The Subtle and Pervasive Nature of Emotionalism
Several scholars of our day have pointed out the problem of subjective emotionalism, or allowing experience determine truth. Sometimes almost akin to the mysticism so prevalent in Roman Catholicism, it finds its way into books, attitudes, sermons, church culture, and even the time we spend worshiping God on a Sunday or during a mid-week service or event dedicated to such.
Below is a tweet from Pastor Steve Kelly of Wave Church in Virginia Beach, VA.
This makes me wonder: does God’s presence, or our experience thereof, depend upon Darlene? I mean, what if I don’t have a “Darlene” nearby when I worship? Will the presence of God not come? Was it missing in the first place? Can I even measure it? Maybe there’s a meter, and the meter is pegged into the red when Darlene leads, but only in the green or yellow if I’m just worshiping alone, or with a group of liturgical Presbyterians with a Psalm and just a piano… Or maybe the meter is measuring the congregation’s hearts and fervor in worship? Clearly we now have pastors who can measure this, and Steve Kelly is clear that Darlene’s ability to “bring” such a presence is beyond that of anyone else.
What have we become? Why is such an emotional response part of our measure of God’s presence? I mean, I get all broken at the end of Meet The Robinsons when Rob Thomas starts singing—does that mean he’s bringing an incredible sense of God’s presence?
But what does the bible say of such things? In your study of the bible, do you find that God’s presence evokes heart-felt warm fuzzies from people? What I read is typically that God’s presence (when defined by Scripture) causes all who truly experience it to feel utterly shameful of their own sin (unclean) and unworthy of being in the presence of pure holiness:
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (Isaiah 6:5 ESV)
Is that the presence about which Steve Kelly is speaking? That is the presence of God, after all, and if he doesn’t mean that presence—well then, exactly what presence does he mean? Better yet, what god’s presence did he really experience? The measure of that experience, if not a recognition of the shameful and sinful and unclean nature of man, is what, exactly? Our deceitful hearts?
Furthermore, this whole concept of a worship leader aiding us to meet some sort of presence (whether it’s the leader bringing it to the people or the leader bringing the people to it) is a subtle, pervasive, unbiblical idea . It’s subtle because it seems so legitimate. I’ve been there and experienced worship that I really felt was extraordinary, even believing that I was somehow experiencing God in a way. Why not, right? What’s so wrong with that? It seems harmless.
But it is not.
Once you experience this feeling, you are compelled to seek it again. And again. And again. That’s why conferences need sequels, and the typical conference attendee attends not only more than one conference per year, but also strives to model their weekly worship service after the conference itself.
I’ll leave you with some Scripture that describes the primary activity of the New Testament church. You’ll note that none of the Apostles are echoing Steve Kelly’s sentiments about the worship music at their meetings. Funny: they rarely mention music in passages describing the church’s activities, let alone offer praise to the “worship leaders” as if they somehow are responsible for the greatness or lack of God’s presence in a place…
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. (Acts 2:42 ESV)
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4 ESV)
I had a friend who thought it would be wonderful if God’s presence came down on a Sunday morning like it did in Solomon’s temple. I can’t fault her, because I used to think the same where presence=warm fuzzy and worship=singing. However now, falling as one dead in holy fear and repentance would be a better response to the presence of God.
Persis -
I remember that section of Scripture being cited often (1 Kings 8:1-11) to justify crazy things during worship. In my ignorance, I, too, accepted it as normative. Too bad I didn’t read the chapters prior or after—it’s very revealing to see the holiness of God in all of its splendor. It was certainly not called down as a result of the warm-and-fuzzy worship. More appropriately, it enveloped the temple as a result of God’s command being obeyed (the return of the Ark of the Covenant to its Most Holy Place). As an aside, in this same history, Aaron’s sons were killed for worshiping “with strange fire” (incorrectly), and Uzzah was struck dead for trying to prevent the Ark from falling to the ground.
R.C. Sproul once mused this: “Perhaps Uzzah forgot that the dirt was cleaner than he was.”
That jolted me a bit—as well it should! We ought not think of ourselves as so clean as to be able to bring about the presence of God by mere whim or fancy music!
Thanks for commenting!
In Christ,
Frank
Hi Frank, I find this a really interesting topic. As a sound tech for about 20 years, I certainly “felt” questions about just how emmotionalism plays into one’s experience of the church service. Its been my experience that the louder the music is, the more one “feels” god. I left the capitol “G” off on purpose because referring to sound decibels as God might be worthy of a lightning strike. Even so, I’m ducking right now.
In my last few years of volunteer service, I found myself jockying the master volume to intentionally extend the dynamics of the music service; and push people’s emotional response to a higher level. At the time, I justified my actions internally by telling myself I was “playing” the sound board the same way one might play the piano or trumpet. That still sounds perfectly rational and reasonable to me. But I did have mixed feelings about it. If I could, and in fact did manipulate the worship service, how much of it was really from God?
So I’ve always had nagging questions about that.
For a short 1 1/2 years, I attended a church in Phila who’s pastoral mantra was “Follow me as I folow Dr. Larry Lea’s: Could you not Tarry One Hour program”. Hey, it was 1986. What do you want? LOL.
This Church’s services were by far the most dramatic and intense I’ve ever been apart of. They were also the loudest. The pastor was always demanding I turn it up louder and blowing out speakers, and once told me the reason why “the spirit of God wasn’t falling in the services was because of problems with the sound.” That’s a quote. Shheeeesh. I was 24; still just an impressionable kid. And the reason why God wasn’t really moving in our church was MY FAULT?
The fact is, there were no problems with the sound system that turning it down 10% wouldn’t have solved. Have you ever been to a rock concert or in a club? Extreemely loud music causes your hearing to constrict such that turning it up further doesn’t make any difference. There was no volume level that would have solved this pastors problems.
I later found out the pastor had an active cocaine addiction. Oh… So all that intensity that we all thought was God in this man was really a cocaine addiction. Oh.
(Email me if you want. It would be fun to catch up!)