Prescription Worship

If you have high blood pressure, your doctor may prescribe you Lisinopril.  That is your prescription.  Legally you are not able to get any other medicine at the pharmacy than the Lisinopril on your prescription.  If you like another blood pressure medicine better, too bad!  Your doctor prescribed Lisinopril and that is what you are to take.  You are to take the correct mg at the time he prescribed you to take it.  I think that is something we all understand fairly well.  We understand the importance of taking the prescribed medicine at the right time with the correct dose.  Why then do we feel so much liberty to change the prescribed worship of God? David Platt, in his book Radical, poses this question:

"What if we take away the cool music and the cushioned chairs?  What if the screens are gone and the stage is no longer decorated? What if the air conditioning is off and the comforts are removed?  Would his word still be enough for his people to come to worship?"

The answer is "YES!" to whether or not the Word is still enough in this day and time! Unfortunately, if you take away the entertainment value, most people would abandon the church.  As A.W. Tozer noted in the 1960's, "Church members want to be entertained while they are edified."

If you attend most "churches" today, you will see all kinds of things: drums, guitars, flashing lights, smoke machines, etc.  It's hard to distinguish a church from a rock concert in a lot of the places.  My question is simple: can you find the prescription for all of these things in the Bible?  I invite you to look through the New Testament to try and find this prescription for church worship. 

Since none of those contemporary man-made ideas can be found, what can? (1) Prayer - Acts 2:42, (2) Breaking of bread - Acts 2:42, (3) Singing - Ephesians 5:19, (4) Preaching Christ - 2 Timothy 4:2; Acts 20:7, and finally (5) Giving of our means 2 Corinthians 8:9.

We have the prescription -- why would we want to deviate from it?