amusing ourselves to death in the church

"Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ." -- 1 Peter 1:13

I'm a member of a southern Baptist church near Birmingham, Alabama. Today, we started the service with an upbeat, syncopated arrangement of "Nothing But the Blood of Jesus." After the final, modulated verse, we transitioned into meet & greet time, and thence into an elaborate performance by the music leader and the choir, backed by an accompaniment track.
After a contemporary song to re-involve the congregation, the children's pastor found himself alone on the stage, an ominous bass note singing out through the speakers and resonating in our chests. As the sound of electric guitar broke out in the recording, wouldn't you know it, a bunch of the kids got up from their seats and stood on the stage! Their pastor sang a song about witnessing to a man on a plane and the children did choreographed hand motions to the lyrics. It was wildly successful, evoking a standing ovation from the congregation.
Then our pastor, bless his heart, stood up to preach. Today was a communion day and he was preaching on a Messianic passage in Isaiah. The congregation had to clear their heads of the 20 minutes of entertainment they just experienced, had to focus on the preacher's exposition of that old prophecy. Instead of the engaging tune of "And though he never ever did a single thing wrong, the angry crowd chose him" they now heard "He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not." 

I think my point is clear. Why is the church so entertainment-oriented when our reason for existence is so vitally serious?

I knew this was a problem before I began reading Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman, but now that I'm most of the way through it, I'm more bothered by churchified entertainment than ever. If you haven't read it, the book argues that the onset of electronic communication, particularly television, has changed people's epistemology and pretty much their view of everything: whereas the book-oriented culture of the 18th and 19th centuries catered to mental sobriety and thoughtfulness, the screen-oriented culture of today has led people to equate everything -- knowledge, religion, science, education, politics -- with entertainment.
If you read church history, you'll see that church (not including Second Great Awakening-esque camp meetings) didn't start becoming a weekly production until about the 1950s, which just so happened to be when television started becoming popular. Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, or even Pink would probably barely recognize a modern church service as a sacred gathering.
Christianity is a severe, heartachingly beautiful faith. To be a Christian means to admit that you are spiritually dead and unfit for heaven on your own, to exclusively believe and trust in a man who claims to have risen from the dead, to deny yourself and be ready to leave everything you love behind, to struggle valiantly with your own sin, to live your life in thankful service to your Savior at the cost of your standing with the world, if not more. You don't do all that so you can go to church and hear the ol' Baptist band's tasty guitar riffs and sing the word "Jesus" over and over. Church is supposed to be a gathering of pilgrims meeting together to encourage each other, to meditate together on the terrible, wonderful truths in God's word. It's not a rock concert.

"But it's harmless. That's just the culture we live in today. Don't be so legalistic."
The medium is the message. If you're trying to convey biblical truths in the form of entertainment, it's going to be entertainment. It may rouse a few goosebumps or draw a few warm-and-fuzzies tears, but that's because that's what a lot of people go to church for -- they love that kind of stuff.
There's a reason that God put everything he wants us to know in this life in a book, not a song or a video. A book is the ideal medium for seriousness; for building an argument, telling a story, and expounding on an idea, which are all things the Bible does. There's a certain kind of oratory that's modeled after books, an oratory that John Piper possesses and Joel Osteen does not. There are songs, too, that have formats conducive to unadorned truth -- songs with simple, strong melodies, not trite or elaborate ones like we often hear today, and with verses long enough to say something meaningful.
"In Christ Alone" comes to mind as an example of a modern hymn done right. It needs no help from any instruments; if he chooses, the song leader can do nothing but direct the congregation and they can sing it a capella easily. Its melody is hearty and pleasing, its lyrics a confession of what Christ has done for us, with no fluffy or repeated lines.
Now, consider "Word of God Speak:" I'm finding myself at a loss for words, and the funny thing is it's okay. I'm finding myself at a loss for what something this trite and sentimental is doing in Christianity, and the funny thing is it's not funny at all. The last thing I need is to be heard, (is this Orwell's 1984?) but to hear what you would say. I'll refrain from getting into the songwriter's theology here, but he's not talking about what God says in his book.

Another thing I won't go into, but just briefly mention, is the fact that a lot of the church's entertainment isn't really even good entertainment. Go to 10 southern Baptist churches and most of their bands will be subpar. Performances like the children at my church did today are considered by insiders to be cute, and even encouraging, like dancing in front of the congregation will make the kids less likely to backslide. I feel bad for any visitors that were here today. Imagine being a non-Christian, maybe fallen into hard times, coming to church for the first time in years out of desperation, only to be greeted by a bunch of kids you don't know doing a cheesy routine as part of the service and all the adults eating it up. How weird is that?

I hope you see what I mean despite my sarcasm. Many of the things the church does and accepts as normal and edifying, whether it be glorified love songs or dancing children, are at their core pure entertainment; and entertainment stands in stark contrast with the bloodied cross and our risen King. God calls us to be sober-minded, not glutted with amusement.