What happened to the freedom in worship?

"Church should be where we feel the freest, instead it's where we feel most restricted."

I was spoke to a friend about Praise and Worship in the church today he stating (along with the above quote) that we are placed in a box, by what other will think of us. My question is: Is it our fault for allowing what other think to effect us so much? As far back as the beginning of time there has been differences in how followers/believers think we should worship God. Cain and Able though differently, yes I do understand the situation was very different but at the same time it was very similar to what we live today. We may not be killing each other physically but in some cases we are killing each other spiritual. Think about it. The Bible clearly states that death and life are in the tongue.

In most cases I hear of we (the church) are causing devision and hurt. One of the biggest problems seems to be the devision between the younger generations and the older ones. The youth of today listens to all sorts of "crazy" music that their grandparents would dream of allowing in the church. Yesterday as I spoke with the same young man whom I quoted he told me that his great grandmother had been asking him when she was going to hear him play. He was very excited when the opportunity came up for the youth band to play for the whole church, which meant his great grandmother and the rest of the family would get to hear him play. As soon as he told her the great news her response was anything but excited, she wasn't sure about it cause they would be loud and play "different" music.

My point is simply to show that with out meaning to we are hurting each other. This friend of mine was sad. He wants nothing more than for the youth to be able to enjoy worship with the older generations and for everyone to see that God can use the youth to reach people and to lead worship as well. Every Sunday the youth are sitting in the main service worshiping with the rest of the congregation. The few times that the youth band is able to play the "adults" or older generations sit back in the chairs, caring way to much about the fact that they don't like any kind of music that isn't a hymnal or made for a choir to sing.

When did the type of music or the musicians become more important that worshiping God? When did it become more important to impress others than to be pleasing to God? Our devision frequently come back to the same problem. The youth of the church must try to break free from the restrictions the adults are placing on them. The same goes for some of the adults, they feel just as out of place and restricted as the youth and more often than not they are our leaders. They are the wonderful people who teach us to be strong and to fight against going with the flow. They are the adults that let us know that it is ok to be different and that God always has a reason for our differences. I thank them from every young person everywhere for helping us over coming the way others see us and teaching us to see ourselves as Christ does.

To be clear: This Blog has nothing to do with the Pastor or Leadership of the church I am speaking about. They are some of the most amazing people I know and none of them could care less what kind of music is played or if any is played at all. They all understand that real worship has nothing to do with music and everything to do with our hearts.

When is it not?

"It's not about who's a Christian and who's not."

This is what a friend told me one day when we were talking about our small group of friends. When I heard this I had two thoughts almost immediately. The first was, "Of course not, cause we're all Christians." and then the second hit me, "When is it ever not about who's a Christian and who's not?" So I searched myself for the answer. For one example of just once in my life when everything boiled down to anything other than what people believe. I couldn't even find one case. How could I? What we believe makes us who we are. It dictates our actions and reactions to daily living. For example: A Christian (in theory) would not lie, no matter how convenient it might be or how much easier it would be to deal with a problem. Lieing is not part of their faith or belief system so they would tend not to do so. On the other hand someone that does not have a strong belief in God, or any type of religion for that matter, would not find lieing to be that big of a deal.

So I asked myself, "Why is it that we always run away from talking about anything related to religion or faith?" Why? Cause it's not politically correct. We're all so trapped by what others will think and what's "correct" that we can never be ourselves or really get to know others. We constantly stop the conversations at, "Oh we shouldn't talk about that." or "I'm not trying to change you." or "We can talk about something else.". When did stating what you believe become trying to convert someone else? Why should we even have to state that we're not trying to push our beliefs on others? Shouldn't that just come across in our tone? Shouldn't we be able to speak to people with out being worried about them getting offended or taking it the wrong way. So we're all different and we believe differently, what's the big deal. Why can't we appreciate the differences in each other instead of ignore them. There will always be a difference between Christians and non-Christians but there should never be a difference in the way we treat each other. When did America become the place where the Christians have to hide while everyone else's freedoms are protected. Shouldn't the Christians be just as free? Don't we have the same right to speech and protest and to congregate? Or have things changed so much in this great nation of ours that we can no longer stand up for what we believe in but must watch from the sidelines as all the other beliefs of the world thrive.