[OBW]

We are free to worship as we see fit and we let the structure and forms of groups that we don't even subscribe to paint them in our minds.

Nothing will ever be entirely to any of our liking. If we choose to say that it is about having our freedom in Christ limited, then we are cheating ourselves. We are blaming our lack of spiritual liberty on something that we are not bound to. Unless we choose to bind ourselves to it. And even though I would not choose to be part of the CoC, I think that I could abide by their "no accompaniment" edict without feeling like I was somehow cheated from enjoying God in worship. Otherwise, I would need to really reconsider what it was that I was calling worship.

We may have serious problems with the LRC. But it seems that our thinking continues to be influenced by what we learned from it. Go worship in China. You will be even less free. Yet they continue to worship. And here we gripe about the music. Or the liturgy. Or preaching style. Or the "control." I put this in quotes because I think that we call it control when we don't like it and then call it the leading of the spirit or the direction of scripture when we do.

I'm not complaining about you or your post. I am speaking out loud what I have been challenged about over the last year or so. How do we balance the steady and unchanging truth of God with the constantly changing likes and ways of man and culture? And then there are those 57-year-olds that insist on three hymns, 1st, 2nd, and last verse, and only a piano and organ to accompany. (I am 57, but am not one of those.) The point is that generations are always a problem. How do we stand that the church seems to be "catering" to the 20/30 somethings? Or just the old-timers?

Sometimes we really need to differentiate between what we like and what is important. And if enough bothers you, forget that old LRC thing about going to the nearest place and find one that is more tolerable. I see no reason to force yourself to put up with constant conflict within over some theoretical construct that somehow resembles "ground."