OL: Worship

Professor:
I think you guys have all nailed it with regard to the second great awakenings. It was at this time that evangelicals began to think of worship services as highly charged emotional events. They were a success if they whipped everyone into a frenzy. Prior to that, worship assumed considerable knowledge from the worshiper. For instance, if we have a deep knowledge of scripture and theology, then even a seemingly dry service can be very rich and profound, because our understanding goes very deep. And if a service can help us to understand and love God more deeply - then worship has really succeeded - or perhaps I should say - we've begun to learn truly what worship is.




This isn't to say that traditional worship can't be done very badly and can't be very stale and rigid - it obviously can and often is. However, it is probably a mistake to judge a worship service based upon its emotional appeal. Our worship services often seem very similar to 2nd great awakening services when so much focus is placed on eliciting an emotional response and so little emphasis is placed on depth of meaning. Ideally, I suppose, worship should be both beautiful and deep. But worship should never be manipulative.



Also, worship should always help us to understand God more clearly and to interpret scripture more faithfully. At the end of last week's discussion several of you mentioned your preference for lively worship, which I completely understand. But there is much more at stake in the issue besides excitement levels.