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 Worship
Not 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.
• It creates a climate of warmth and acceptance. When you develop an expressive atmosphere, you cultivate the spirit of fellowship, which creates a climate for evangelism.
Bernie was a successful accountant whose wife attended church regularly. He liked to hear the sermons, but he avoided the other, more expressive parts of worship. He would ask his wife to save him a seat, and 30 minutes into the service, as the sermon would begin, he would slip in.
One day he reluctantly agreed to attend the entire service with his wife. “I’ll go with you,” he warned her, “but only if we can sit so that I’m on the aisle and you’re next to me. I don’t want to hold hands with anybody but you.” She agreed, and they went.
As soon as he sat down, however, the ushers, who saw the sanctuary filling rapidly, began placing folding chairs in the aisle at the end of the pews. My oldest daughter, a teenager at the time, sat next to him, unaware of Bernie’s reserve. When a time came to join hands and raise them in praise, my five-foot-small daughter warmly and spontaneously grabbed Bernie’s hand and raised it.
That was a turning point for Bernie. Although already a Christian, from that moment, he says, he became increasingly alive spiritually.
“She was just a little, teenage girl,” he later said, “obviously so sincere, not trying to push me. I was simply drawn into the service.”
• It fosters commitment. Rather than encouraging people to be placid observers, passing judgment on what is said and done, expressive worship demands participation and, therefore, commitment. In our service, people are sometimes asked to hold up their hands or move into small groups or greet one another. You cannot remain passive in our worship, and that fact spills over into the life of the church.
The Four Dimensions of Expressive Worship
In our services, we encourage people to do four things in worship, each of which helps engage the whole person.
1. Personalize their praise. Worship leaders help people praise God for his great gifts, like creation and salvation. But sometimes even devout Christians have a hard time grasping the immensity of these magnificent gifts. Praise then becomes a mere verbal recitation of theological truths.
Yet, if we can encourage people to personalize their praise, their worship will be more meaningful and their praise more heartfelt.
For instance, after I lead a praise chorus or hymn, I might say, “We’ve just exalted Jesus’ name in praise. Now let’s praise God for something particular.”
Then I’ll use a teaching device to help people become specific. In one recent service, I held up my hand, pointed to one of my fingers, and said, “Do you know that a doctor can’t tell you why you can move that finger. He can tell you the muscles and nerves that make it move, but he cannot explain fully why, when you decide to move a finger, you move it. Besides thanking God for the marvel of your physical creation, take your four fingers, and for each one think of a reason to praise God.”
2. Verbalize their thoughts. To think and silently praise God is one thing, to express those thoughts in words another. It’s the difference between knowing I love my wife and telling her. Telling her not only affirms her, it reinforces and deepens my love for her.
3. Mobilize their bodies. Saying “I love you” to my wife may be better than just thinking it, but it is better still—more emotionally engaging for both of us—if I express that tangibly, with a hug or a kiss. Likewise, engaging the emotions in worship means engaging people’s bodies.
The simplest way to do that is to get people to use their hands and arms. People can open their hands, facing palms upward with arms extended in front of them—a simple symbol of openness to receive God’s blessing. At another time, their arms may be lifted up in adoration.
The point is to get them to express their praise in some physical way. The liturgical churches (which encourage kneeling and crossing oneself, for example) have appreciated for centuries the value of movement in worship. Our forms may be different, but not the substance of their meaning.
4. Love one another. We gather not as individuals praising God, but as a community. Corporate worship better engages emotions when people recognize one another’s presence and, in some way, reach out to one another.
Toward the middle of the service, during a five minute segment we call “ministry time,” we ask people to break into groups of four or five, with two or three people in a one row, for instance, turning around to join with people behind them. They talk, share requests and concerns, and then pray.
Begetting a Response
Although people want freedom to express themselves emotionally in worship, they often find it intimidating to do so. In order to ease their discomfort and encourage greater participation, we keep in mind a number of things as we prepare and lead our services.
• Remember your purpose. I believe God wants us to engage our emotions in worship, but not for their own sake. It would be unworthy to aim for a mere psychological effect. So we don’t do anything in worship unless it has a firm biblical base. That doesn’t mean I need a proof text for counting praise on my four fingers, but it does mean I want my exercises to lead people to something biblical, like praising God.
Careful planning helps keep the purpose focused. The exercises I use to lead people to personalize or verbalize praise, for example, are carefully thought out ahead of time. I will think especially about people who might resist expressive worship. I then will craft my remarks so that everyone will be graciously encouraged to participate, and participate fully in the worship of God.
• Explain the biblical background of the unusual. People will be inclined to participate in a new worship experience if they see its biblical rationale.
Why, for example, should anybody even consider dance in worship? But if they see biblical grounds for rejoicing in this way, they’ll be more likely to participate. So, I will cite a verse or two from the Psalms or mention David’s dance before the Lord.
• Include everyone, but give people a gracious way to respond. If you’re going to lead an expressive form of worship, everyone must be invited to participate. To tell people “Don’t join in if you don’t feel like it” is to consign expressive worship to the more exuberant. Instead, expressive worship should be seen as normal, as something everybody can participate in regardless of temperament.
During ministry time I might say, “We’re going to join together in small circles now. If you’ve never done this before, we understand this can be too much and too quick. We want you to feel comfortable; we wouldn’t embarrass you for the world. But we’ve also learned that it’s more embarrassing to do nothing than to get in a circle! So accept the invitation to join a circle of prayer. Feel free to say, ‘I’ve never done this before. Could I just watch?’ But even if you just watch, join the circle. You’ll love it, and those with you will love you!”
In this way, people experience expressive worship and yet at their own pace.
• Acknowledge their fears. People are anxious about trying new things, especially in a group. But I’ve found that acknowledging these normal anxieties goes a long way toward relieving them.
Before a moment of simultaneous praise, in which we encourage people to speak their praises with voices at conversational level, I also might say, “When we lift our voices today and praise the Lord, we’re not asking you to scream, holler, or shriek. In fact, if you do shriek, you may find an usher or elder immediately telling you to stop.” People usually chuckle at that, because that’s what some of them have been wondering. Once it’s acknowledged, people are relieved: Well, maybe I can do this if I’m not going to have to tolerate somebody going berserk.
• Soften self-consciousness. Most people are self-conscious when they participate in something new. Anything a worship leader can do to lessen that will enhance the experience for people.
People feel freer to speak if the sound of their voice isn’t the only thing they hear. So when we ask people to greet one another or share during ministry time, we have our instrumentalists play softly in the background.
• Lead people verbally. During the greeting time, I might say, “There are two or three people around you. Greet them.” And to get people started, I might add lightheartedly, “You can move. You’re not fastened to the floor.” Moving toward the congregation, I might laugh and gesture with open hands, “Go ahead. That’s right.” And I’ll keep talking and encouraging as people move and the room begins to buzz.
• Don’t overwhelm people with the new. We usually begin the service with something familiar, and whenever we stretch people to experience a new dimension of worship, we immediately come back to something they’re familiar with. So after leading people in a new song where I’ve had them join hands, I will ask them to release their hands and sing some old standard. People enjoy new expressions of worship more if the service contains elements they already are comfortable with.
• Touch a variety of emotions. We help people experience fuller worship if we aim for a variety of emotions. That’s easiest to see and do in the selection of music.
With choruses the thought is succinct, the melody simple, and the ability of people to relax and praise God with affection is enhanced. In classic hymns, like “Immortal, Invisible,” the progression of thought through the verses, the doctrinal content, and the dignity of the music requires more effort to sing, but it also encourages adoration at a another level.
Naturally, some people are more comfortable with some forms of emotion than others. Which emotion is touched is less important than that emotion is engaged in the worship of God.
• Treat people with respect. Treating people with respect means, first of all, inviting people to join in some new aspect of worship. As I ask people to participate in a moment of simultaneous yet quiet verbal praise, I might say, “You may never have done this before, and I understand that God’s not going to cease to love you if you don’t do it today. But do join in. It is a wonderful and scriptural way to express thanks to God.”
Whole worship touches the whole person. It’s no wonder that they feel personally addressed in the service. Their whole person has been involved.
From the book Mastering Worship. Copyright 1990 by Christianity Today International.
