Is My Worship Authentic?

One of the benefits of a revolution of any kind is that it highlights the faults of the entity against which it is revolting. The revolution may not head in the right direction, and in fact it may end up farther from the mark than was whatever preceded it, but in the process people are given the chance to evaluate the merits and faults of both sides. The same is true of the Emerging Church. The Emerging Church is a revolution against the status quo of Christianity. It recognizes some of the faults that are associated with traditional forms of worship and seeks to become more authentic in style and more relevant to culture than is the Church at large. I am very new to the discussion about the Emerging Church, but I already do not like what I see in it as to its direction and focus. Even so, I can be thankful that the movement questions the authenticity of my worship and the effectiveness of my evangelism--even as I evaluate it. D. A. Carson brought the matter into focus for me this way:

"We might wonder whether corporate worship is any more 'authentic' just because there are candles or centers for journaling. Certainly we must try to think through such matters fairly. But which of us can safely deny that a fair proportion of what goes on in many traditional evangelical churches--whether corporate worship, small-group Bible studies, and even prayer times--feels disturbingly inauthentic at times?
"You know the kind of inauthenticity I have in mind. We may go through meeting after meeting, and all of it is reassuringly familiar, but we do not come out saying, in effect, 'Surely we have met with the living God!' We start attending meetings because it is a habit, or because it is the right thing to do, or because we know that the means of grace are important, but not out of a heart-hunger to be with God's people and to be fed from God's Word. Sermons are filled with mere clichés. There is little intensity in confession, little joy in absolution, little delight in the gospel, little urgency in evangelism, little sense of privilege and gratitude in witness, little passion for the truth, little compassion for others, little humility in our evaluations, little love in our dealings with others. To expose such inauthenticity is a good thing; to hunger for authenticity in all our existence, not least our walk with God and with other Christians, is also a good thing."

--Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church, 49-50.