I don't even know where to begin.
I don't want to spread rumor and I don't want to get caught up in drama. I'm not trying to spark debate. I really don't want to debate it at all.
Still, this is a big deal and is weighing heavy on my heart.
This week, Marty Sampson announced on Instagram that he is "losing his faith." The Instagram post was later taken down and he clarified that he isn't renouncing his faith, but that his faith "is on very shaky ground." You can read an article and the Instagram post here.
This may not mean anything to you. That's okay. It has me sideways and I am trying to work through the fall out. So here we are.
Marty Sampson is a contemporary worship music singer and songwriter. He lead worship at Hillsong Church in Australia. He was one of the original members of Hillsong United. Between the years of 1999 and 2018, he wrote or co-wrote almost 100 worship songs, many of which have become staples in contemporary worship services around the world.
This week, he said he "isn't buying in;" that Christianity "is just like other religions."
This is the part that broke me...
“I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me. Like, what bothers me now is nothing. I am so happy now, so at peace with the world. It’s crazy.”
How can someone who KNOWS who God is think that losing his faith is okay? How can it NOT bother him? How can someone who loves Jesus be happy and at peace without Him?
The only explanation I can come up with is that he didn't know God, he didn't love Jesus... instead, he worshiped the watered down, warm and fuzzy version of God that we have adopted through much of our contemporary worship music.
Before you misunderstand me... I am NOT saying that ALL contemporary Christian music presents a faulty image of God. Only some of it. Wolves in sheep's clothing, false teachers, ear ticklers and all that.
There has been a running argument/discussion/debate at my house recently about "worship music" that doesn't mention God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit as well as "worship music" that depicts an image or quality of God that contradicts Scripture. This announcement by Sampson brought it all to a climax.
This is what happens when we worship an image of God that isn't Biblical.
John Cooper (lead singer for Skillet) released an amazing response to Marty Sampson's announcement. You can read it here. Please take a moment to read it. This article is full of thought provoking info, but this is the line from the article that stopped me in my tracks...
"Have you ever considered the disrespect of singing songs to God that are untrue of His character?"
We have, over time, watered down the Gospel so that no one is offended or left out. (God understands and looks the other way when you choose to sin. You don't need to change anything, just walk the aisle and get baptized and you get to go to heaven.) We have used emotion driven worship songs to create an image of God that more resembles a father character on our favorite family sit-com than the God of the Bible because it makes us feel good and meets our need for emotional (human) attachment.
Where has this left us?
One of the greatest influencers in modern day Christian worship music has decided that he isn't "buying in" to the Christian faith any more.
This whole thing also brings to light the sad but real truth that many times we worship pastors and worship leaders and Christian leaders instead of God. If we are worshiping anything other that GOD, our FAITH can be shaken when things like this happen. We can be swayed by someone's fall. However, when we worship the God of the Bible, our faith is strong and unshakable. I'm thankful for this. While I am upset and saddened about this whole thing, my personal faith is not affected by it in the least.
It does make me consider how I teach, what we sing in church, and what we focus on when putting together our worship service.
This HAS caused me to rethink my personal image of God.
We must see God for who HE says He is. We must worship God for who HE says He is. Any other image of God leaves us on shaky ground. Anything less than the God of the Bible is not worthy of our devotion. Only the God of the Bible is capable of saving souls and radically changing lives.
God IS love. Jesus DID dine with sinners. Jesus DID suffer, die, and rise from the grave to seal a place in heaven for any and all who believe in Him and follow Him. We serve a loving, merciful, gracious God. We serve a God who is an endlessly imaginative Creator. The God we serve knit each of us together, knows the number of hairs on our heads and knows our deepest desires and most intimate thoughts. The Jesus we follow cast out demons, healed incurable diseases, and raised people from the dead. We serve a God who wept. We also serve the God that parted the Red Sea, closed the mouths of lions, wiped out all of humanity, save one family, with a flood, turned a woman into a pillar of salt because she disobeyed, put Jonah in the belly of fish because he disobeyed, cast 1/3 of the angels from heaven because of their rebellion, and banished Adam and Eve from the paradise He created for them because of their sin.
The God of the Bible IS love....but he is also all powerful.
When anyone in Scripture met Jesus, their entire life was radically changed. When anyone in scripture met GOD, they either fell dead (literally) or at the very least fell on their face out of fear... they didn't crawl into his lap, lean on His chest, give Him a hug or high five Him.
Much of what drives us to worship is something other than God... maybe it's love, acceptance, belonging, peace, or any of the other gifts God gives us...maybe we worship the ways God has blessed us...maybe we worship His promises or the fact that He rescued us from hell.... but that's not the same as worshiping GOD because He is God. When our worship is influenced because of the type of music played, the lighting in the room, or who is leading worship... when we spend more time constructing the right atmosphere for worship than we spend in God's Word preparing our hearts for worship... I think we need to stop and consider what exactly it is that we are worshiping.
Maybe we worship... worship.
Maybe we have grown to love the FEELING of worship so much that we worship Worship instead of God.
I'll visit this again. I'm just starting to sort it out in my head... and already my stance on this whole thing is very different than it was only a few short weeks ago.
Just my thoughts...
K
I don't want to spread rumor and I don't want to get caught up in drama. I'm not trying to spark debate. I really don't want to debate it at all.
Still, this is a big deal and is weighing heavy on my heart.
This week, Marty Sampson announced on Instagram that he is "losing his faith." The Instagram post was later taken down and he clarified that he isn't renouncing his faith, but that his faith "is on very shaky ground." You can read an article and the Instagram post here.
This may not mean anything to you. That's okay. It has me sideways and I am trying to work through the fall out. So here we are.
Marty Sampson is a contemporary worship music singer and songwriter. He lead worship at Hillsong Church in Australia. He was one of the original members of Hillsong United. Between the years of 1999 and 2018, he wrote or co-wrote almost 100 worship songs, many of which have become staples in contemporary worship services around the world.
This week, he said he "isn't buying in;" that Christianity "is just like other religions."
This is the part that broke me...
“I’m genuinely losing my faith, and it doesn’t bother me. Like, what bothers me now is nothing. I am so happy now, so at peace with the world. It’s crazy.”
How can someone who KNOWS who God is think that losing his faith is okay? How can it NOT bother him? How can someone who loves Jesus be happy and at peace without Him?
The only explanation I can come up with is that he didn't know God, he didn't love Jesus... instead, he worshiped the watered down, warm and fuzzy version of God that we have adopted through much of our contemporary worship music.
Before you misunderstand me... I am NOT saying that ALL contemporary Christian music presents a faulty image of God. Only some of it. Wolves in sheep's clothing, false teachers, ear ticklers and all that.
There has been a running argument/discussion/debate at my house recently about "worship music" that doesn't mention God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit as well as "worship music" that depicts an image or quality of God that contradicts Scripture. This announcement by Sampson brought it all to a climax.
This is what happens when we worship an image of God that isn't Biblical.
John Cooper (lead singer for Skillet) released an amazing response to Marty Sampson's announcement. You can read it here. Please take a moment to read it. This article is full of thought provoking info, but this is the line from the article that stopped me in my tracks...
"Have you ever considered the disrespect of singing songs to God that are untrue of His character?"
We have, over time, watered down the Gospel so that no one is offended or left out. (God understands and looks the other way when you choose to sin. You don't need to change anything, just walk the aisle and get baptized and you get to go to heaven.) We have used emotion driven worship songs to create an image of God that more resembles a father character on our favorite family sit-com than the God of the Bible because it makes us feel good and meets our need for emotional (human) attachment.
Where has this left us?
One of the greatest influencers in modern day Christian worship music has decided that he isn't "buying in" to the Christian faith any more.
This whole thing also brings to light the sad but real truth that many times we worship pastors and worship leaders and Christian leaders instead of God. If we are worshiping anything other that GOD, our FAITH can be shaken when things like this happen. We can be swayed by someone's fall. However, when we worship the God of the Bible, our faith is strong and unshakable. I'm thankful for this. While I am upset and saddened about this whole thing, my personal faith is not affected by it in the least.
It does make me consider how I teach, what we sing in church, and what we focus on when putting together our worship service.
This HAS caused me to rethink my personal image of God.
We must see God for who HE says He is. We must worship God for who HE says He is. Any other image of God leaves us on shaky ground. Anything less than the God of the Bible is not worthy of our devotion. Only the God of the Bible is capable of saving souls and radically changing lives.
God IS love. Jesus DID dine with sinners. Jesus DID suffer, die, and rise from the grave to seal a place in heaven for any and all who believe in Him and follow Him. We serve a loving, merciful, gracious God. We serve a God who is an endlessly imaginative Creator. The God we serve knit each of us together, knows the number of hairs on our heads and knows our deepest desires and most intimate thoughts. The Jesus we follow cast out demons, healed incurable diseases, and raised people from the dead. We serve a God who wept. We also serve the God that parted the Red Sea, closed the mouths of lions, wiped out all of humanity, save one family, with a flood, turned a woman into a pillar of salt because she disobeyed, put Jonah in the belly of fish because he disobeyed, cast 1/3 of the angels from heaven because of their rebellion, and banished Adam and Eve from the paradise He created for them because of their sin.
The God of the Bible IS love....but he is also all powerful.
When anyone in Scripture met Jesus, their entire life was radically changed. When anyone in scripture met GOD, they either fell dead (literally) or at the very least fell on their face out of fear... they didn't crawl into his lap, lean on His chest, give Him a hug or high five Him.
Much of what drives us to worship is something other than God... maybe it's love, acceptance, belonging, peace, or any of the other gifts God gives us...maybe we worship the ways God has blessed us...maybe we worship His promises or the fact that He rescued us from hell.... but that's not the same as worshiping GOD because He is God. When our worship is influenced because of the type of music played, the lighting in the room, or who is leading worship... when we spend more time constructing the right atmosphere for worship than we spend in God's Word preparing our hearts for worship... I think we need to stop and consider what exactly it is that we are worshiping.
Maybe we worship... worship.
Maybe we have grown to love the FEELING of worship so much that we worship Worship instead of God.
I'll visit this again. I'm just starting to sort it out in my head... and already my stance on this whole thing is very different than it was only a few short weeks ago.
Just my thoughts...
K
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