PUTTING AN END TO WORSHIP WARS - Elmer Towns

INTRODUCTION
Since this is a book about worship, you ought to know the word Preface historically
meant a variable doxology beginning with the Sursum Corda and ending with the Sanctus in
traditional eucharistic liturgies. It meant to say beforehand what is to follow. So, I want to
summarize beforehand the main focus of this book.
Worship is not an elective for a Christian who has enrolled in the school of Christ, it is a
required course.
Jesus said, "The Father seeketh such (sincere worshippers) to worship him" (John 4:23),
therefore the child of God must respond by giving glory to God.
The fact of worship is the focus of this book, not its methodology or how to plan a
worship service. This is not a prescriptive book that a leader follows to plan a worship service.
It is a descriptive book that reflects the trends and tensions in our contemporary church over
worship practices.
A discouraged typical contemporary pastor may attend a conference and experience a
different worship style than the way he does it back home. When the floundering pastor feels the
excitement of new worship experiences and sees crowds coming to praise God differently than
the way he leads his people back home, he concludes:
"We need worship excitement back home," so he begins to make plans to change the
worship format back home.
"We can do it," he concludes.
The pastor has gone through the internal process of revitalizing his worship style.
Because the old is unfulfilling and the new is tantalizing . . . he is ready to change.
Back home he introduces a new format on Sunday morning. Some people like it, some
people don't. Some are uncomfortable, some people follow the pastor in new expressions of
worship. If the worship make-over is universally accepted by the congregation, there will be no
problems; but if everyone is not happy, there will be tensions for him and the church.
Eventually resistance to new worship forms will manifest itself in several ways. A few
isolated individuals may stop attending, or they may move their membership elsewhere. Some
will never complain or instigate trouble, they usually just disappear.
A few agitators might cluster together to reinforce one another. They find common
irritation for complaint, they begin voicing their feelings. This group may leave the church
creating a "church split" if they are large enough, or a "church splinter" if they are a small
minority.