Why just music?

Why has our culture of Christianity turned worship into merely music? Sure, we preach about living a lifestyle of worship, but do any of us really know what that looks like? I’m barely beginning to figure it out. When it comes down to church worship services, it feels like music is the narrow path that churches are herding us down.

I love music. I get why music has become the be-all end-all of worship. Music is an emotional experience. It reaches down into our hearts and tugs at our emotions. It causes us to feel things that some of us didn’t know was possible. In my experience, a song can capture an emotion that I’ve been feeling. It puts struggles into words when I just can’t possibly seem to do it. I can finally feel at peace when my feelings/struggles/etc have been so perfectly captured by another in song.

So it makes sense that music has become the picturesque way for us to worship God. Songs capture the emotions we want to express to God. They’re an avenue to get at that worship.

What about people that don’t have that emotional connection with music? I remember reading a comment on the blog Stuff Christians Like one day. I wish I could remember the exact blog so I could give credit to the commenter and quote him exactly. It was a really thoughtful comment. Here was the gist of it:

I don’t connect with the music part of worship in church. I’m just not a musical person and it’s not something I relate to. I just sit and wait for the music to be over before I can engage in the service.

This is sad to me. How many people are being left out because music is not the best way for them to worship? What other ways is the church reaching out to them?

Years ago, my church started a new service. It thought outside the box and didn’t always use the typical worship formula. It was a sensory service and tried to engage all of the senses in worship, not just the ears. Graphics were used throughout the sermons to engage the eyes (this helps me tremendously to stay focused). “Giveaways” were used some weeks to engage touch. One week we talked about Jesus being the Living Water, and everyone walked out with a water bottle. Another week we talked about being washed clean and everyone was given a bar of soap. We even engaged the sense of smell. While talking about Jesus being the Bread of Life, bread machines were strategically placed, causing tummies to rumble all throughout the service.

One week, I unfortunately missed, but heard about from others. A local artist was invited to come. While music softly played in the background, she painted a picture. Everyone watched as the visual interpretation of her worship came to life.

Worship is more than music, so how can we incorporate that? Any ideas?