Yet still the practice continues today.

When Christians watch their own kids leave the church in droves and fiercely-defend the rituals their kids hate, is this not blind obedience in the tradition of child sacrifice?  No blood is spilled today, but the young are truly discarded at the altar of religious tradition.

How can parents remain so loyal to boring rituals? Even those singing its praises remain largely unaffected by the slight elation of the Singing Worship Service. (For some the buzz is killed by the parking lot traffic jam!) Even the church hierarchy knows the Worship Service is failing: leaders and pastors everywhere are frustrated with the spiritual apathy and biblical ignorance in their own congregations, and the problem is verified statistically.

How can parents remain detached from the suffering of their own kids? The massive disaffection towards the Singing Worship Service is well-documented and universally acknowledged, with few exceptions.  But parents don’t need the stats because they can see it in their kids’ sour faces while driving there.

It isn’t their fault: parents are pressured by a culture of the Singing Worship Service. American Christianity is so standardized and fossilized by the Singing Worship Service, it has attained a cult-like grip on Christians everywhere. Christians dare not break away from it for fear of being sacrileges.

People get enraged and irrational when the Singing Worship Service is questioned, like this:

“I’m vibrating” – quote from Hughes’ Web

Please, can anyone explain why the Singing Worship Service is so vital? The elation is brief, it doesn’t solve the real problems, it’s alienating for Millennials (and others), and most significant, the Singing Worship Service soaks more money and manpower than any other Christian ministry.

Here’s the shocker: with all the “conversations” and “revolutions” underway in churches today, with new generations of church leaders appearing, with Emerging churches and so many others thinking outside the norm, is anyone anywhere proposing to dump the Singing Worship Service? Not that we can see. They dare to add new songs or a snazzy beat, but nobody is willing to dump the Singing Worship Service.

• Is it really so wonderful?
• Is this thing embedded so deep in Christianity it will never leave, no matter how painful and costly it is?
• Is the Singing Worship Service an idol pushing God’s will aside?

That last question sounds crazy: does it imply churches are worshipping the Singing Worship Service as an idol? It may not be so rebellious, but if we dare not raise the question, if the Singing Worship Service is above any criticism or questions, this seems extreme, even dangerous, and possibly foolish.

There is good cause to consider if the Singing Worship Service receives unhealthy adoration: our time is so limited, our resources are stretched, our needs are so great it means we must prioritize ministry efforts. One ministry gets more attention at the expense of another. Since the Singing Worship Service gets the highest priority, other ministries must receive less attention.

Are we the wisest stewards, considering the greatest needs?

A Millennial Manifesto

Millennial Christians, you know the Singing Worship Service is an old-fashioned human tradition, not God’s idea. It is mundane and trite, boring and suffocating. It feels like death because it is mummified tradition!

Those monolithic institutions will never change. Look at how much money they spent on that building—it’s a big bank preserving the value of their Worship Service.

Leave it now, while you feel a spark of life and vision! Take your friends and get out of that tomb before you grow too old and too tired to fight!

Millennial Christians, go look at the Worship Service and count how many people your age are there by their own free will. Aren’t they all forced to go? Count how many new people your age are joining the Worship Service, free-willingly and interested in finding God there…can you find even one? Maybe so, but how many return?

Millennial Christians, would you dare invite your friends at school to the Worship Service? On Friday if they ask about your weekend plans, will you tell them about the Worship Service? On Monday, will you tell them anything exciting about Sunday’s Worship Service? Why not? Isn’t the Worship Service the most important part of your church? Isn’t your faith the most important part of your life? Why not brag about the Worship Service? Will your friends be jealous?

Why do they make you stand up to sing and sing and sing again? It’s fun to sing if you want to, but why do they have to kill a good thing by making it a law, and why are they so rigid about the singing? Aren’t you tired of the Worship Service and all that singing?

If you’re bored and you know it, beat feet outta there!

Get out now while you can. Did you know you can start your own Bible study tomorrow with your friends, and you don’t need a Worship Service?

But they will say God wants you to go to the Worship Service; that your little Bible study isn’t a real church because it’s not a Worship Service; they’ll even say God gets angry if you don’t come to the Worship Service. But all these threats are untrue. They originate from folklore, from the Dark Ages. None of these threats come from God, nor are they found in the Bible. Quite the opposite:

“Earth is my footstool, and heaven is my throne…”

Isn’t it obvious God isn’t trapped in a building or the ritual singing of a Worship Service? Is it really impossible to meet God or please God outside the Worship Service? Does God even need a Worship Service at all?

Look at all that money spent on the Worship Service! They claim it “glorifies God’s name,” but wouldn’t God be more pleased if that money helped the poor, or comforted the suffering of masses of people everywhere?

Be prepared, however: people will get angry if you question the necessity of the Worship Service. It’s the one thing you are not allowed to change in the Institutionalized Christianity.

1. Redemptive Discipline is only effective to the extent that we have provided Present Love Feelings (the cuddle, which can be Hugs, intimate moments, sexual expression, thanksgiving, etc.).
2. The goal of Redemptive Discipline is always replacing Immature Love (demanding love) with Mature Love (sacrificial love).
3. Redemptive Discipline feels like discipline only through the removal of Present Love Feelings.
4. It ultimately necessitates providing someone a better emotional experience than what they’re currently experiencing. (What Ankenman called “Physical Reasoning” with smaller children.)
5. Redemptive Discipline often incurs great personal expense for the one disciplining (see Redemption).

Scriptures & References

Discipline Emotionally

1. It begins with providing someone cause to believe you love them, because your love is sacrificial. Sometimes this means bowing to the Love Demands of the immature  in order to Redeem them in the long-term.
2. Love Authority then applies Redemptive Discipline to replace Immature Love Demands with Mature Love behavior.

Which means Love Authority is:

1. “Cuddle and paddle” as Ankenman called it (both 1 and 2 above). Redemptive Discipline is only effective to the extent that we have provided Present Love Feelings (the cuddle, which can be Hugs, intimate moments, sexual expression, thanksgiving, etc.).
2. Redemptive Discipline feels like discipline only when the removal of Present Love Feelings occurs.
3. Expecting and anticipating the immature reactions of the immature, so that the outcome is Victorious Love Output.

Personal Immature Love Demands need to be resolved enough so we don’t react immaturely to the responses of others and thus lose our position of Love Authority.

Scriptures

The embodiment of Love Authority:

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer, contributing to the needs of the saints, practicing hospitality. – Romans 12:9–13

Love Authority purses Redemption despite the reaction of the immature, as Jesus demonstrates:

He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. – John 1:9–11

1 Corinthians 6:11 (NASB) Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

As well as a process.

2 Corinthians 2:15 (NASB) For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing;

1 Corinthians 1:18 (NASB) For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

This is the already-not-yet tension which Watchman Nee teaches: we’re saved positionally, and being saved conditionally. He calls this Position and Condition.

Position: how God sees us.

Condition: how we see ourselves in the world we live in. Whats the “Condition your Condition is in?”

Galatians 3:13 (NASB) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us.

Qualities of Redemption:

1. It is a voluntary payment, not a debt-payment.
2. It adds value to someone. Someone who pays the price to liberate someone else transfers value to that person.
3. It imparts significance to someone who was a slave, then is set free. It means leading someone from immature love (slavery) into greater maturity (the freedom to love anyone).
4. It builds substance in someone else who then becomes able to take ownership of relationships, rather than stealing love feelings from relationships.  Owners have substance, slaves don’t.

In Love Ethics, Redemption is Redemptive Discipline, which is the goal of transformation behind Love Authority when it

The word Paul uses for “give thanks” is Eucharisteo in Koine Greek, and it goes beyond merely feeling grateful. Eucharisteo means to be openly, visibly, demonstrably thankful. “Thanksgiving” is more precise than “grateful”. A grateful, passing thought is far different from a demonstration of gratitude. Someone may claim to be grateful for their parents, but when was the last time it was expressed?

Example: After healing 10 cleansed lepers in John 10, Jesus was dismayed that only one returned to thank him.

This is why the Bible uses the Greek word Eucharisto (translated “thanksgiving” or “thankfulness”) rather than “gratitude” to describe what God considers to be a primary source of spiritual alienation with Him (Romans 1:26), and causing alienation between humans (“ungrateful…towards parents”).  Thankfulness and gratitude are nearly-synonomous in English, but until expressed, gratitude is a fleeting thought or feeling, not Eucharisto, and gratitude alone will not heal alienated relationships.

In Romans 1 Paul sees lack of thankfulness as a pivotal turning towards depravity: a dark and hopeless condition (which Paul describes in detail from Rom. 1:21 through Rom. 3). Conversely, redemption begins with a thankful response to the goodness of God, because thankfulness is the first step toward a saving faith.

In Love Therapy

Dr. Ankenman identified Thanksgiving as the foundational activity required to move from Immature Love to Mature Love, and the initial focus of Love Authority. From there the immature can begin extending Thanksgiving to past relationships once dominated by Perceived Injustice Demands.

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.” Luke 2:10-14

“Peace among men with whom He is pleased,” defines Revolutionary Joy, and God is filled with it. This joy brings “Glory to God in the highest” because God’s Revolutionary Joy is contagious and stirs everyone’s hearts with great praise.

In the language of Love Ethics, Revolutionary Joy flows out of Permanent Love Values, not from Present Love Feelings, so it’s an emotion that can be sustained from day to day, unlike reactionary feelings like happiness or excitement.

Joy has the following qualities:

1. It begins with God.
2. It is viewing the world through God’s eyes by faith (Phil. 4:4). To see the world through God’s eyes brings Joy.
3. It is a redemptive view. God sees redemption where we see defeat. This is why, “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.” (Phil. 4:8) This is not positive thinking; it’s redemptive thinking. To dwell on the 99.9% that’s wrong is useless; what matters is the 0.1% which God can redeem, and we can join His redemptive work with a Phil. 4:8 outlook.
4. It is a victorious view. Where victory is absent, redemption is still working, which points back to a victorious view. Thus Paul could write this while imprisoned: “joyously giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in Light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.” (Colossians 1:11-13) He lived with a victorious view.
5. It is a character trait of maturity. Through sanctification and walking “by the Spirit”, Joy becomes a pillar of Christian character which provides the stability and motivation to love others. Thus: “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy…” (Gal.5:22)
6. It is contagious because we are redemptive with others: “I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.” (Phil. 2:18) Christians should see Joy increasing in the lives of people they redeem through love: “I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith.” (Philippians 1:25) So Joy grows immensely in Christian groups where redemption is underway; conversely, a demoralized group needs to start “redeeming the time” –which means to focus on redemption (Col. 4:5).