I don’t believe that songs should be based upon emotions, however I can’t help feel that if we are truly worshipping God there would be some kind of emotion there. After all, isn’t worship a form of love and love a form of emotion?

 

I struggled a long time with this. When I was in eighth grade or so I went to an “Acquire the Fire,“ and that event totally brought me to an understanding of what physical worship was. I remember the radical emotion that came with the moment I finally joined my hands in the air with the other youth in the auditorium as well as what it felt like to fall to my knees. The emotion was real, radical, and I believe Godly. I think if the Bride of Christ is going to connect with it’s spouse there would be something more there.

 

My youth group came back from this event knowing what worship looked like and I remember somewhere down this road having the emotion stolen from me. Whether it was because people told me that I was prideful through my worship or if it was people questioning if it was right to feel anything during worship or even a combination of the two, I don’t know. But it seemed like all of the sudden people started putting rules on worship. It quickly became hard to find that state of worship I had known before because I had to question everything I did.

 

And the worst part is, a lot of it stuck with me.

 

It becomes hard to raise a hand when you have to question it. It’s even harder to fall to your knees if there’s no emotion. It just doesn’t feel like worship when rules come into play.

 

I know a lot of people get upset about this whole “emotional“ and “me“ side of worship to contemporary music, but I propose the idea that things really haven’t changed much. I don’t think people mean to be “me“ centered in their music, I think they write their music because of the relationship they have with God. And since God is also Love it only makes sense that emotion is connected. The Psalmists themselves seemed to write in an emotional and relational way. Just check out the beginning to Psalm 4:

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 1 Answer me when I call to you, 

       O my righteous God. 

       Give me relief from my distress; 

       be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

 

 2 How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame? 
       How long will you love delusions and seek false gods? 
       Selah

 

 3 Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; 
       the LORD will hear when I call to him.

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The first verse here is all “me“ centered. 

 

Answer me. Relieve me. Be merciful. Hear me.

 

The third verse here is also somewhat “me“ centered as it implies that the Psalmist is godly, hence God will hear him. Now yes, Psalm 4 also praises God quite a bit, but I think that we do the same thing in contemporary worship music. We relate ourselves into the music because we are in fact emotional beings, designed for an emotional God. 

 

Even some of our favorite hymns like Amazing Grace are me centered. That song for instance is about God but at the same time it’s about us. It’s a relational connection.

 

I almost dare say that anything less than emotion lacks in worship. Don’t get me wrong—it’s not that it’s not worship. I just feel that it lacks in real, authentic, genuine worship. Almost like it’s not real you know? If you just got into a new relationship with another person, you don’t dare tell them you love them unless you really mean it. In the same way I feel that we should watch what we’re singing. If we do really mean it there should once again be some emotion there. I imagine apathetic worship stinks to the high heavens. No one wants to hear a fake “I love you.”

 

Now to clarify, I don’t think that emotions should run our worship, nor should “me“ centered songs—that is not what I have been trying to get at here. We can totally get caught up with ourselves if we’re not careful. But I think if we go around telling people that their emotions are false and that their worship is fake we will see apathetic worship begin to emerge from their spirit as they struggle to wonder if their worshipping has been for themselves when perhaps they’ve been the ones who have been right all along. 

 

I’ve been in leadership in music for a long time now and so I’ve carried the burden of judging everything I do during a worship service with it. It hasn’t been easy. To be honest, sometimes I feel as though I’d give anything to know less. But may we carry this burden together and lead others more effectively to a place of God-based, relational and emotional worship—not because we’re obsessed with ourselves, but because we are entirely in love with Jesus Christ.