Worship Wars

Rehoboam vs. Jeroboam: The Classic Original Showdown (1 Kings 14:30)

My dad was a big fan of western-themed television shows and movies. I grew up with John Wayne, Marshall Dillon, Clint Eastwood, and all sorts of cowboy heroes. It didn’t matter who the particular actor was or the hero he was portraying, because at some point I knew the good guy and the bad guy would be called to face each other in the end. In each movie, the portrayal was as if no one else had ever done this before. It was the classic original showdown.

In the movie The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, the classic showdown at the end featured three shooters. As three men stood staring at each other with their hands poised to grab a gun and shoot, the music kicked in to build the emotion[A1][A2]. The drama-building music played for several moments before any of the shooters took action.

We are thankfully beyond the days of the Old West and gunfights in the street, yet a battle continues to brew among those who follow Christ. Oddly enough, as in the western flick, this fight also involves drama-inducing music. I speak of the worship wars that take place in many churches. The battle between traditional and contemporary styles of worship creates our own version of the classic original showdown.

Some churches try to combine styles, known as a blended service. Some churches have tried hosting two services, with each featuring a different style. I visited one church that featured three services each Sunday morning: traditional, contemporary, and blended. I always reasoned that the church service scheduled at eleven o’clock in the morning was the one people supported the most. I had that idea because I grew up with the mind-set that Jesus held His services on Sunday mornings at eleven o’clock when He was on the earth.

Churches that try blended techniques or seek to change from one style to the other tend to create showdown gunfights among church members. These fights take place not on a dusty street but rather in church hallways and parking lots. Because the arguments usually revolve around musical style rather than preaching, we could say the battle creates “The Gunfight at the O.K. Chorale[A3][A4].” My tendency for puns plays out well with this topic. No doubt, there will be “treble” in the range if we “pitch” the argument and try to “scale” it a good bit. I believe, musically, it is appropriate here if you wish to start whistling the theme to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

Over the span of eighteen years, I attended three consecutive churches in three different communities that tried to coexist with differing views of which worship style was most honoring to God. The first of those three churches tried a blended service with little success. We tended to tick off both groups of worshippers. I was on staff and heard the various hallway and parking lot complaints as to the effectiveness of worship leaders to lead in one format or the other. Discussions in hallways and parking lots never end well for the church. Worship style became the litmus test in determining how good a Christian you were.

I was on staff at a second church, where we moved from having two blended services to hosting the traditional style during the early service and a contemporary format during the late service. The pastor’s message was the same, but the music style changed. The staff even changed clothes between services, from their suits and ties into polo shirts and slacks or blue jeans. The leaders heard complaints if they wore contemporary clothing for the traditional service and vice versa. If we didn’t change clothing in between or tried wearing only one outfit for the day, we were either underdressed or overdressed depending on the service style. Believe me, we heard about it if the dress didn’t match the style of service.

During the third church, I wasn’t on staff but joined it as a member. This church held a traditional format with a choir and hymns sung out of a hymnal in the early service. Following a Bible study period, the church had a contemporary style of worship for the second service, with a praise team, band, and choruses. Rather than using hymnals, a large screen displayed the words of the songs. Once again the sermon was the same for both services, but music style differed. I received an invitation to attend both services, but one man told me that if I wanted to worship fully, I should go to the service of his particular style. Both sides, as the issue usually is in any church disagreement, felt that God was on their side and that Satan was in charge of the other one.

In John 4, Jesus told the woman at the well that the call to worship is one that should be done in spirit and in truth. The truth of the matter regarding worship wars is that the style doesn’t matter. Meanwhile, the topic continues to be one that divides churches, families, and friends in the Christian community. Nobody wins the gunfight if we shoot each other.

I can think of no better example of this constant bickering and battle about worship styles than the original division of the two kingdoms. Late in his life, King Solomon had turned away from obeying God and followed the path of false gods brought in by his numerous foreign wives. Because of this, God took ten of the twelve tribes of Israel and gave them to Jeroboam. Jeroboam had served Solomon at one time but fled to Egypt in fear that Solomon was going to kill him. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, retained the tribes of Judah and Benjamin to maintain the promise God had made David about one of his descendants always being king.

In many ways, Rehoboam’s climb to the throne was a traditional promotion. It wasn’t abnormal for the children of kings to become king when their father no longer reigned. Rehoboam ruled out of Jerusalem, which had become the traditional place for the king to reside, beginning with David’s move there. Jerusalem was not only the ruling city but also the location for annual events and sacrifices. It was as much the worship center as it was anything else for the people of God.

[A1]Conflict? It’s best not to say “drama” two times.

[A2]Changed to “emotion”

[A3]Do you mean Corral?

[A4]No, it’s a play on words from the reference to the music part of worship wars