Somewhere, right now, someone is having a very strong opinion about a fog machine. Somewhere else, someone is defending the pipe organ like it’s a hill worth dying on. Both of them think they’re being reasonable. Both of them are convinced the other side has, at best, questionable taste and, at worst, missed the point of church entirely.
Welcome to the worship wars.
They’ve been running for roughly two thousand years, and this Sunday, we’re calling a ceasefire (over breakfast).
A short, deeply biased history of people fighting about worship
The pipe organ, now treasured by traditionalists everywhere, was once denounced as “the devil’s bagpipes” for daring to bring theatre-adjacent instrumentation into sacred space. Clapping in church has been condemned as undignified and celebrated as alive with the Spirit, sometimes by the same denomination a few decades apart. Drums were once the front line of a very serious argument about whether God could be worshipped with a backbeat. Hymnals gave way to projector screens, which some experienced as liberation and others experienced as a personal loss. Incense, candles, liturgy, silence, shouting, pews, bean bags, choirs, worship bands: every generation seems to inherit a war it didn’t start and add a new front to it.
Here’s the thing nobody wants to admit mid-argument: almost none of this is actually about God. It’s about what feels like home to us. And when something else feels like home to someone else, we tend to experience it as a threat rather than just a difference.
Paul had this argument too
Romans 14 wasn’t written about guitars or organs, but it might as well have been. Paul’s Roman church was fighting over food (who’s allowed to eat what) and sacred days (whose calendar counts). Deeply, sincerely important to the people involved. Paul’s answer isn’t “here’s who’s correct.” It’s something more interesting:
“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters.” (Romans 14:1)
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” (Romans 14:19)
Paul’s move is to relocate the argument. Instead of “who’s right about the worship style,” the question becomes “what actually builds each other up.” Instead of “my way is the true way,” it’s “am I loving the person next to me, whose walk with God looks different to mine.” That’s a much harder question, and a much more useful one.
So, this Sunday
We’re taking Romans 14:1-9 and 13-19 and putting it to the test at this month’s Last Breakfast (itself a controversial form of worship!), and the theme is exactly this: the worship wars, and how we make peace in worship.
We’ll be looking at forms of worship, old and new, the ones we love and the ones we can’t stand, and trying to figure out how it all actually fits together. Come with opinions. Come with your most-loved worship memory and your most rage-inducing one. We promise not to make you defend either.
As always with Last Breakfast, there’s no sermon and no singing, just a shared meal and honest, open conversation. Whatever your worship tribe (organ loyalist, guitar-and-drums, silence-and-candles, or “I just want to sit down”), you belong at this table.
The details:
- When: This Sunday, 26 July, 10am
- Where: Box Hill Baptist Church, corner of Station Street & Ellingworth Parade, Box Hill (a short walk from Box Hill Station)
- What to bring: Something to share for breakfast if you can, but come regardless if you can’t. There’s always plenty.
- What to expect: No sermon, no singing, just food and real conversation about worship, then and now.
Bring your strongest opinion about worship. We might not resolve the war, but we can at least share breakfast with the other side.
Box Hill Baptist Church 