McWorship

The consumer model has especially affected worship, which is the true measure of the church. Jesus has become a product to sell, and worship is the primary channel for sales. . . . The substance of worship—remembering God's saving deeds in the past, culminating in Jesus Christ, and anticipating the overthrow of all evil at Christ's coming—has been lost.

Robert E. Webber Who Gets to Narrate the World? Contending for the Christian Story in an Age of Rivals.(Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2008), 18.

As a student of worship over the past few years, this topic is something that I have really struggled with. Not so much on the side of playing into this consumer, McWorship, model but more on the side of fighting it. The consumer model is the way to go and as I look into the past, it almost always has been. Worship can be synonymous with someones favorite type of music. It has official music labels, packaging, advertising and the whole nine yards. Worship has become a machine.

How do we break that machine? How do we dismantle it? Even if we go, "low and slow," bolt by bolt, gear by gear, year after year, is it worth it? We are dealing with paradigms and cultural mindsets fostered in people since birth. Where do we even start?

As fellow students of worship we start where everything starts - Christ. He is that "substance of worship." We have to understand that what we do on a Sunday, or whenever, has huge implications. Only we can stop the machine. We have the choice in our plannings and meetings and bands and projects and media - McWorship, or the narrative of Christ. Is it really that hard to chose?