Into the Wardrobe

Since I love U2, my first thought was "hey, cool!" Their music is very singable, so it would lend itself well to congregational singing in the hands of a skilled music director.

I think it would work best as an occasional "special" service, rather than the weekly ritual. You wouldn't want to get hidebound in using only their music.

To Orthodox Christians, that's just plain horrifying.

By way of excessively brief explanation, Orthodox worship is not about adapting to or adopting the world, or what we want, or even what makes us comfortable or feel good. For me the big revelation was that a service was about serving God, not me. I had always thought about church in terms of my spiritual needs before I joined the Orthodox Church. Kind of like the Army having an agenda that has nothing to do with a soldier's personal needs, and is likely to actually inconvenience them.

In most Orthodox churches, there is no such thing as a pew (just a few benches along the walls for old/sick folk). You stand up, stand up for Jesus for up to 2 hours. No instruments at all; just a choir singing. And very little has changed in 2,000 years.

I'd love to go to an Orthodox Church, and I will one day.

As for worship, I can't help feeling that the worship God truly desires from us is to love mercy, act justly and walk humbly through life with the Lord.

I don't go to church to serve God but to be served by God. He washes my feet, kisses my cheek and feeds me from his own hand. By these acts, God worships me. ie. He declares my infinite worth in his eyes.

Blessed be he.

Now may I find the grace to demonstrate his worth in my eyes.

This is an application paraphrase. Not to be taken as anything close to actual translation. Just my opinion on an application from John chapter 4:

"Sir," the woman said, "I can see that you are a prophet. Our church worships with choruses and upbeat music, but other churches claim that we should worship with hymns in a more liturgical style."

Jesus declared, "Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will realize style doesn't matter to me. A time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."