Texas Pastor: Worship is About Christ, Not Impressing Crowds

Here is a Baptist minister who might just be on his way to getting it...
It's very easy for music to become the point during worship in the church, said a Southern Baptist.

But LifeWay Worship Director Mike Harland told pastors that it's not about better bands, advanced technology, newer copyright dates or newer models. Rather, it's about revealing the person of Jesus Christ and giving Him the adoration that is due.
"We don't want to gather trying to impress crowds with our technology, our innovation or creativity, but to passionately worship the God who saves," he said Tuesday at a one-day conference on "Transformational Small Churches."

Harland cited research from the recently released book Transformational Church, which was based on a survey of more than 7,000 Protestant churches and interviews with more than 250 of the church pastors.

The book, written by LifeWay's Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer, identified transformational church principles and among them was a worship that actively embraces Jesus.

"God didn't call us to lead music or to perform worship services for the people's enjoyment," Harland said. "God called us to engage people in the experience of expressing their worship and praise to God."
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"It's not enough just to put the word of adoration in the mouths of God's people. We've got to tell the story about who Jesus is," Harland underscored.
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"What do transformational churches do?" Harland posed to pastors at the conference. "They don't get a rock band, they don't get a projection system, they don't get a fog machine. They show people who Jesus is and then give people the opportunity to respond to Him in worship and adoration."
source.

Okay, but instead of reinventing the wheel with "transformational churches," why not save yourself a lot of hassle and do it the way the Church has been doing it for two thousand years? There simply is no worship that better shows who Jesus is.

Orthodox Chapel in Afghanistan

I had heard (and may have mentioned here) that there was one--and only one--freestanding Christian church of any kind in the country of Afghanistan and this is it.

It is an Orthodox chapel at Kandahar Air Base and was built by Romanian troops fairly recently (at least since I was there six years ago). Here is a link to a slideshow:

link