Does Singing with Live Music Equate to Worship?

[mmmike]

Hi. I’ve been thinking about what constitutes worship for Catholics and non Catholics.

A few months ago, I meet a young man at a restaurant. He said that he was the youth worship leader for a local non-denominational mission church. As he explained it to me, it sounded like he was talking about playing the bass guitar in front of people in church and everyone else sang along with the band.

A couple of weeks ago, my niece made a comment about what went on during youth worship at her non-denominational church. Again, she explained it as teenagers singing along to christian music performed by a live band on a stage.

I don’t mean this in a inflammatory way, but it honestly just sounds like a christian music concert. I don’t understand what the difference is between a music concert and worshiping in these cases.

Do a lot of non-catholic churches view this as an act of worship? I think of denominations like Lutherans, Methodists and Anglicans and I can clearly see a liturgy that contains music, but I don’t think they would consider the music and singing alone an act of worship. Right?

I’ve always understood worshiping God in the context of the mass (specifically the sacrifice of Jesus Christ).

I must be missing something.
Any thoughts to clarify?

 

[Rich_C]

I’ll summarize what a good priest explained in my presence once, even though I think you already get this.

If you look at salvation history from Able to now, you can see that the most central act of worship is sacrifice. Christ perfected our worship by becoming the Sacrifice that is offered at every Mass. This makes Mass the most perfect worship, and different from “praise & worship” meetings in substance, not just in degree. It is even far better than a Catholic communion service, because that has the sacrament but doesn’t make the Sacrifice present.

I don’t remember what father said about the value of other externals of worship when separated from a true sacrifice, so I don’t know if we should say just singing is worship or not.

 

[SMHW]

Hi. I’ve been thinking about what constitutes worship for Catholics and non Catholics.

Do a lot of non-catholic churches view this as an act of worship? I think of denominations like Lutherans, Methodists and Anglicans and I can clearly see a liturgy that contains music, but I don’t think they would consider the music and singing alone an act of worship. Right?

I’ve always understood worshiping God in the context of the mass (specifically the sacrifice of Jesus Christ).

I must be missing something.
Any thoughts to clarify?

To answer your question…

Yes, many non-Catholic Churches, particularly the non-denom ones, DO view music and singing as worship. Many of them think that praise, prayer, and study are worship. (That is why they often accuse Catholics of worshiping saints.)

In fact I’d say that many of them find the idea of sacrifice as worship to be outdated and somewhat offensive.​

As Catholics, we don’t disagree that music can be a form a worship. We just understand that the highest form of worship is that which Jesus commanded us to do in memory of him: the Mass*.

• And by “Mass” I am obviously including the Divine Liturgy.

 

[ltwin]

Hi. I’ve been thinking about what constitutes worship for Catholics and non Catholics.

A few months ago, I meet a young man at a restaurant. He said that he was the youth worship leader for a local non-denominational mission church. As he explained it to me, it sounded like he was talking about playing the bass guitar in front of people in church and everyone else sang along with the band.

A couple of weeks ago, my niece made a comment about what went on during youth worship at her non-denominational church. Again, she explained it as teenagers singing along to christian music performed by a live band on a stage.

I don’t mean this in a inflammatory way, but it honestly just sounds like a christian music concert. I don’t understand what the difference is between a music concert and worshiping in these cases.

Do a lot of non-catholic churches view this as an act of worship? I think of denominations like Lutherans, Methodists and Anglicans and I can clearly see a liturgy that contains music, but I don’t think they would consider the music and singing alone an act of worship. Right?

I’ve always understood worshiping God in the context of the mass (specifically the sacrifice of Jesus Christ).

I must be missing something.
Any thoughts to clarify?

The churches you are talking about tend to be evangelical Protestant. Therefore, the central element of the church service would be the sermon, preaching/teaching the Word of God.

The music comes before the preaching and is meant to usher people into an atmosphere where they can receive the Word. If there is an altar call, music will probably occur after the sermon as well.

The whole service is considered worship, but music does play an important part.

 

[DaveBj]

Does Singing with Live Music Equate to Worship?

The ancient Hebrews thought so; read the Psalms. There are references to singing to instrumental accompaniment everywhere.

In our day my answer would be that it depends 1) on the lyrics of the song that one is singing, and 2) the intent with which one is singing.