Growing up in my particular church heritage, I always heard that worship shouldn't be entertaining. "Entertaining" referred to things like skits, musical performances, puppets, and more. No one ever effectively made the argument that there couldn't be entertaining components to worship. The argument was always on the basis of "it might offend the weaker brother," which was a pretty lame excuse to a teenage boy. I never had a problem with it. I welcomed entertainment.
Now that I am a little older, I realize that I don't care at all to have "entertainment" in the midst of corporate worship. It's not because I have a theological issue with it. The reason I don't like it today is because...it sucks.
Seriously, 99% of what I have ever seen, under what my legalistic friends would classify as "entertainment", is flat out corny and makes me feel really uncomfortable for those "performing". When churches can compete at the level of prime-time television and Hollywood, we can talk. Until then, churches should realize the standards of quality are measured against the movie people went to see on Saturday night before coming to church on Sunday morning.
However, in the right setting, at the right time, corny has it's place. When the expectations of the viewers are in balance with the quality they expect to receive, it works. Usually these are separate events. Christmas pageants and programs are a good example of when corny works.
However, when you throw in a dramatic reading after someone just poured their heart out to God in public prayer, the reading comes off fake and desperate for the worshipers attention. It's then difficult to transition your mind back and forth between corny and reverent.
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