{"id":11646,"date":"2024-09-16T14:53:57","date_gmt":"2024-09-16T18:53:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=11646"},"modified":"2024-09-16T14:53:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T18:53:57","slug":"pastor-alistair-begg-warns-christians-against-consumer-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/09\/pastor-alistair-begg-warns-christians-against-consumer-worship.html","title":{"rendered":"Pastor Alistair Begg Warns Christians Against \u201cconsumer\u201d Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11649\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11649\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11649\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/09\/consumer-worship_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-Alistair-Begg-Youtube.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11649\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adobe Stock | Inset: Alistair Begg \/ Youtube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Pastor Alistair Begg attended the Sing! Conference in Nashville, Tennessee and he had strong words against what he called a growing Biblical illiteracy and \u201cconsumer\u201d worship mentality in America. He pointed at the diminishing prominence of the altar on church stages as a sign of Scripture\u2019s diminishing importance in churches, giving way to gimmicks and seeker-friendly sermons. \u201cTraditionally, the pulpit was central and visually dominant, not as an expression of the preacher\u2019s authority, but as a reminder of the authority of Scripture,\u201d he said. Today, however, the altar has been replaced with plexiglass and bar stools. \u201cWhy? Well, you\u2019ve got to please the consumers,\u201d he said of church\u2019s attempts to make their spaces feel more informal and comfortable.<\/p>\n<p>He also stated that people who attend church are no longer coming in with the expectation of hearing from Scripture. \u201cInstead of coming into worship with the express understanding that all of this begins with God in His glory, people come with coffee in hand, saying, \u2018Let\u2019s see if he\u2019s got something good for us today,\u201d he said. He warned that serious, expositional preaching had been replaced and that current preaching \u201cgives way to therapeutical endeavors,\u201d adding, \u201cI&#8217;m not sure that America understands just how deep the problem is, in relationship to biblical illiteracy.\u201d He also said it is the responsibility of the pastor to help the congregation. \u201cYou see, the task of the pastor in coming to the scriptures is not simply to provide information about what the Bible says with a few pointers to take home, fill in the blanks kind of stuff,\u201d he said. \u201cThat&#8217;s not the primary objective in the unfolding of Scripture. The desire, the longing of the pastor and the preacher and the people is that we might have a divine encounter with the living God through His Word, that we might meet God, that we might hear from God. \u2026 We don\u2019t need to hear what Alistair knows about this or that. We need to hear from God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The church, however, also needs to be led by the Holy Spirit, which goes beyond simply just knowing Scripture. \u201cEven if we can quote it, discuss it, or memorize it, we don\u2019t know it apart from the work of the Spirit,\u201d he said. \u201cJesus is the worship leader. He is the one who makes worship possible, and He is the one who leads us in praise.\u201d The conference focused on \u201cThe Songs of the Bible,\u201d and Begg pointed to Spirit-led worship. \u201cWhy is it so hard, in many cases, to get people to sing? The poor people up here, they&#8217;ve got to be here one hour early in order to get themselves all jazzed up, so in the hope that they can get us all jazzed up,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd if we don&#8217;t get jazzed up immediately, then we&#8217;re going to sing it again, and we&#8217;ll keep singing it until you&#8217;re jazzed up. And we&#8217;ll repeat the chorus 14 times, and we&#8217;ll make sure that you&#8217;re finally there. What&#8217;s the problem? Spiritual deadness is the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Pastor Alistair Begg attended the Sing! Conference in Nashville, Tennessee and he had strong words against what he called a growing Biblical illiteracy and \u201cconsumer\u201d worship mentality in America. He pointed at the diminishing prominence of the altar on church stages as a sign of Scripture\u2019s diminishing importance in churches, giving way to gimmicks and&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":11649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[141,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11646","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-church"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Pastor Alistair Begg Warns Christians Against \u201cconsumer\u201d Worship<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/09\/pastor-alistair-begg-warns-christians-against-consumer-worship.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pastor Alistair Begg Warns Christians Against \u201cconsumer\u201d Worship\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Pastor Alistair Begg attended the Sing! 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Conference in Nashville, Tennessee and he had strong words against what he called a growing Biblical illiteracy and \u201cconsumer\u201d worship mentality in America. He pointed at the diminishing prominence of the altar on church stages as a sign of Scripture\u2019s diminishing importance in churches, giving way to gimmicks and&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/09\/pastor-alistair-begg-warns-christians-against-consumer-worship.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2024-09-16T18:53:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/09\/consumer-worship_credit-Adobe-Stock_Inset-Alistair-Begg-Youtube.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia 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