Book Review: Worshiptainment: The Modern Church’s Golden Calf

This week I finished my first book of 2025, Worshiptainment: The Modern Church’s Golden Calf by Matthew Everhard. I was particularly interested in this book because I follow Matt on both X and his Youtube channel and had seen some videos of him discussing some, shall we say, peculiar things that go on in churches today. So I picked up a copy and immediately put it to the top of my reading list for 2025. The book did not disappoint.

The church is in a time where certain corners of Evangelical Christianity have decided that we must be entertaining. This is the Seeker Movement on steroids. I won’t give away the examples from the book, you just need to get a copy and read them for yourself, but what certain churches are willing to do in order to put people in the seats is astounding.

But, as Everhard points out repeatedly, this is all fake. There is no substance to these “Worshiptainment” sessions. There is no good fruit. It is not Christ centered. It is not biblical by any stretch of the imagination. And, as the book points out, worship is not supposed to be about us. Worship is supposed to be about Christ. To the glory of God alone. That is what worship is to be about. It’s not meant to be entertaining, it’s not meant to be a concert. It is meant to glorify the One who deserves all glory, honor, and praise.

In the book, Everhard focuses heavily on the Regulative Principle. If you don’t know what that is, basically it means that we should only practice what is taught in Scripture when it comes to the area of worship. Now, we can argue the merits of that point of view, but Everhard does a masterful job of weaving in the biblical text to make his points and to show the prudence of the principle.

Each chapter of the book begins with a crazy, and I do mean crazy, example of “Worshiptainment.” What follows is a biblical treatment of different aspects of worship and the worship service. It is refreshing. And while it is from the Reformed Presbyterian viewpoint, it is worth a read from all Christian traditions. For us Baptists, just ignore his talk about sprinkling water on the children. Sorry Matt, had to throw that in there.

But what I found extremely helpful about the book is that the end of the chapters contain various applications for the principles that were taught. Everhard doesn’t just spout off a bunch of Scripture and pontificate about the subject, he applies it and practically so.

At the end of the book we truly see Matt’s heart for why he is writing this. He gives appeals as to why the church, overall, needs to return to biblical fidelity in our worship but he also raises cautions on how we, the people in the church pews, should go about doing so. Not with pride, not with arrogance, not even with condemnation. Rather, we should go about this with the humility of those seeking to simply remain faithful to our Lord in all that we do (1 Corinthians 10:31).

I cannot recommend this book enough to those who feel unsatisfied by the schemes of men to make worship look like the world. To those who want to return to the rich fullness of good biblical preaching and sound doctrine. If you find the American church lacking in substance, this book is absolutely for you. I give Worshiptainment five stars. May the church rise to the occasion to reclaim faithful worship to our God and Savior.