Ah, but many Christian illusionists have fine ministries. As do Christian karate experts, etc., etc., etc.
Surely you are not restricting the expression of religion to staid and traditional approaches? There's a reason why many churches with contemporary music services are growing and finding they appeal to a younger audience who wants to do more with their faith than just take it to church on Sunday.
I don't know what denomination (if any) you belong to - but among Catholics attendance at Mass has declined more than 40% since "staid and traditional" liturgies were abandoned.
The most vibrant and fastest-growing Catholic communities in the US are the ones which have returned to dignified, solemn liturgy and the use of Latin.
If young people need contemporary music more than they need the Sacraments, they've already made their choice of which master they will serve.
That's fine by me. My problem is with a priest of God offering the unbloody re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary while wearing a clown's nose. It's a profanation and a blasphemy. What he wears on his nose outside of the sanctuary is his business.
Not yet. Someday, though, when I have that power...
There's a reason why many churches with contemporary music services are growing and finding they appeal to a younger audience...
Yes -- because many kids (and people today in general) are shallow, superficial, and entertainment-oriented to the point where they cannot comprehend true worship. In other words, they find real worship to be boring.
Unfortunately, those who go to church seeking entertainment, emotional experiences, and fun are fooling themselves. Worship has nothing to do with entertainment, fun, or good vibrations. Worship consists of abandoning ourselves and our needs, feelings, and wants and offering ourselves up for total communion with Christ. Comparing the joy that comes from true liturgical worship to the "fun", entertaining Rock-and-Roll Jesus Show down at Rev. Krayzee M. Pheelgood's PrayzeChyrch Xtreem on the freeway is like comparing the joy of married love to the cheap thrill of a quickie one-night stand. Is a one-night stand with Jesus really what people need?
Screw the "younger audience" -- and the "older audience", too. Any church that has an "audience" isn't a church at all -- it's an entertainment venue, not a house of worship. A true church has a congregation of believers eager to commune with God, not an audience of spectators hungry for the latest sounds.
If people want entertainment, let them go to a nightclub. Staid and traditional approaches to worship are the only true approaches.