Celebration churches seem to be growing in North America. What are some of the characteristics of a "celebration" church? What gives you a clue that the church you are visiting or attend might be headed in the direction of celebration?

I'll list one thing that our church did that sent off a warning bell. We started singing between SS and Church services. Normally that wouldn't bother me because by itself, it is perfectly fine. But I knew it was one of the things the celebration church did and I knew it was one step down that road.

Our church began to sing contemporary music, some of it highly syncopated. The words to the music was on the screen with a projector in use.

To me this was one step towards celebrationism.

Our church has that too now, though the young women who lead out still mix it in with traditional hymns. And the singing still is accompanied by piano and organ only. If someone tries to introduce bass and drums, we'll have a problem here....and that's not just myself talking; several members here have said that.

I don't really have a big problem with the music as it's now done, though I do notice that the lyrics to the contemporary songs are pretty simple and repetitious, when compared to the lyrics in the standard old hymns. When singing something like "There's Power in the Blood", it feels like we're really *saying something*. When singing some of these newer tunes, it feels like singing a romance novel sometimes -- simplistic, sentimental, not much of real substance to it.

Another thing I've noticed is lowered dress standards. Years ago *all* the men had on coats and ties. Now I see more and more people showing up in plain ol' street clothes...blue jeans, deck shoes, flannel shirts, etc. "Come as you are." That's one thing Rick Warren and his "Purpose Driven" stuff encourages. More women are wearing high heels, short skirts, makeup, jewelry too. I saw a 6-year-old little girl with a mini-skirt the other week.

Do these things go together with celebration-style worship? I think they do.

The sure sign of something being wrong, or going wrong, is when a lowering of our standards accompanies it.

This, sad to say, is also happening in way too many of our churches, both non-SDA and SDA churches alike.

In our Sabbath School discussion this morning, the subject of dress came up in relation to who we have come to worship. It seems we have lost the awe towards the one and only true God before whom we have come befoe to worship. This thought came out in the discussion of Isaiah 6:1-3 which says, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory."

Celebrationism you say. Lets see the signs so far, singing between SS and church service, using a projector to get the words to the people, singing newly written songs, young women leading the singing, possibly using other instruments than piano and organ, shorter texts to the songs than in the old hymns, all males not wearing suit and tie to church. Could someone please tell me where the problem starts?
How many of these do you need to get a celebration church? The one I grew up in always had singing between SS and church service. And it was always the convergation that was to choose what to sing. But as the church had no young wimen who could lead it, older ones did. They also used piano and the old hymns. So it got one wrong and three right, I guess its a pass. To leave sarcasms, it is obviously assumed that celebration churches which seem to be described as churches that sing alot with more than one instrument playing and singing of Gods love and grace without telling a story with the song are, if not evil so at least deluded. I would simply want to add one question. WHY?

/Thomas

I am more interested in the results of an activity or format than the activity or the format itself, as long as the activity or format doesn't go against the Word and/or the SOP, which are in harmony with each other.

If it brings us closer to God along with the corresponding fruit of the Spirit, then it must be OK, otherwise........

In The Great Controversy there is a chapter on Modern Revivals, and it explains what we are seeing entering the church.

Specifically the area of rock music as a form of worship. When someone is questioned with that the excuse is "It is to glorify God".. I know of a lot of things I can do and say it's to the Glory of God.

Yet when did we have to become like the world by mixing the Holy and the profane for an increased membership?

I have read that in many countries there are different celebration styles.. Well that's great if you are in Kenya, or the reunions islands, but we are here in North America so we should remember who we are worshipping on the Sabbath, and that it is a Holy & blessed day.

God Bless,
Will

Yesterday we visited another church out of town and while in the small lesson study, a visiting GC man (who was the speaker) was visiting along with his wife.

When these verses Daryl mentioned in Isaiah 6 came up, the wife of the GC man (liberal people) exclaimed since the angels said "Holy, Holy, Holy" that they were NOT quiet in worshiping God and that WHATEVER you do in church was okay as long as you are worshiping God with the right "spirit" etc. I was SHOCKED at her words!! She emphasized over and over that the angels were NOT quiet but noisy.

I decided she would fit right in, in a penticostal church. She was saying that it was okay to have a celebration church style of worship. And of course several people were saying "amen" to her words.

John, our church also started out with hymns as well as contemporary music but it wasn't long and the hymns were stopped completely. The contemporary music they liked better.

Another clue to a celebration church was that the youth leaders began serving donuts and cocoa to the kids. They claimed some came to church without eating breakfast and so needed the nourishment.

Well, I guess I haven't seen any dry up and blow away from missing one meal yet. And their minds would be clearer to understanding truth better anyway. I know of many adults who skip Sabbath morning breakfast just so their minds will be sharper to receive a blessing from the services.

The youth leader went so far as to bring her cup of cocoa into the Sanctuary while the contemporary music was being sung between SS and Church services. My next objection to this was: how could we teach the health message while feeding these kids sweet donuts and cocoa? They were being fed stuff that would actually CLOUD up their minds...which is just what satan wants.

Fortunately the youth saw through this one and they basically stopped coming to this church and the whole youth room dried up. There is a big fight among church members going on right now and the youth leaders are making some parents unhappy and so they won't let their kids go into the youth room, when they are the age to move into that room. So it has died up.

Then what happened there resulting in division instead of unity, and lack of the fruit of the Spirit, clearly tells us something.

Doing things that are disrespectful to the Lord in His sanctuary results in division and strife.

Bringing food into the sanctuary is a sign of disrespect, is it not? And unhealthy food at that! Fellowship dinners, etc. are reserved for eating food, not the worship service, or even Sabbath School.

Regarding the angels saying "Holy, holy, holy..." Do you think they were saying this noisily?

quote:

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Isaiah 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

---

Sounds like one was saying this to the other one, and the other one was saying this in return, something like a town crier might do. That didn't sound like noise to me. This was done in an orderly and joyful fashion. WE can be joyful without being noisy in the process. When I think of noise, I think of something being said with a lot of undistinguishable voices to the point that you don't know what is actually being said.

noise = a sound, esp when it is loud or unpleasant or disturbs or worries one; [ oxford dictionary ]

Four possible characteristics to the word. If the person meant it in any of the three last ways it indeed is reason to worry, but it was probably in the first way. There are several different ways one could view loud worship. You guys probably are thinking of something like using lots of instruments with the sole puropose of creating as much loud sound as possible. However, it could also be the difference between one person singing (silent) compared to a 100 person choir singing (loud), a person using a microphone (loud) compared to not using it (silent) etc. Thinking of the old symphonies, the great moments come when silent and loud is contrasted to eachother, if they would be entierly made in whisper or flourish strength they wouldnt be as great as they are when one follows the next. This said, overpowering the rest of the music with one particular instrument, be it drumms or the organ usually takes away rather than add to the total IMO.

But it seems celebration churches arent about music, since clothes and food are clues to it.

((Cocoa and doughnuts for breakfast? bread with vegetables would have been more like breakfast... ))

Seems as if the result of the food/song fight have been that the youth no longer comes to the church. I bet it wont be too long before members start to beg them to return and mourn the day they left. The question is if the issues mentioned this far as being the characteristics of celebration churches are important enough to fight over and leave people disillusioned and turning their back on the church. What if on the day of judgement the books read out names of people lost becourse of (James 4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?). Perhaps its the other way around, but in that case, one better be 110% sure of it.

/Thomas