What are proper and improper ways to express yourself in corporate worship?

Posted by Josh Howerton on Oct 19, 2010 | 1 comment

Here’s what’s interesting about writing this (I’ve been thinking about this post for a long time): though we’re theologically unified, The Bridge is one of the most diverse groups of Christians I’ve ever seen when it comes to worship backgrounds.  One podcast listener described The Bridge to me as being “Presbapticostal”.  We have large segments of our church body that come from Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, and Charismatic backgrounds which each have unique, unspoken “rules” for what worship should look like.

What ends up happening, I think, is that the more charismatic people in our church body wonder why some people aren’t more enthusiastic, the ex-Presbyterians REALLY wonder why people feel like they have to clap and shout sometimes, and the people with Southern Baptist backgrounds just want to make sure no one is speaking in tongues.

This should be our goal when it comes to expression in worship: we should want to worship like the Bible portrays worship.  When we approach the Bible seriously, we find that it warns us against both atrophy (lack of expression) and excess (selfish indulgence in over-expression).

The Bible is very descriptive about what acceptable worship to God looks like.  It richly describes all of the following things as appropriate expressions of worship…

• loud singing (Psalm 5:11, Psalm 7:17, and 70 other references in Psalms)
• raised hands (Psalm 28:2, Psalm 63:4, Psalm 119:48, etc)
• clapping (Psalm 47:1, Psalm 98:8)
• shouting (Psalm 20:5, Psalm 27:6, Psalm 66:1, etc)
• bowing (Psalm 5:7, Psalm 22:27, etc)
• kneeling (Psalm 95:6)

These passages – among MANY others – push us out of worship atrophy.  They portray corporate worship as a passionate, extremely expressive display of our love, reverence for, and awe of God.  However, the Bible doesn’t lead us to a place of uncontrollable chaos in worship either.  1 Corinthians 14 helpfully gives us the following guidelines…

• All things should be done with love for others in mind (1 Cor 13 serves as a preface for 1 Cor 14)
• Expressions of worship should be sober-minded (vs. 15)
• We should be missionally-minded in how we choose to express ourselves in worship.  Lost people should not leave saying “they’re out of their minds” as a result of our expressiveness. (vs. 23)
• Our expressions should be under our control (vs. 32-33)
• Worship should be orderly, not chaotic. (vs. 33 and 40)

These passages keep us from worship excess. They portray corporate worship as orderly and sober-minded rather than chaotic, frenzied, or bohemian.

• If our worship is stoical, devoid of emotion or expression, and passionless then it’s sub-Biblical.  We should praise God with rich, deep passion.  Singing, shouting, raised hands, clapping, bowing, kneeling – we should seek hearts that overflow in these types of praise.
• If our worship is uncontrollable, chaotic, or not “sober-minded” then it’s also sub-Biblical.  Chaotic and frenzied worship is strange to a Biblical text that portrays corporate worship as passionate but orderly and the presence of the Holy Spirit as resulting in “a sound mind”.
• If an expression of worship we enjoy isn’t prescribed in Scripture and is distracting to people around us, love for our neighbor should compel us to consider keeping that expression to private worship rather than corporate worship.
• We should use our worship gatherings as a missional opportunity, intentionally seeking out new people and making them feel welcome in our midst AND worshipping in such a way as to make Christ known as he is: glorious.

If we’re prone to either one of these errors – atrophy or excess – the most important thing for us to do is ask “Why?”, examining our hearts for indwelling sin that taints our worship.