Worship: Experience and Expression

We are probably familiar with the well-known predicament of singing worship songs without meaning the words, or 'with our hearts elsewhere'; we've probably sat in on discussions on the subject of wallpaper worshippers; we're likely part of that very wallpaper at times too.

But I wonder, can't worship also be a way to release pent-up emotions?

One night at d'NA Stage 3, we sang that song whose chorus goes "...I will go to the ends of the earth, to the ends of the earth..." and Michael said something to the effect of, "Why do you all sing 'to the ends of the earth' when even 'to the end of the street' is something most of us would find hard to do?"

Subsequently I became very conscious of the lyrics of many songs we take for granted.

But lately, I think I'm beginning to appreciate my Pentecostal roots. There is something in the loud worship that reminds me so much of U2 concerts (although personally, the former falls short of the latter in musical terms :-P), and the thing about U2 is that they try to capture a feeling, an emotion, whenever they perform live.

On the day that U2 lead singer Bono's father died, the band were scheduled to perform that very night. They didn't cancel, and Bono considered that concert a liberating experience in the midst of such grief.

And to me, though sometimes we may not mean the words (or may not even know what the words mean!), I think there is something liberating about the act of singing. Lately I've learnt to enjoy that 'ends of the earth' song simply as a song, and it really feels much better that way, rather than sitting in the congregation feeling more guilt than anything else over the relative impossibility of the words.

I guess it isn't limited to the Pentecostal experience; there is also something mystical about the Orthodox church, something less about the logic and more about the feeling and the presence of the whole worship experience.

Streams of living water, not merely to analyse... but to drink, and to drink deeply.