Theology vs. Imagination
Over the weekend, I happened to see this post over at my good friend Mandy’s blog, and it really troubled me.
I have no desire to spread divisiveness among the body of Christ, and there is a part of me that would like to avoid this discussion altogether. I don’t want to risk friendships, but I think that there is a huge lesson to be learned here. I also want to point out that I am not simply defending a song that I like, because I don’t think that Mandy would disagree that this is a great worship song. I simply think that this particular decision reflects a larger trend that exists in more conservative churches, and I feel that I must adress it. So, Mandy, it looks like we’re going to have to agree to disagree on this one.
Initially, when reading Mandy’s post, I felt the sincerity and heaviness with which she and her worship committee made the decision to cut “Holy is the Lord” from the master set list. I really like that her church is concerned with closely examining the lyrics of the songs that they are singing in church. Many churches today simply play the top 40 worship songs without much regard for the theology within them. At least Mandy’s church is doesn’t fall into that category.
My problem with the decision to cut “Holy is the Lord” is that this decision, at least the way that it has been described here, is that this decision was not based upon theology. Rather, it is based upon the idea that somehow the leadership of the church is leading the congregation to lie. Since the congregation does not necessarily physically perform certain acts that they are singing about, somehow these words become insincere.
I wonder if this church has a Christmas play. I wonder if the leadership worries that by having children play roles of shepherds and wise men, they leading their children to be deceptive. This whole issue really reminds me of the Puritan mandates against drama during the colonial American era. Puritans discouraged a lot of creative art because much of it involved what they referred to as “deceit.” Most of us now call this “deceit” imagination.
It is impossible for me as a worship leader to examine the sincerity of the hearts that are involved in worship during our church worship time. I think that the kind of scrutiny Mandy is talking about here involves examining hearts of worshippers other than herself. It may well be that while the members of her congregation are not performing these physical acts on the outside, their heart attitudes are circumspect in the way that these physical actions would demonstrate. It is possible that when singing “It is Well,” members of the congregation have extremely troubled souls. Should Mandy cut that time-honored hymn-tune simply because it is possible that someone out there doesn’t mean it? This kind of scrutiny applied to every worship song that is sung in church would eventually lead us to cut any song that does not pull its text directly from Scripture, and maybe many of those would be cut as well.
Theology should be the guiding factor in church worship. If “Holy is the Lord” promotes a poor theology, cut it. If “Holy is the Lord,” which is inspired by Old Testament Scripture, encourages followers of Christ to do something good, don’t cut it because they don’t. This logic would ultimately forbid the reading of Psalms that talk about dance in churches that don’t practice dancing as worship. Are we really ready to open that Pandora’s box?
Am I out of line here?
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October 22nd, 2007 at 9:46 am
Not at all out of line. Great post, in fact.
October 22nd, 2007 at 2:07 pm
Good stuff -
I also commented on Mandy’s blog, which of course, is a favorite of so many. I can appreciate the frustration in not seeing them engage, but expressed some of the same ideas about singing songs about how “God is everything to us”, etc., when in our fallen nature, although He should be … He simply isn’t.
Plus, robbing the congregation of the song without them understanding the conflict that created the removal is disheartening - I’d want somebody to tell me.
Fred
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:17 pm
Jeremy:
I sincerely appreciate your thoughts on this and in no way feel like this is divisive. As our generation faces an influx of new worship lyrics, I think its healthy for us to consider a variety of perspectives. I think its a question of the purpose/role/philosophy of worship and worship leading.
I honor and acknowledge your emphasis upon theology in worship. In fact, I think it should be central, guiding, and defining in worship. Modes of worship found in the Bible are our example and standard for worship today. Because of this, I value and welcome any and all Biblical expressions of worship among the Church.
I have wrestled much with this decision, and agree that this scrutiny can be taken to the extreme. It is impossible to know the state of the hearts of those we lead in worship. But, this decision was not made based on an examination of their hearts. Rather, it was made based on the outward expression of their worship.
I hope and pray that our congregants have hearts of surrender, humility, and prostration…
I hope and pray that their spiritual hands are raised to heaven…
But, as I return to scripture and reflect on the examples of worship given in the Old and New Testaments, I read that these acts of worship were physical and outward. I’m sure that David wrote psalms about bowing down or lifting hands or dancing because he actually expressed these actions.
I take seriously your concern that this type of scrutiny can go too far. I agree that the extreme of this is cutting out anything and everything.
And I also agree that we can’t know the hearts of those in our congregation.
Many blessings on your ministry,
mandy
October 22nd, 2007 at 7:44 pm
Mandy, thanks for the candid response. I just have a question for you. Who is worship about? If it’s for man, then by all means, question man’s sincerity and change your worship accordingly. If it’s for God, then I think we have a different set of priorities altogether. Our best chance for God-centered worship is by reflecting God’s words back to Him, and “Holy is the Lord” seems to do that. Tomlin based the lyrics (if I remember this correctly) on the story of Ezekial, and I just can’t get my brain around cutting a song that echoes Biblical truth and encourages us to do things that reflect His glory, whether we follow His commands or not.
Love ya, btw. Don’t stop being my pal.
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:15 pm
GREAT question… Worship is TOTALLY about God.
But, who are WE (the worship leaders) there for? are we to focus on God and/or on the congregation? i could totally have my priorities out of whack, but i want to be a type of intercessor to help them express themselves to God. i want to facilitate, inspire, challenge, and encourage… but, to my dismay, they just aren’t ready to bow.
and He’s so worthy of a bow….. so worthy.
here’s another practical predicament for ya: if some of those little old ladies bowed down in worship i don’t think they’d be able to straighten up when we stood for the reading of scripture before the sermon! ha ha! …what do i do about that?!
Ezekiel, huh? i didn’t know that. fascinating.
thanks for the discussion. its really helpful for me to compare notes with others in the same boat. i’m not going anywhere.
October 22nd, 2007 at 8:27 pm
Here’s what I really want to know: Mandy, have you raised your elbow in praise lately?
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:03 pm
LOL!
you know…. i’m thinking that may be the way to go for guitarists. the only thing free to move is our elbows, right?
and i think the hairline is my favorite!
October 22nd, 2007 at 9:12 pm
Jeremy,
You raise some good points. I worked for 5 years in camp ministry during which time I led a TON of camp worship. Much to my chagrin and despite some efforts I made to blatantly stop it EVERY song at camp has hand motions. Hand motions aren’t always bad, especially with kids and especially at camp, but at times it got to the point where you’d try to invoke a serious moment and it was jammed up by cheezy hand motions.
This seems to be the opposite extreme of what Mandy was facing in her church with lack of physical worship and perhaps what was being parodied in “raise my elbow.”
I think it cool to say, “God stretches us in our worship.” Some people just aren’t there yet. If they are ignoring growing, then yeah I think it’s bad. But I think to set the bar at a reasonable level that pushes people forward and grows them is a good thing. Setting the bar unreasonably high can breed dissonance.
October 22nd, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Jeremy, stop posting stuff that i agree with. You’re making me have a breakdown. Remember the good old days when i could just get angry with you and storm off??
October 23rd, 2007 at 9:30 am
Interesting stuff - I appreciate the shepherd’s heart behind the decision. I lead in a pretty conservative congregation myself, and when I first introduced this Tomlin song, I got a similar response to the one that it sounds like Mandy has been dealing with. It’s been encouraging though to see some folks come out of their shells and authentically have their words and actions line up.
One thing that I think had a drastic impact on this issue for us, was this last summer when I got to go with some of our youth up to a StudentLife camp. One night the speaker, Jeremy Kingsley, spoke about a certain time in his life where he was fed up with hypocrisy and made a promise to never sing a song lyric that he wouldn’t do. It was really interesting to watch the kids at camp embrace that concept and let their personal walls fall down through the rest of the week. Not only that, it still gets me choked up to watch from the stage how that influence has rubbed off on other generations within our church body.
I think what can be learned from this discussion is the importance of teaching our people about the necessity for authenticity in the words we use in corporate worship. There are plenty of opportunities for it as well. For example, if you’re teaching through the gospels and you’re in a passage about the pharisees who honored God with their lips while their hearts were far from Him, then it seems like it would be a great opportunity to do a pulse check on our people’s hearts not to mention letting them see our own - which are by no means perfect
October 23rd, 2007 at 4:56 pm
I think the argument about “lifting spiritual hands” or “bowing down spiritually” is kinda goofy. No offense.
But If I’m not mistaken most, if not all, of the psalms’ depictions of worship actions were literal. When the psalmist writes (sings) “Sing a new song to the Lord” he means make up some new tunes/words and sing them spontaneously to the Lord.
When the psalmist writes “Hey people, clap your hands and shout to God!” he means applause and raise your voice.
When the psalmist says “Hey, let’s bow down before the One who made us” he means to get on your knees or face down!
Obviously, though, all of these actions were/are to be the outpouring and overflow form a HEART turned towards God.