I hear people from time to time bemoan modern worship because it manipulates the emotions. That’s a fair point, some “worship” music is quite trance inducing. I’m not discussing the tranciness of the music here, maybe another time, but the question of whether manipulating our emotions through music is a bad thing. So, in short, yes, modern worship music can manipulate our emotions.
How many times are we manipulated in a day?
Right out of the gate we have to deal with this notion of “manipulating”. What does it mean for our emotions to be manipulated? We have our emotions manipulated every time we watch a movie. Many times I have felt happy, sad, motivated, or maybe just awkward after a movie. Not only does a movie use music but also a compelling story line with good acting, good movies anyhow. My emotions have also been manipulated by people asking for money. Some charities employ the picture that tugs on the heart strings. The heart maestro does this on purpose, to make you want to give. As a pastor I have heard plenty of stories from individuals asking for money. Some of these individuals are very good at spinning a tale that will manipulate your emotions and make you want to give them money.
Are movies manipulating our emotions a bad thing? Usually not. Manipulating our emotions is sort of the reason we watch them. I like feeling as if I’m the hero of the story, and even though I’ve hit some trials, I learned how to overcome, push my limits, and save the day.
Are charities manipulating our emotions a bad thing? Usually not. You always have to be careful of who you contribute to, but there are many great and worthy charities. I honestly don’t know how they would survive without a little bit of a guilt trip, and sometimes I need that to hurdle my selfish nature.
Are people manipulating our emotions for their own gain a bad thing? Yes. Always yes. And this is the sort of manipulation we don’t want to get caught in. We don’t want to be taken advantage of. Don’t make me a fool.
The right kind of manipulation
Hopefully you can see how this ties in with manipulating our emotions for worship. Sometimes we need some help getting into the mindset of worship. I remember going to church one day and the kids had been extremely difficult. By the time we got everyone ready for church I was not in the mood. Honestly, I would have stayed home except that I had to lead the service and preach. The thing that pulled me out of my funk was reaffirming my faith with the Apostle’s Creed. I’ve never had that same experience with the creed before or after, but that time it straightened me out and I was able to sincerely worship. Was that manipulation? If it was, I certainly needed it.
Many churches are designed in a way to instill a sense of awe for God. This is why the great cathedrals are so majestic. No doubt you have walked into the sanctuary of a church and thought, “Wow, this is beautiful!” Yes, it is, and it is designed that way to bring glory to the God we worship and help align our hearts and minds to worship Him. The sanctuary is no ordinary place, our actions, our speech, even our clothes are ordered to a higher level simply because the atmosphere demands it of us. Is that manipulation? If it is, I kind of like it and need it.
The wrong kind of manipulation
The manipulation we do not want, and certainly do not need, is to make us feel the presence of God when His presence is not there. Tradition, such as the Apostle’s Creed, is great but what about when it just turns into empty tradition? Thinking that tradition alone somehow connects us to God is why many liberal churches practice traditions. They say the God of the Bible isn’t real because it’s simply writings by the patriarchy, or the resurrection didn’t really happen, or hell isn’t real because a loving god wouldn’t do that, yet practice the rituals of the historic church as if that will connect them to the god they serve.
Another way we can get a false sense of the presence of God is by the atmosphere of the sanctuary. Ideally, the atmosphere of the church should aid in our worship, and I love it when it does. However, the cathedrals we talked about earlier were also used for the inquisition and selling of indulgences. “God must be in that building, right? I mean look how amazing and beautiful it is.” That’s not the way the presence of God works.
Allow me to jump on modern worship a bit. Modern sanctuaries can produce the awe of walking into a large office building. It makes you think, “Oh, this is nice, it certainly smells new.” It’s the stage that is the real prize. There are modern designs that just make you feel cool for being there. Then the music starts, the lights come down, and it gets loud. Maybe God is there, maybe He is not, but it certainly feels exciting.
The real crux
I believe therein lies the problem. We can feel like God is supposed to be present or the folks we came with really felt God, but was God in it? Maybe, maybe not.
I know someone who has led music for worship in other places and mentioned how easy it was to manipulate the emotions to make people have “the feels”. In fact, he mentioned being hungover from the night before while making it all happen on Sunday morning; just turn the lights down, play the right chords, say the right words and people will follow along.
This is certainly not the case for every church or worship service. It simply illustrates how easily we can fall into the trap. As we saw earlier, there are also traps with traditional styles and places of worship.
So, how do we avoid these traps?
The real question
We have yet to talk about a very important aspect and ask a very important question. What is worship?
The Old Testament sense of the word worship was to prostrate oneself before another. That is, we take the posture that God is more important than we are. We lay our lives down before Him and order our lives in such a way that pleases Him and brings Him glory.
It would have been an act of worship if I went to church that one day I didn’t feel like going by submitting my will to God’s will. However, I went to church because I felt obligated, and thankfully the grace of God worked through that.
Paul says in Romans 12:1-2 (ESV), “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Our spiritual act of worship is to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. I’m honestly not sure when the word “worship” started referring simply to music, but I think it has been damaging to the Church. Music is an aspect of our worship, but it is certainly not the whole thing. Going to church is worship, giving our tithes and offerings is worship, hearing of the Word is worship, fellowship is worship, and of course praising God through song. I didn’t even get into going to work on Monday morning, or spending time with the family, or going on vacation, but we need to order our lives everyday in submission to God.
What Scripture has to say about it
Take a look at these passages.
“David and the chiefs of the service also set apart for the service the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals.” 1 Chronicles 25:1 (ESV)
Bonus for this verse, it mentions Heman. His name is pronounced hey-mon, but it still makes me smile every time I see it.
“And there, as soon as you come to the city, you will meet a group of prophets coming down from the high place with harp, tambourine, flute, and lyre before them, prophesying.” 1 Samuel 10:5 (ESV)
Seems like a regular occurrence for the word of God to be accompanied with music.
“And Elisha said, ‘As the LORD of hosts lives, before whom I stand, were it not that I have regard for Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, I would neither look at you nor see you. But now bring me a musician.’ And when the musician played, the hand of the LORD came upon him.” 2 Kings 3:14-15 (ESV)
I find these verses incredibly interesting for this discussion. First of all, Elisha don’t play, “I would neither look at you nor see you.” That boldness came from God. But, really what’s important for this topic, Elisha needed to hear from God, so he called for a musician, and the hand of God came upon him while the musician played.
”And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.” Mark 14:26 (ESV)
After the Last Supper Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn together. Was it a contemporary hymn or a traditional hymn? The Scripture doesn’t say, which means that’s not the point. Music was important to Jesus.
Putting it all together
So, does modern worship manipulate your emotions? It certainly can and is sometimes designed to do precisely that. Now, the question is, is that a bad thing? It can be, however, it can also be good.
WAIT! Before you get frustrated with such a non-answer. I think this is a worthy topic and one the Church needs to spend more time thinking about. If the church is ordering the service in such a way to orient your life to God then that is good. Sometimes that will be through tradition, maybe aesthetics, and of course, music. We must always be careful not to get caught up in the creation but to worship the Creator in all things.
Yes, some churches have “worship” music that is either worshiping themselves or purely meant to manipulate in a bad way, though they don’t mean bad by it. Yes, even many traditional churches do worship poorly. Yes, some people find a greater connection in different forms of worship.
However, I like a modern style of worship and I like that it is more centered on the emotions. Everything is emotional these days, we even have things called “emojis”. I still shake my head in disbelief, even as I’m using them. God created us in His image and I believe emotion is part of that. We should be able to order our emotions to worship God, sometimes that might take a little Godly manipulation. I also really enjoy traditional aesthetics and the richness of the hymns. Name me one song better than “How Great Thou Art”. You can’t. But even that wonderful hymn was modern at one point.
We need to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so we can truly worship God, and be led by Him in discernment of our worship. At the end of time, it will not be about music led by an organ, piano, or guitar. It will not be about how old and nostalgic the sanctuary was. It will be about whether we ordered our lives in service to God, relying upon the gift of the blood of Christ, and sanctification of the Holy Spirit.
Let us be wise in our worship not be manipulated into shallowness. Let us also be passionate in our worship to give God all the glory due His name. And let us order our lives as a living sacrifice which is our spiritual act of worship.
WORD UP 