{"id":1407,"date":"2012-07-02T12:47:08","date_gmt":"2012-07-02T17:47:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/davidcprice.wordpress.com\/2012\/07\/02\/patriotic-worship"},"modified":"2012-07-02T12:47:08","modified_gmt":"2012-07-02T17:47:08","slug":"patriotic-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/patriotic-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"On Patriotic Worship"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

If you come to The Gathering<\/a> on big-time patriotic days like the 4th of July expecting fireworks, flag waving, or a full repertoire of chill-enducing patriotic songs, you’re likely to be sorely disappointed. The reason is simple: we don’t do it. The more important question is, of course, why.<\/p>\n

I know that in America, it is considered downright unchristian not to have major patriotic services on important days, but the fact is, I have a strong conviction that it is closer to unchristian to have<\/em> them. Now, as a disclaimer here, I’m not saying I believe it’s wrong to show a brief appropriate, God-honoring video or even to have a short segment (such as prayer for the Nation) dedicated to the subject, but when the bulk of our worship time is dedicated to the celebration of a Country (or anything\/anyone<\/em> other than Christ, alone, and His Kingdom), I take issue. <\/p>\n

The sole purpose of a Church in worship is to worship\u2026God. The magnification of Christ is to be our solitary focus; singing songs to Him and about Him and focusing on His Word of Truth is why we do what we do. Look, I’m as patriotic as the next guy. I love my homeland, as messed up as she is, but there is an appropriate place and time for those sorts of celebrations and I contend that the time designated for worshiping Christ together and focusing on our true citizenship is not the time and not the place. Not even just once a year. <\/p>\n

So, enjoy the fireworks, listen to the band play The Battle Hymn of the Republic, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and whoop it up for the Stars and Stripes, but unless you are intentionally engaging in a soft form of idolatry, please don’t do it in a worship service. Please don’t do it in place of corporate worship of the one, true God who, alone<\/em>, is worthy or our worship and allegiance. <\/p>\n

Oh, and P.S. Don’t let politicians hijack your pulpits either\u2026but that’s another subject (sort of).<\/p>\n

That’s my take. Feel free to share yours.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tTweet<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you come to The Gathering on big-time patriotic days like the 4th of July expecting fireworks, flag waving, or a full repertoire of chill-enducing patriotic songs, you’re likely to be sorely disappointed. The reason is simple: we don’t do it. The more important question is, of course, why. I know that in America, it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[5,6,11],"tags":[328,497],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3jKZO-mH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1482,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wol\/","url_meta":{"origin":1407,"position":0},"title":"The Worship Project Band rockin’\u2026","date":"July 21, 2011","format":"gallery","excerpt":"The Worship Project Band rockin\u2019 the House during Worship Out Loud at The Gathering. I count it a\u00a0privilege\u00a0to be able to teach here week in and week out. \u00a0I love my job.","rel":"","context":"In \"Church\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/davidcprice.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/tumblr_lonvfreoeq1qjje4ko1_1280.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2011,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wol-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1407,"position":1},"title":"The Worship Project Band rockin’\u2026","date":"July 21, 2011","format":"gallery","excerpt":"The Worship Project Band rockin\u2019 the House during Worship Out Loud at The Gathering. I count it a\u00a0privilege\u00a0to be able to teach here week in and week out. \u00a0I love my job.","rel":"","context":"In \"Church\"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2720,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/worship-at-the-gathering\/","url_meta":{"origin":1407,"position":2},"title":"Worship at The Gathering!","date":"January 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"from Instagram: http:\/\/ift.tt\/15Aos1E","rel":"","context":"Similar post","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3462,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/sumunderpsalms-p9-worship-in-exhortation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1407,"position":3},"title":"SumUnderPsalms – P9: Worship in Exhortation","date":"July 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"via http:\/\/ift.tt\/29dX23M","rel":"","context":"In "David's Teaching on Vimeo"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":802,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-warehouse\/","url_meta":{"origin":1407,"position":4},"title":"The Warehouse","date":"February 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm looking forward to The Warehouse this Friday night at The Gathering.\u00a0 A couple of local bands will be leading worship along with our own Worship Project Band from The Gathering and I will be giving a talk for about ten or fifteen minutes on significance.\u00a0 If you live in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christianity"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":90,"url":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/the-power-of-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":1407,"position":5},"title":"The Power of Worship","date":"September 30, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting thing happened to me as a result of this spontaneous worship I experienced aboard ship: I was \"sucked into\" the very presence of God and put into a place where I was able to experience some things over the next few days I don't think I would have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Christian Living"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1407\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/davidcprice.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}