MIAMI BEACH – Worship services in evangelical churches do not mention sin, an important part of the evangelical message, Dr. Cornelius Plantinga, a senior fellow at the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, said Monday. Center for Ethics and Public Policy Faith Angle Forum.
“In many evangelical and denominational Reformed churches today, sin is a rare topic,” he said.
He came to this conclusion from his experience speaking in different churches most Sundays over the past 30 years, talking to evangelical friends, observing the content of worship music used by evangelical churches and read the books and articles of Dr David Wellsdistinguished senior research professor at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary, Plantinga told the journalists’ conference.
Anglicans, Catholics and Lutherans continue to include confession or a rite of penance as a regular part of their worship services, he noted. But in evangelical and Reformed churches, he sees “less and less” sin-related material each year.
More than 158,000 churches in North America obtain their worship music from Christian Copyright Licensing International, Plantinga said. CCLI provides a valuable service to churches by streamlining the process of licensing their worship music. Churches can pay a one-time fee and obtain all licenses from the CCLI library.
Examining the content of CCLI songs, Plantinga observed that there are “very few penitential songs.” “The biblical tradition of lament, which is found everywhere in the prophets and the Psalms, is gone, but it is no longer there,” he said.
One reason Plantinga believes evangelical worship leaves sin out is a desire to be “seeker friendly” and avoid topics that might discourage non-Christians or new Christians.
“Aware that seekers come to church in a faultless American culture in which tolerance is a great virtue and intolerance a great vice, worship seekers in evangelical churches often want nothing in the service that might appear critical,” he said. And it is for this reason that “many evangelical churches today are relentlessly cheerful.”
Citing Wells, Plantinga argued that leaving sin out of worship is consistent with the theology of many evangelical churches in which “God is on good terms with modernity” and is primarily concerned with “the growth of the church and the psychological integrity”.
The apostle Paul would not feel welcome in many evangelical churches today, he added. “Where is (Paul’s) easy smile? Why does he want to discipline people? Why is he so dogmatic? Where are the stories of his sermons? And where does he come from implying that the woman who sings a Shouldn’t special music at church then while lying on the church piano?”
During the panel’s question-and-answer period, Plantinga clarified that he was not just talking about nondenominational congregations, but also about “old Protestant denominational forms,” such as the Christian Reformed Church, the Reformed Church of America and the United Presbyterian Church.
That hasn’t always been the case for evangelical churches, Plantinga said. “They were once the champions of the holiness of God, of the contrition of sins against the holiness of God, and therefore of the grace which justifies sinners,” but “much of this has passed away.”
When churches leave the subject of sin out of worship, they have no relevance to the lives of their congregants, Plantinga believes, because people are confronted with sin and its consequences every day.
“Always joyful worship doesn’t fit the lives of the people who come to worship,” he said. “…Churches that silence the biblical message of sin and grace simply aren’t anywhere near where people actually live their lives, including members of their own congregations.”
The theme of sin is found more often in movies and television, Plantinga added, because Hollywood screenwriters display an awareness of sin and evil through the stories they tell.
“Screenwriters are old-fashioned people,” he says. “They don’t go to church, so they never learned that personal guilt for wrongdoing has become outdated.”
Twice a year, a selected group of around 20 journalists is invited to EPPC conferences. Faith Angle Forum for discussions with experts on topics related to the intersection of religion and public life. Other Forum panels this week included discussions on Pope Francis and the culture wars. Transcripts and audio of the panels will be available on the EPPC website.
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