"There is no one, correct way to worship except to worship honestly," says devotional writer David S Lampel, and of course he's right. Acts of worship such as singing are about bringing our whole selves to God; yet there's one very specific way that Christians often fail to do that. There's an unspoken tradition, particularly within evangelical circles, of failing to practice what we preach, or rather, sing: we don't do the actions in grown-up worship songs.
During children's songs, we're only too happy to oblige with hand gestures, usually around God being wide, deep, tall and long, but when it comes to regular songs, we suddenly freeze up. Now, I'm not suggesting that we should be miming along interpretively to every lyric like one of those people at the front at Spring Harvest. But sometimes, our unwillingness to move even a muscle feels a little conspicuous. Here are a few examples of what I mean...
'I'm falling on my knees'
Many of us will have sung Kathryn Scott's majestic worship ballad 'Hungry' in recent years, and some of us will have even managed to follow the tune. But very few of us ever respond to the lyrical invitation to drop to a more monastic position and offer "all of me". Instead we stand absolutely bolt upright, offering about 4 per cent of ourselves, and frantically looking around the room to see if anyone else has assumed the High Church prayer position. They almost certainly haven't.
'So we lift up holy hands'
This one puts you in a quandary. You might be the sort of person who raises their arms aloft in worship all the time, but if you do so during Chris Tomlin's 'Unchanging', will people think you're just doing the actions, and assume that you're not an experienced arm-raiser? As a result, you might ironically decide to take an arms-down position for this line. You know, just to be cool.
'I'll become even more undignified than this'
"I will dance, I will sing, to be mad, for my king" sang Matt Redman, evoking the moment in 2 Samuel 6 when King David dances with such abandon in worship that he's not worried about exposing himself in public (in every sense). When young people first heard 'Undignified' at events like Soul Survivor in the 1990s, they did likewise – minus the partial nudity. Today however, as the song passes into the hymnal of the average small Baptist church, the accompanying enthusiasm is rather weaker. I've stood in congregations where this song has been delivered almost deadpan, with worshippers unwilling to move even a muscle while claiming that they're prepared to become "EVEN MORE undignified than this." There is a huge irony in the fact that this song originates from Britain.
'Jump, jump, everybody jump'
Another song which doesn't quite make the transition from summer festival tent to the pew back home, Tim Hughes' 'Joy is in this place' is a party atmosphere reworking of Amazing Grace which definitely only works at a party. This one is so directive that some of the keener people in any church congregation will give a half-hearted nod toward the intended actions, by bobbing gently onto their toes during the key line. They absolutely will not leave the floor however, giving the impression that a very minor earthquake is hitting your church.
'And I'll fall facedown'
Another Redman classic, and another opportunity to feel a bit awkward. The song 'Facedown' is all about adopting a completely prostrate position in awe-struck worship, but of course it's usually delivered by people who are entirely vertical. Most of us get around this in our heads by choosing to believe that Redman was being metaphorical. Some of us also do this during the offering.
'We will dance with joy like we're dancing now'
'I could sing of your love forever', the Delirious song that swept the world in the 1990s, contains a key example of worship duplicity. We sing "Oh I feel like dancing" when we really don't; then "it's foolishness I know" when it isn't, because we're not moving. Finally we claim together that a redeemed world will join us in the sort of dance we're doing RIGHT NOW. And what an unbridled expression of joy that would be, considering we're NOT MOVING! Still, it's a lovely song.
Of course, there's a group of songs containing 'action' lines with which we have no problem. Matt Redman's 'Let my words be few' contains a promise that "I'll stand in awe of you," as does the old classic 'You are beautiful beyond description', and more recently, Hillsong even wrote a whole song about standing still called 'The stand.' This is surely the solution to a very modern worship problem; more lines about standing, and far less claiming that we're dancing, skipping or flying around the room. After all, God wouldn't want us to make a show of ourselves on his account, would he...?
Martin Saunders is a Contributing Editor for Christian Today and the Deputy CEO of Youthscape. You can follow him on Twitter: @martinsaunders
