1 of 5
 Engaging the Whole PersonWe aim to worship not only with our minds, but also with our hearts.
1 of 5
During the opening of one of the Olympics, everyone in the stadium joined hands and sang. On television talk shows, the guests greet one another and the host with smiles and handshakes or kisses. Athletes give each other high fives or dance in the end zone. We're a far more expressive society than when I began ministry. Along the way, many churches have become more expressive, as well. More people seek worship that allows them to display more openly their joy and praise. It's not that they have a diminishing respect for the mind. They simply have an increasing need to experience their faith emotionally, and they see that the Bible enjoins such freedom. In our ministry at Church on the Way, we've tried to offer worship that engages the whole person. We teach the Word and we sing praises; we sing both choruses and hymns; we sometimes pray with heads bowed and other times with faces up; we pray for each other privately and in small groups; we praise with voice and hands and, on rare occasions, have even danced! In short, we aim to worship not only with our minds, but also with our hearts. The Value of Expressive WorshipNot everyone, of course, is comfortable with open expression of emotion in worship. Some are concerned emotional display will lead to unseemly behavior. Others believe that expressive worship is unworthy of thoughtful Christians. We've tried to address those concerns while focusing on the value of worship that includes both head and heart. Let me, then, lay out a few reasons we feel a service must have not only firm intellectual content, but also a sensitive emotional element. Certainly, the Bible (the Psalms especially) shows that worship engages deep emotions. And countless individuals testify that expressive worship dramatically nurtures their faith. Yet, there are also strategic reasons for fashioning expressive worship. • It challenges the culture. Western culture tends to value empirical analysis. We put life over a Bunsen burner, sort its colors of the spectrum, dissect it in a laboratory, break down its chemical components. Our culture sometimes tempts us to leave the heart behind. Sometimes we're fearful that our faith and worship won't be intellectually respectable. When rationality becomes the litmus test of the church's life, the life of the Spirit suffers. The spiritual life may not be purely emotional, but surely it is a combination of mind and heart. • It nurtures humility. Expressive worship cultivates a willingness to be taught by and submit to the Holy Spirit. We're not interested in destroying a person's individuality. But we do want people to die to self-will. We want them to release their pride and remain flexible in the Spirit. Expressive worship, because it nurtures the emotions, is one way to do that. It prevents spiritual arthritis (or, worse, rigor mortis!) in the body of Christ. |             |
share this page
