As I've mentioned a few times before, I actually used to play in worship bands and was deeply immersed in the culture. Let's use this opportunity to make a few observations of contemporary evangelical worship vs. Orthodox worship. https://twitter.com/rooshv/status/1374904593612746754

1. The effect of contemporary worship (CW) is to elicit an emotional, dopamine-driven response. It is exactly the same as listening to secular rock/electronic/whatever style the CW is emulating. Church feels exactly like a concert.

This leads to surface-level emotional feelings, but there's no depth: neither in the lyrics (which are devoid of theological content) nor in the music (which is just a highly-evolved form of 80s power ballads.) This is why CW setlists completely roll over every five years.

There's no permanence at all, only a constant chasing of novelty.

Meanwhile, hearing the same songs and melodies in Orthodox Church each week, I notice that I don't get tired of them or find them repetitive; there is depth for contemplation in the Church's hymnody.

Orthodox hymnody is packed full of theology and rewards those who pay careful attention to the words. The songs are beautiful but in an understated way that draws attention to the meaning, rather than performers. I am far less distracted, thanks to the lack of instruments.

I knew for over a decade that the CW paradigm was hopelessly corrupt and had rotten foundations. The problem was that I was too invested in aspirations of Playing In A Band to be honest about it. My passions blinded me to the flaws in CW.

CW is based on several faulty assumptions, including:

- The purpose of worship is to draw unbelievers in;
- Musical styles are neutral and can be appropriated for worship freely;
- An emotional high is synonymous with experiencing God;
- Glamorous people on stage won't distract.

The biggest problem with CW's paradigm is that pretty people elevated on a stage playing instruments is designed to draw attention and veneration to the performers, not toward God. It's trying to co-opt a secular model from the Sexual Revolution for Christian purposes.

And we have abundant evidence that it just doesn't work.

Of course, I think Christians SHOULD make music reflective of their faith. I think it CAN be a way to draw people toward God. The mistake is thinking that we should use that music for worship in CHURCH.

I still listen to a lot of Christian bands, both past and present. But they're not acting like those songs are to be used in Church.

Playing in bands, I felt guilty because no matter how hard I tried, my playing was focused on me, not God. And when people complimented me it was even worse, because I knew I was distracting them from focusing on God.

Don't even get me started on the outrageous materialism intertwined with worship band culture, especially if you're a guitarist. It's outright toxic.