A. W. Tozer was a convictional pastor and preacher who lived from 1897 to 1963. Stunningly, even though he died in the early 60s, he spent many years warning about entertainment creeping its way into the church. (I imagine what he saw in the 1960s was mild compared to entertainment in worship today; sixty years later he would have been appalled!)
James Snyder has compiled many of Tozer's writings and sermons addressing this topic in the book titled Tozer on Worship and Entertainment. In the preface he writes,
Toward the end of his ministry Dr. A. W. Tozer commented that the war was lost, referring to the atrocious invasion of the world into the church. He objected to anemic Christianity, "In many churches," Tozer complained, "Christianity has been watered down until the solution is so weak that if it were poison it would not hurt anyone, and if it were medicine it would not cure anyone!" (ix)So, towards the end of his life, Tozer thought the situation was so bleak that he considered the war lost.
One concern he had was how entertainment in worship attempts to manipulate. Tozer claims,
The manner in which many moderns think about worship makes me uncomfortable. Can true worship be engineered and manipulated? Do you foresee with me the time to come when churches may call the pastor a "spiritual engineer?" (35; originally in Whatever Happened to Worship?, 85)I can empathize. There is a deep hunger within me for authenticity. Put simply, I want the real thing. And if we don't have the real thing, then I don't want to dress it up nicely and make it seem like it is. God can see the heart. He knows if worship is authentic or not.
Perhaps, as Tozer suggests, we have gotten attached to the gimmicks that were supposed to somehow lead us into worship. He says,
In our day we must be dramatic about everything. We don't want God to work unless He can make a theatrical production of it . . . Some of us even demand that He provide a colorful setting and fireworks as well! . . . Then there are some among us these days who have to depend upon truckloads of gadgets to get their religion going, and I am tempted to ask: What will they do when they don't have the help of the trappings and gadgets? The truck can't come along where they are going! (99; originally in The Tozer Pulpit, Book 8, 48-50)Or, perhaps, pastors and church leaders feel pressure to seek size at any cost. Tozer comments,
Pastors and churches in our hectic times are harassed by the temptation to seek size at any cost and to secure by inflation what they cannot gain by legitimate growth. The mixed multitude cries for quantity and will not forgive a minister who insists upon solid values and permanence. Many a man of God is being subjected to cruel pressure by the ill-taught members of his flock who scorn his slow methods and demand quick results and a popular following regardless of quality. (101-102; originally in The Next Chapter After the Last, 8)Remember, this is in the 1960s (or earlier)!
Yes, there is a temptation to escape the slow methods of spiritual quality. But God often works slowly:
Consider how long before he delivered his people from captivity
Consider how long before the Son of God came for salvation
Consider how long the process is for sanctification (i.e., Christians becoming holy in their lives)
Consider how long Jesus has waited before his second coming
And I could go on and on; God often seems to work slowly from our perspective. However, he is working, and he is doing quality work.
Maybe part of it is a "scramble for popularlity," as Tozer suggests (176). Regardless, he argues that many of the leaders today aren't aware how the "Holy Spirit has worked and how He works" (177). As a result, they have adopted three unbiblical methods: (1) "the methods of big business," (2) "the method of show business," and (3) "the method of the Madison Avenue advertiser" (178).
I imagine Tozer would ask us today: Why are we in a hurry for size at almost any cost? At least, we should slow down long enough to ask this question: Why would God who knows everything and can do anything decide to work slowly? Perhaps, in seeking to answer that question, we'll stumble into more about God, his creation, and his methods.