Give Me More of Me, Less of You
The Case for less Christ in Worship
Do you think that there is an under-emphasis on any emotion in contemporary worship services? Why?
A Baptist worship leader answered that “emotion is considered verboten in many circles, but emotion is one of the main things that makes us human” and because of that he believes that the Church should lean into expressing the full spectrum of emotion. However, there is a tendency to confess a false dichotomy between spirituality and emotions, which I have continually addressed in my posts. The church can get drawn into thinking that they can only speak of the redemptive work of Christ in its worship. As I wrote about in the posts about the start and heart of worship, worship is thought to start and be about Christ.
I have slowly been introducing the idea that worship should be more about the congregant and the community. The church knows who Christ is, what Christ has done, and what Christ has promised to do. It is very comfortable singing and praying about Jesus but talking about how a person feels makes many in the church uncomfortable. Expressing our grief without reference to God’s sovereignty can make us feel weird, like we are doing something wrong. Talking about our sadness without reference to God wiping every tear away feels wrong. We need to talk about who we are, how we are doing, how our future looks, to have a strong relationship with God. But that makes us uncomfortable. So we make a false dichotomy between spiritual and emotional, with spiritual being seen as holier than emotions.
Spirituality Is(n’t) Enough
Some worship leaders argue that the focus in worship services should not be on emotion but rather on the Lord. They believe that when the focus is on Jesus, people can naturally experience a range of emotions as they relate to Him. This perspective suggests that true conviction of sin, resulting in repentance and confession, can occur simultaneously with healing from emotional traumas, all within the same worship service. Such a stance links sadness, grief, and trauma to sin and since Christ has conquered sin, Christ has conquered the trauma, grief, and sadness. A Reformed worship leader exposing this view writes that the Lord “can bring true conviction of sin, which results in repentance, grief over sin and confession in one person, while another person is basking in His love and receiving healing from emotional traumas all at the same time in the same service.” The logic here is Christ’s love will envelop the whole person in different ways for different people in the congregation, as they confess their sins and ask God for salvation. The focus on sin-language overlooks the fact that emotions are not always caused by the presence of sin in the world or in a person’s life. For instance, when Jesus healed a blind man, the crowd asked who had sinned to cause the man's blindness. Jesus responded that neither the man's sin nor his parents' sin was responsible for the blindness, nor did He attribute the affliction to sin itself. (John 9:1-5) It is important to point out in the passage, the ones who wanted to link afflictions to sin were the disciples and that Jesus rebuked them. We need, as a Church, to avoid the connection between sin and sadness in a way that does not see the emotional needs of the person and only focuses on the spiritual needs.
Other worship leaders feel that modern worship has become too emotional and lacks grounding in biblical truth. They express concern that worship has shifted away from its intended purpose of spiritual formation to cater more to emotional experiences. This perspective emphasizes a need to return to a more scripture-based approach to worship, where the primary focus is on the teachings and person of Jesus Christ. A Presbyterian worship leader writes that “you need songs that you can build a spiritual foundation on,” wanting the songs sung in the Church to be either doctrines straight from the text of Scripture or Scripture itself. When we interpret Scripture, our doctrines and ideologies influence us. For instance, singing a lament or imprecatory Psalm can lead us to focus only on God's redemptive acts, missing the Psalmist's deep cries. An example is Shane and Shane’s version of Psalm 13, where "I will wait on You" is emphasized, changing the focus. In contrast, Rachel Wilhelm’s rendition highlights the "how long" chorus, keeping the emotional longing central. Emphasizing or de-emphasizing parts alters the scripture's message. The worship leader mentioned Amazing Grace and A Mighty Fortress as examples of solid songs to build a foundation on, but they only provide part of a necessary foundation as they miss the emotional side of Scripture and only show the redemptive side of Scripture.
Some voices in the worship leader community advocate for a reduction in emotional emphasis in favor of greater spiritual formation. They suggest that the current trend towards emotional expression in worship may be overshadowing the importance of spiritual growth and development. These leaders call for a worship that prioritizes spiritual formation, ensuring that worship fosters a deeper understanding and connection with God. Yet, life is hard, and God does not remove the emotional barriers in the way some worship leaders want us to believe. Also, avoiding talking about emotions weakness our relationship with God as it keeps the connection between a person and God on the surface. God does know how we feel, but we draw God closer into us by communicating honestly and authentically. The church, sometimes as evidenced by the Psalms, needs to initiate the conversation by telling God that we feel lost, confused, sad, anger, or joyful about something outside of salvation. To not do so is to ignore the reality that life is hard, God sometimes feels distant, and that we need to talk to God about something more than salvation.
Life Is(n’t) Hard
Those who want to focus on the goodness of God and the ease of the Christian life often avoid singing songs that bring up emotionally difficult concepts. The current cultural preference, especially in West Michigan where the current study is based, for positive, emotionally uplifting experiences has resulted in the exclusion of slower, more contemplative hymns or songs that address themes of sin and sorrow. The commercialization of worship music also prioritizes compositions that are deemed more marketable, which usually translates to happy and upbeat, thereby marginalizing these (slower) introspective songs. The leaders who perceive that lament, confession, and repentance are not emphasized in contemporary Christian worship services think that it is due to the incongruity of such with the upbeat and positive atmosphere that many churches strive to create. In today's fast-paced, consumer-driven culture, there is a preference for experiences that foster a feel-good sentiment, which is seen in the post on what mood churches are trying to foster in their services.
The Protestant church, in particular, encounters challenges in practicing confession. This practice is often considered uncomfortable and contrary to the prevailing narrative of positivity and triumph that modern worship seeks to convey. The concept of repentance, exemplified by Isaiah's profound recognition of sinfulness ("Woe is me, for I am undone," Isaiah 6:5), is often resisted as it challenges the natural inclination to avoid feelings of conviction, as referenced in 2 Timothy 4:3, as a Pentecostal worship leader points out. The vulnerability associated with emotions such as sadness and grief does not align well with the cultural value placed on strength and resilience in American society. As a Reformed worship leader writes, “I think there is an under-emphasis on confession and acknowledgement of Christ's sacrifice. Worship often seems to be a space to sing about God's goodness - which is awesome. But we miss more of the intentionality and truth behind the weight that the cross held. Also, confession and repentance are super important parts of faith. We often glaze over those two things, especially in worship.”
Ultimately, congregants generally prefer to leave a worship service feeling uplifted and positive. Emotions such as grief, sadness, and pain are often avoided as they do not attract people in the same manner as more upbeat and inspiring songs. Nevertheless, individuals do experience these emotions and require a space to express them and lift them up to God. By excluding lament, confession, and repentance from worship, churches may fail to provide a comprehensive and authentic spiritual experience that encompasses the full spectrum of human emotion.
Not Mine, But Yours
What really stands out for me in the responses to the question of what emotions are missing from other churches is how quick worship leaders are to point out problems with the general trends they perceive in worship music and other traditions, while not being as willing to observe their own church’s behavior and reflect on how they piece together their services. For example, I interviewed a worship leader and they were insistent that they choose songs based on the doctrines sung, the use of Scripture in the lyrics, and how the song enforced the theme of the sermon. They were adiminant that they ignored the emotional reality. However, as I kept asking about the decision making process, what artists’ music they used and why, and what worship sounded like in their church, the leader admitted that all of the choices came down to an emotional vibe that they were trying to instill in their congregation. They wanted their worship to be a little less formal and laid back than what they perceived as traditional worship (hymns, organs, stiff leaders and congregants). They also wanted to model a calm and contentedness in their worship, while still speaking of sin and redemption.
More examples of worship leaders perceiving issues in the larger world of worship versus their church came out when I put the last question (under-emphasized emotions at their church) next to the current question of under-emphasized emotions in the wider church. I had 9 churches (about 1/3) respond that their churches were not missing any emotions in their worship, with all but two of them listing emotions they thought were under-emphasized in the wider church. A Pentecostal church said that repentance is missing from other churches, but not theirs. One of the Reformed leaders agreed. A Catholic leader said that confession and petition are missing from other churches, but that they were not missing any emotions. Another Catholic leader listed other churches as missing contrition, but they were not missing any other emotions. It is sometimes easier to look out and see what is missing then it is to examine your own practices.
I do not want to blame the leaders for not looking deeper into their services and see what they are missing. Multiple leaders I spoke to let me know that they did not start to think about how they were emotionally forming their congregation before taking part in the study. That points to a larger problem where leaders are not equipped to think about their ministry in that way and are not trained in a way that makes them think about emotional aspects of their worship.
Concluding Thoughts:
I expected the worship leaders to list the same emotions on both lists. I was mostly right, that contrition, confession, sadness, lament, and anger showed up on both lists of what is missing from both local and universal worship. I expected that there would be critiques of how seemingly happy worship sounded and that there needed to be more somber or sad songs. I also thought that I would get some people saying that there were too many sad songs and that the church needs more happy songs. (As a Reformed worship leader writes, “Joy! So many churches do only slow songs, which is crazy!!” As if a slow song is a sad song. We have plenty of slow songs that are full of praise and joy.)
I am still interested in how everything that is missing still revolves around salvation history. The themes of contrition, petition, confession, and repentance show up multiple times and these all pertain to Christ’s work on the Cross and the congregations response to that work. Even though these moods or vibes make us vulnerable and self-reflective, they still do not move past focusing on a version of spirituality which is at the root joy and praise. What I mean by that is that we are contrite because we know what Christ has sacrificed and in our prayer of contrition we thank God for salvation. The same is true for petition, confession, and repentance. They all revolve around and end in praise, thanksgiving, and joy. The Church needs to express more of their emotional life without trying to end in joyful praise while being honest about what is missing from its spiritual practices and engaging that which is missing and makes them uncomfortable. What emotions is your worship missing? How can you engage God outside of redemptive matters?
In the end, I am arguing that the church needs less Jesus in our worship. We need more of us, and less of Jesus. The congregations need to be open and honest with God and talk about more than how thankful they are that God redeemed them or only listing the wonderful attributes of God. We need to discuss who we are and what we are doing. We need to have a conversation with God that is not one sided and sounds like we are singing to boost God’s ego. The way we speak and sing to God are not the way we talk to those around us. If we only told praised each other, and never told each other more than how much they meant to us, we would have a terrible relationship with each other. Imagine taking the lyrics to a praise and worship song and making it about a loved one in your life. It would sound insane. Yet for some reason we have normalized talking to God in that way. Give me more of what matters in this world and less of Jesus.
What I mean, and I hoped I got the point through but it's my fault if I didn't, is that the way we try to become more like Christ in a weird way. We focus our conversation with God on a very narrow subject matter (sin and redemption) instead of sharing our whole lives, thoughts, and feelings with God.
We need more depth in the ways that we speak to Jesus and need more of Jesus, but not in the way that most people speak of. Often Jesus becomes a catch-all solution for all our woes in a way that is unhealthy and emotionally destructive. I was at a funeral last week where we were told not to grieve because of the hope we have in Christ and the resurrection. Or St. Augustine taught that our sadness is caused by sin and because Jesus overcomes sin, Jesus has overcome sadness, therefore Christians should never be sad. Or that just leaning more, praying more, singing more praise, will get rid of our doubts and confusions. But that’s not how our emotions work.
I fully agree that we are supposed to be honest in worship and have a deep trust and love of God in our complaints. Our worship should also help us re-orientate and re-form our lives, but in a much slower way than it is normally spoken about. I do not go into church with sorrow in my matter, sing a praise song, and become joyous. I go in with my grief, express it, feel the love of Christ and the community, and walk out with the knowledge that I am not grieving alone. I want the Church to worship in a way that the full self enters the presence of Christ, and not just parts that we think Jesus wants.
The point I’m trying to make is that Jesus is presented often in worship as not wanting our warts and all, or only our warts caused by sin, which Jesus removes. We need less of that Jesus in our worship.