Spiritual Anorexia Quotes

“First, if there must be a worship team, remove it from the stage and stick it in the balcony (or, if there is no balcony, at least place it far enough to one side of the congregation so that the worshippers have to look sideways to see it). All instruments, including the organ and the piano, should be either in the balcony or to one side of the congregation.”
― Doug Erlandson, Spiritual Anorexia: How Contemporary Worship Is Starving the Church

“The sense that we have come together to glorify God in worship rather than to be entertained must be maintained. The place of worship can add to or detract from that sense. Auditoriums designed to look like concert halls most definitely do the latter.”
― Doug Erlandson, Spiritual Anorexia: How Contemporary Worship Is Starving the Church

“When a worship team stands on stage facing the audience, when the stage is brightly-lit with multi-colored lighting while the lights in the rest of the auditorium are dimmed, when the worship leader turns first toward one and then another member of the worship team in a carefully choreographed fashion during the singing of a praise chorus, smiling at each in turn, perhaps even winking at them, when musicians of near-professional quality gyrate as they play their guitars, then it becomes nearly inevitable that those in the auditorium will see this as a performance intended to entertain them, no matter how many times they are verbally reminded that all this is supposed to be praise to God.”
― Doug Erlandson, Spiritual Anorexia: How Contemporary Worship Is Starving the Church