Charging Admission for Worship

It's one thing for Christian musicians to compose works that are informed or influenced by the faith and the ideas associated with it. But when such music is labeled 'Christian' then several important lines are blurred. It becomes a form of 'sacred' music in the minds of many and as such its performance can be associated with worship.

There is no such thing as sacred music in the New Testament. Hymns are a form of corporate prayer and praise but they should not have anything to do with performance and entertainment. The musicality is not essential nor should it be the focus – a means not an end. Instrumentation did not enter the scene for many centuries after the time of the apostles. In actuality it belongs to the Old Covenant order wherein the sacred instruments were played by Levites – the priests of the Temple. As elements of worship the instruments were part of the same order of sacrifices, incense, holy days, and the like – the typological order fulfilled in Christ. New Testament singing was necessarily simple which is in keeping with the ethos of its pilgrim status, and the provisional already/not yet nature of the order – existing as it does in anticipation of the eschaton.

But today worship in church buildings is all but dominated by music and often the contemporary or pop-style. And in the context of larger congregations, much of this is written and performed by those who do so for financial gain. This creates the all too common absurdity of paid musical performers leading 'worship' – some who aren't even Christians, but second-tier musicians who haven't 'made it' quite yet into the mainstream.

To make matters worse, I recently heard a radio spot for a Christian pop band that's going to be giving a concert in a church building. The ad promoted it as worship – come join in the worship or something to that effect. But then, you have to buy tickets - $25 admission or $125 if you want VIP tickets which allow you to meet the band.

So is this worship? You have to pay to pray? They get to make a profit on worship? Does the congregation get a cut for letting this concert take place in their building?

Does no one see there's a problem with calling this worship and then charging admission?

I immediately thought of Christ driving the money changers out of the Temple – charlatan opportunists who exploited the people of God, the people who had come in sincerity to worship God in compliance with His law. This is a bit different as this isn't mandatory – or even legitimate worship for that matter. It's a scam in every aspect if one attaches the 'worship' nomenclature to it.

Increasingly people cannot grasp what the apostle is saying when he exhorts us to do all unto the glory of God. Contrary to the context of these passages, it's taken as a blank check to do whatever you want – as long as you do it to the utmost (which is interpreted as glorifying God). This is a case of bad exegesis riding on the back of many false assumptions. It has generated confusion and even ethical collapse. In part this is because Dominionism has eradicated any difference between (or even concept of) the holy and profane – the end result is business and profiteering are more or less conflated with worship, creating a situation that must be labeled an abomination.

Of course it isn't worship at all. It's rubbish. But that doesn't let these folks off the hook. It just simply adds to the confusion and makes one feel like we're living in a covenantal (but tragic) context akin to the Book of Judges.