Hands Up for the British Invasion at North Point Community Church
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Andy Stanley’s North Point Community Church attempted a reboot of the British Invasion during their official worship service on Sunday.
They described it as a Beatles medley on their Facebook page.
They sang segments from Beatles classics, ending with Hey Jude. They called upon their audience to sing along and wave their hands to the Beatles tune as they sang, “na na na na na na na…”
You can watch the entire video here (you may notice some of the people sitting in the audience who look pretty expressionless; you have to wonder what they're thinking about this "worship"). This idea of singing Beatles songs at church isn't new; here's a much less professional video from a tiny church that, at least, changed the words of "Hey Jude" to fit their communion service. Is this really where the Evangelical, "Bible-believing" church wants to go? Really??
The week before they did an opener with rather suggestive lyrics singing, “Baby love the way you turn me on.”
Some more suggestive lyrics from an opener. Segments from the original lyrics. They did some adjusting, but not enough.
“Nowhere to hide when I’m getting you close
When we move, well, you already know
Feeling good, good, creeping up on you
So just dance, dance, dance, come on
All those things I should do to you
(I can’t stop the feeling)
Wanna see you move your body
(I can’t stop the feeling)”
Oddly enough, Andy Stanley has this quote on the NPCC website.
Why write about this? Because Andy Stanley and many other churches use these tactics which in the end detract from focusing on the gospel at an official church worship service.
Official church worship services are not extra curricular activities. There is plenty of time for fun, recreation, and out of the box creativity, but that can be done outside of an official church worship service.
I used to agree with, and promote these approaches to ministry. It took a “rude meanie head” to open my eyes. I hope this article serves as eye opening food for thought.
In case anyone is asking themselves, "does North Point Church know that this form of "worship" might be a really bad idea? Maybe they are just making an innocent mistake? Maybe we should just let them have some fun and not make such a big deal out of this..."
Here's what you need to understand: North Point Church is deliberately doing these secular cover songs in church in spite of objections from fellow Christians. They are going so far as to remove Bible verses off of their own blog, and now they have stopped allowing any comments at all. Why aren't they allowing any comments on their blog? It appears that they don't want people to read all the Bible verses that have been posted there (or the Bible verses that people have tried to post there). Here's a screen shot from August 3, 2016-over a week since they put up their "boy band/love the way you turn me on" video on July 25:
North Point Church knows exactly what it is doing:
"Secular songs? Yes! Bible verses (that might make our strange choice of songs look bad)? NO!"
This type of "worship" service was unthinkable just a decade ago. With the huge influence of Andy Stanley and North Point Church (one of the biggest and most influential churches in the world) it's sad to think that more and more churches might be abandoning worship and replacing it with mere entertainment. Here's an article about the top 50 mega-churches in the USA (btw, this is a "puff piece" about these mega-churches). Here's an excerpt: "As an individual congregation, North Point could be much more influential in the public arena, but it chooses not to be in order to extend its influence through the training of hundreds of thousands of leaders. North Point has opted for exponential influence..."
How long before true Christians say "enough is enough!" and stop tolerating such worldliness in their churches?
For those who think it's mean, judgmental and un-loving to criticize Andy Stanley/North Point Church (or any other popular teacher/church) here's something just for you: Shocking Stuff You're Not Supposed to Know.
If you're having a knee-jerk reaction to try and defend this church's ideas, check out: Confirmation Bias: Why You Are Protecting Your False Beliefs.
Finally, here's an article that will help you be more discerning and a lot less gullible: Defusing Demonic Dirty Bombs.