\/p>\n
No, those kind of boycotts are generally not a good idea.<\/p>\n
But I think it may be time for a different kind of boycott. Not against corporations and organizations that, like Disney, couldn\u2019t care less what we think.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time for us to boycott an industry that cares very much what the whole church thinks. We\u2019re their only hope of staying afloat.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s time to boycott the worship industry.<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. It\u2019s time to boycott the worship industry because money shouldn\u2019t drive what churches sing.\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s an industry, for goodness sake. It must make money, and it must keep strategizing ways to bring in even more. So it doesn\u2019t give us what we really need, as good church music does, it gives us the entertainment that we\u2019ve come to crave. While congregational song was once crafted by pastors, theologians, and poets, the worship industry has made worship in its own green image, giving us only the most marketable \u201cartists\u201d and music. And like all good marketing does, it appeals to the least discerning parts of us. So instead of looking for beauty and artistry, we\u2019ve let ourselves get hooked on the mundane.<\/p>\n 2. It\u2019s time to boycott the worship industry because it creates its own idols.<\/strong><\/p>\n You know this idol:<\/p>\n Because of the worship industry, you also know idols like this:<\/p>\n Christian culture is obsessed with these celebrity \u201cworship leaders.\u201d They develop these huge followings, with devoted fans, best-selling books, t-shirts, recording contracts, you know, the whole deal. And like the headliners of a blockbuster movie, they are the draw. They\u2019re the ones getting paid the big bucks. They\u2019re the ones selling tickets and getting butts in the seats. The problem with this is that churches are modeling their gatherings on commercial entertainment, bringing rock concert ambiance into sanctuaries, and transforming congregants from worshipers into Chris Tomlin (et al.) groupies. The worship industry needs <\/em>this to happen. They need us to fall into obsession with these superstars and their music. I\u2019m sure most of them are great people with pure intentions, but they\u2019re mere pawns in the industry\u2019s game. And we\u2019ve eagerly obliged for so long, the industry has taken over the church\u2019s sacred time, once reserved for our Christian storytelling, and filled it with golden calves of entertainment.<\/p>\n 3. It\u2019s time to boycott the worship industry because the congregation\u2019s voice should be primary.\u00a0<\/strong>The worship industry mimics the style of the mainstream commercial genres, which are purely for performance. Their material isn\u2019t rising organically from the people. It\u2019s not crafted with good congregational singing in mind, but for a particular individual or group to perform for a passive audience. It\u2019s not that commercial music is inherently bad, it\u2019s that it\u2019s just not right for us. We need music that we can heartily and healthily lead from the pew, not an experience that we simply let happen to us.<\/p>\n 4. It\u2019s time to boycott the worship industry because emotionalism is not worship.<\/strong> The sole purpose of commercial music is to hook us in, to make us feel something, to make us crave their product on a base sensory level. This is emotional manipulation at its finest. We ought to be angered by it, instead we\u2019re entranced.<\/p>\n 5. It\u2019s time to boycott the worship industry because simply being a silently dissatisfied customer won\u2019t fix anything.\u00a0<\/strong>There are many of you: all ages, denominations, and cultural backgrounds. What we\u2019ve done with worship makes you cringe. Your senses are dulled by the lack of artistry, the pervasive emotional manipulation. But you remain in churches controlled by the worship industry, maybe for your family\u2019s sake, maybe because all your friends go there, maybe because you find a certain theological like-mindedness. But it\u2019s time to speak up or move on. We must. Corporate worship is more important than programs for your family. It\u2019s more important than your life group relationships. It\u2019s theological at its very core, so the like-mindedness you sense may be shallower than you realize. We have to make ourselves heard. The industry\u2019s chokehold is starving us of the vital nutrients we so desperately need, Word and Sacrament, and offering the empty carbs of commercial entertainment in its place. It\u2019s killing us, and we\u2019re consenting to the slow, agonizing death.<\/p>\n So I\u2019m done with the worship industry. It\u2019s not out of spite. It\u2019s not out of false piety or sensationalism. It\u2019s a matter of conscience. I can\u2019t do it anymore.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t buy their music. I won\u2019t listen to their radio stations. I won\u2019t go to their concerts. I won\u2019t purchase their songbooks. I won\u2019t attend or serve a church that does without speaking up.<\/p>\n So who\u2019s with me?<\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s time to stop mimicking pop culture.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time for us to learn how to sing and make music again, instead of allowing others to do it for us.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to rediscover the proper place of music in corporate worship.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to end the Hillsongization, dethrone our jesusy American Idols, and once again foster creative beauty and artistry, especially in our children.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to make worship about the work of the people once again, not just a good show and an hour of vegging out.<\/p>\n It\u2019s time to take a radical step. It\u2019s set up to fail us, and there\u2019s no fixing it.<\/p>\n The whole thing is nonsensical, anyway. There\u2019s not real worship industry, anyway, only a group of commercial entities that must call itself such because their very existence requires it.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let them fool you. Corporate worship doesn\u2019t depend on the mass production of raw materials and goods.<\/p>\n The whole thing started from nothing when our good Creator spoke everything into existence.<\/p>\n Our Redeemer was begotten, not made.<\/p>\n You can keep your worship industry. With one big book, a loaf of bread, and a little wine, we have all the materials we need.<\/p>\n Photos: Christian culture\u2019s boycotts rarely do any good. They generally make us look arrogant, aloof, and disconnected, all the while increasing publicity for whoever we\u2019re all riled up about. Anyone remember the Southern Baptists and their bizarre Disney obsession about 20 years ago? No, those kind of boycotts are generally not a good idea. But I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2297,"featured_media":1827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nFlickr, Jlaren Lau<\/a>, creative commons 2.0
\n<\/a>Flickr, UT Connewitz Photo Crew<\/a>, creative commons 2.0
\nFlickr, Steve Hardy<\/a>, creative commons 2.0
\nFlickr, Steve Yoon<\/a>, creative commons 2.0
\nFlickr, UT Connewitz Photo Crew<\/a>, creative commons 2.0
\nFlickr, David Joyce<\/a>, creative commons 2.0
\nFlickr, Jena Murphy<\/a>, creative commons 2.0
\nFlickr, Jena Murphy<\/a>, creative commons 2.0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"