I’ve had several conversations recently about the nature of worship and the ongoing struggle between modern / pragmatic styles of worship and the emerging church’s view of worship. I ran across this article by Justin Baeder over at TheOoze and found it helpful:

Perhaps the most destructive effect of the worship service is to convince us that it’s all there is to church – there are no other legitimate gatherings. Home gatherings and small groups are great, but they don’t count as church, even in many emerging churches. The worship service is the only real church gathering. Among older churches, the attitude is “Attend church, and your life will be great.” Robert Webber, in his recent book The Younger Evangelicals, points out how many aspects of boomer-generation church life were engineered to provide therapy for life’s problems. Look at the sermon topics in a seeker-sensitive church, and you will find things such as “Prayer = tools for solving problems” and “How to have a great marriage.” Through sermons like these and uplifting worship music, the worship service promises everything we need to be successful Christians. If you want to go deeper, you can join a home Bible study or class, but that’s optional. Real church happens on the stage every Sunday.