WORSHIP

There was this 40-something year-old man at my church growing up that several of us kids singled out as “weird.” Admittedly, he had some curious tendencies that children were apt to pick up on, such as with his speech and gait. My brother and I would also spy him sitting in church, usually front and center, raising his hands at what we thought were random times during the service – singing, a message or an announcement.

We thought it was so funny – especially because no one in the church did that. Services were generally very quiet: for example, many people did not clap after a special presentation, because it was often seen as showing glory to self rather than God. Also, during music time, or “praise and worship,” we would sing hymns to organ or piano music – or with an orchestra (but no guitar or drums). No one would move or talk apart from singing the words – after that, the church would become you-could-hear-a-pin-drop silent.

To this day I am not quite positive why the “weird” man would raise his hands at certain times during the service. He may have been working with the sound crew, which used to record tapes of services – a couple times we later saw him assisting them after church. But he also could have been doing it in worship. I confess that I am not much aware of it being done throughout a service, but I can say that despite my upbringing, where church services were very quiet and hands were not raised, I now lift mine during song. And the practice has been part of my ongoing journey to understand the meaning of authentic worship.

The Journey

To a degree my change in worship style reflects a larger trend – a shift to a more “contemporary” style that even some traditional churches have made in efforts to reach younger generations for Christ. Even my church growing up now has one contemporary service where people freely raise their hands during singing.

But the change for me has been about more than just going with the crowd. I used to reject the idea of hand raising or moving to music in church because it was unfamiliar. I remember watching with curiosity some students at my Christian middle and high school doing both during our weekly chapel services. Or I would see it when my family visited churches of our fellow Nigerians, where the worship style was much more lively than anything I had experienced. I remember awkwardly clapping my hands or just kind of looking around.

I started being open to more expression in worship about five or six years ago. I began finding that raising my hands in song, along with closing my eyes, helped me block out whatever was going on around me and point my focus to The One it should have been on all along. And now those acts – along with some movement—are part of my worship in song both in and outside church.

The Why

I can point to no “moment” when my attitude to being more expressive in worship through music changed – it was more gradual. I was impacted by several sermons I heard about taking the focus of worship from self to God. They had me thinking about the need not to choose worship style based on public opinion.

I also really dug into the Psalms about that time and remember focusing on the ones that were written as songs of praise, much like hymns (I love charts that show the types of psalms by category –like this one—I think they really add to an understanding of worship). When reading ones by King David I also could not help but be reminded of the story in 2 Samuel 6 where he “danc[ed] with all his might” publicly in thanks to God when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to Jerusalem.

King David’s wife Michal, daughter of former King Saul, watched him that day with disdain. She said to him after: "How the king of Israel has distinguished himself today, disrobing in the sight of the slave girls of his servants as any vulgar fellow would!" (v. 20).

His reply: "It was before the LORD, who chose me rather than your father or anyone from his house when he appointed me ruler over the LORD's people Israel—I will celebrate before the LORD. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. But by these slave girls you spoke of, I will be held in honor" (v. 21b – 22).

If a king could become “undignified” in the name of worshipping The Creator, I started to think, who was I to be so uncomfortable or concerned with others’ thoughts if I were expressive in worship?

I also believe the change to more contemporary music – through updating either instrument, words, or both – has had a special impact on me. Although I love hymns because the words are so rich, rooted in scripture and uplifting, they also would not play in my car stereo set to the organ or piano music I grew up signing them to in church - but they do with a guitar or some other remix that is often played at my church now. I also love the modern worship songs that still have a closeness to scripture but are put in more colloquial terms.

Criticism

Some say the type of music in worship should not be a big deal and even that contemporary music detracts from worship. But with that idea is often a sense that traditional music is somehow “more holy.” But the worship God honors begins from our hearts -- not with a music genre. I believe a way to give God our inmost being is to put Him in our everyday space. Contemporary music in worship can help us avoid "compartmentalizing" God, relegating worship to moments when we feel like praising Him through traditional music. It also can keep us from seeing worship as drudgery - from it we can learn to give God praise just as we are.

This is not to say that hymns in their traditional form do not promote worship. Again, it is first a heart matter. Even if we have music we like in church but do not open up our minds, our lives – our beings – to worship, we cannot make up for it with instrument alone. Further, if worship in song were tied only to having the music or words that are most comfortable to us we would again be limiting our praise. When we are truly being authentic we can worship in the most traditional of settings and the most contemporary. But, at the same time, I do believe that connecting Christ with our everyday life – as modern worship strives to do – helps with authenticity in a way that traditional music often cannot.

Worship in a Nutshell

Summing up worship in just a few words brings to mind this definition from a modern praise song called From The Inside Out: “the art of losing myself in bringing [Him] praise.”

Ultimately, worship has to be something we do every day, in a variety of ways: our thoughts, our words, our actions. When we are constantly focused on following Jesus, we can translate that into showing Him adoration through song. That may involve us raising our hands and closing our eyes or stepping to the beat. It might also involve complete stillness and silence. But at its best, I think it involves both. And no form of worship – song or otherwise –
should be stifled by personal discomfort or a fear of what others may think. Worship, like anything else about our faith, should not be about obligation, but freedom.

At every point in our lives we have a reason to give Him praise. When we sing to Him -- in church or elsewhere -- let’s lose ourselves in His presence – and not care who’s looking.