Thank you for stepping up and writing this CMC - it was definitely needed. However, I'd have to agree with the picky music major that singing is not "the laziest form of worship." It might seem that way from the congregation's point of view, but it shouldn't be and I think usually isn't that way from the musician's point of view. I would say music is the highest form of worship if for no other reason than that it has no other function in Scripture. It seems to be a medium set aside solely for worship. Check it out, music is always connected to worship of something (maybe not always the true God) in the Bible.

"Worship is anything we do that is meant to bring glory to God". Not a bad definition. Couldn't we say, though, that whether we're meaning to bring glory to God or not, we're still worshipping something? In other words, if we're not meaning to bring glory to God, we could still be worshipping ourselves, a job, girlfriend/boyfriend, idealogy, etc. . .

Hmm, you have serving others, witnessing, living a good Christian life as ways to worship God. That's good and true. You're holding these things up as better ways to worship because they're not the quick way to get warm fuzzies - but you're still defining worship as a feeling. Worship isn't a feeling. It is an act of your will. Yes, it's great when the feelings come along with it, but there are times in the Christian life when you are truly serving, truly witnessing, truly striving to worship God in all you do - and you don't get the warm fuzzies. In fact, you may feel deader than a doornail. That doesn't mean it's not worship though - you defined worship as what is "meant to bring glory to God" - not the nice feelings you get. I'll hazard a guess and say that what really bothers you about "worship music" and the zombies who sing it is that it is MEANT TO BRING WARM FUZZIES TO ME, instead of bringing glory to God. If you separate "worship" from "feeling" I think you'll be able to worship in chapel (because you decided to bring glory to God regardless of whether the songs, the speaker, or the people around you made you feel like it), when you serve, when you witness, when you wash dishes, work, listen to Switchfoot, walk across campus, study, play sports, visit with friends, you name it.

About the songs we sing in chapel. No joking, the technical music term for lyrics that go "la, la, la, la, la" is Nonsense Syllables. Now God is a God of creativity and order - but since when was He the God of nonsense?

Just by the by, has anyone else noticed that you hear more cussing, swearing, and just general bad temper around campus immediately after chapel on MWF than you do before chapel or on TTH? Just something I noticed and tracked my freshman year. Not sure whether that says something about chapel itself or the way most of us treat chapel, but it sure says something.

The Snip