Physical Expressiveness in Worship, 2 July 11, 2010
Last week Ifinally came right out and said it: a bald appeal for our whole congregation torespond to God in worship with every part of their being—mind, heart, andbody—with an unapologetic emphasis on the body. I’m emphasizing the body notbecause it is more important than theother parts of our being, but because it is sometimes more neglected,especially in our worship meetings. Since the Bible commends expressing worshipwith our bodies (which has been the subject of the last several columns), andsince we intend to be a church that is “Bible based,” it’s a topic worthreflecting on together. Plus, there are several other reasons for physical expressivenessin corporate worship.
First, God isglorified by our physical expressiveness. When God’s glory elicits a responsefrom every part of our being, we magnify His worth more than if our response isalways restricted to certain aspects of our being. To illustrate, when Iexpress my affection for my wife by holding her hand, I magnify her worth morethan if I just serve her by walking through the mall with her. Both forms oflove signal her worth; combined, they do so more powerfully. Our responses toGod ought to be gauged by His worthiness, not our own image, preferences, orthe actions of others around us.
Second, our bodyand our soul are inseparably linked. Our body responds to what our soul feels—forexample, greeting someone at the airport with a joyful hug, celebrating atouchdown with shouts and fist pumps, or honoring an outstanding performancewith spontaneous applause. In a healthy individual, heart, mind, will, and bodyall work together as God designed: one integrated personality. It would bestrange indeed if our worship services were the one place where our bodies wereforbidden to express what our minds are comprehending and our hearts arefeeling.
It is worth noting that this soul-body connectednessworks both ways. Sometimes our body responds to what our heart feels, andsometimes our heart responds to what our body does. In other words, we canencourage our own heart to feel somethingmore deeply by expressing ourselves physically. This is one of the greatbenefits of physical expression in corporate worship.
The relentlessbarrage of exhortation on this topic will continue next week. Stay tuned!