Travis Penn says that there is a line between real worship and a show.
Welcome to the Worship Circus. We have the greatest show on earth, or at least a better one than the church down the road.How does this make you feel?
The problem with this statement is that if you are part of a well programmed, highly visionary, talented church you take offense when someone criticizes all of the effort you have put into doing something well/excellent for your Lord.
And when you are a small church with a lousy praise team (if you have one at all), and Sunday after Sunday of slightly controlled chaos, you're offended by the shallowness of people who leave your congregation for what you call the greatest show in town. After all, you're doing the best you can with what you have. How will you ever get better if everyone keeps leaving for something else?
Isn't it good to do things well? And yet, isn't it superficial to leave one church and go to another because the music is better on Sunday morning?
Reminds me of something I read by Francis Chan at "A Gathering Force"
Is there any logic in believing that God started His Church as a Spirit-filled, loving body with the intention that it would evolve into entertaining, hour-long services? Was he hoping that one day people would be attracted to the Church not because they care for one another, not because they are devoted to Him, not because the supernatural occurs in their midst, but because of good music and entertainment?
Try to imagine what conclusions you would come to if you had no prior church experience. The things in church services might make sense to the American church-attendee, but they don't make sense biblically.
Picture yourself on an island with only a Bible. You've never been to a church-you've never even heard of one. The only ideas you have about church are what you've read in your Bible. Then you enter a building labeled "church" for the first time. What would you expect to experience as you entered that building? Now compare that to what you actually experience when you attend church.
That's worth considering.