the susie solution

Long, long ago at a college far, far away I got a degree in early childhood education.  The idea of learning modalities was still fairly new – the concept of there being different ways that we learn.  Most of us by now are quite familiar with the basic ones:  auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.  For centuries, teaching meant assigning rote memorization.  Kids who could memorize well were smart; kids who couldn’t were dunces.  That was simply how teaching – and learning – was done. The concept that people learn in different ways, and that each of those ways is perfectly valid, brought about a sea-change in the teaching profession; yes, the concept meant that ALL kids now had a greater chance of getting to learn, but it also meant that teachers had to learn how to TEACH differently, too.  It takes a lot more effort to teach every lesson in multiple ways – especially in ways that the teacher herself may not relate to.

Something similar to this concept, applied to relationships, was introduced some years ago in a book by Gary Chapman called The Five Love Languages.  The idea is that each person both perceives and expresses love in one of five “languages”.  One is giving gifts, one is doing acts of service, one is speaking words of praise, one is spending time, and … I forget the other.  (Must not be my language!)  It is not the intention of expressing love that is most critical, but whether or not the object of that love actually perceives it as such.  If your language is spending time, but someone instead gives you lots of gifts, you will not feel loved.  Since we all tend to express love in the way we would most like to receive it, it takes effort to learn to recognize and appreciate love being expressed in ways other than our own language.  The highest expression of love is to learn to speak another’s language, foreign to us as it may be.

All of which leads me to: worship music, of course.

A few months ago, our Sunday morning service was enlivened by the participation of the Spanish-speaking church that uses our building on Sunday afternoons.  We combined our worship teams, singing songs in both English and Spanish.  Those of us who understand both languages had a great time singing along with heart and soul.  Those in the congregation who speak only one or the other language could enjoy any of the music, but they could join their voices and their “amen” only when the words were ones they could understand.   God was just as glorified by any of it – but it was not the same worship experience for all.  Single-language speakers were able to be fully engaged ONLY when the singing was in their own language.  They spent the service alternating between being participants and being just an audience.

There’s a difference.  Perhaps sometimes when people say they don’t get anything “out of” a particular style of service, what they really mean is that they don’t feel like they are able to put anything IN to it because it’s not in their “language”, as it were.  They may go about expressing that disconnect in a manner that is not helpful, but simply dismissing them isn’t the answer.  We accept individuality in virtually every other area of life.  Why not in worship, as well?  Why are we so afraid of, or dismissive of, or angry about, the fact that not everyone finds every worship song or worship style to be something that they can be fully engaged in???

Worship is about God, it’s true – but worship is not some disembodied, amorphic activity that somehow takes place without involving the participation of the worshipper.  A bow may be used to play a snare drum, but the sound will hardly compare with the rich tones that same bow will obtain when used to play a violin.  Drumsticks may tap on a saxophone, but you’ll get better music by blowing into the mouthpiece.  We worship most fully when we worship as God, in His infinite creativity, designed us, with all the individuality that may entail.

What if we approached corporate worship like a classroom teacher whose focus is on helping the greatest number of students understand the lesson – turning our focus to trying to enable the greatest portion possible of our congregations to have some opportunity to be fully engaged in worship?  No congregation can be all things to all its members, but surely many of our congregations can do better.

It’s hard, because it means giving consideration to ALL of the “each others” in our congregations.  It requires humility by all involved, because love does not demand its own way.  Those in the majority need to be willing to go out of their comfort zone in order to give others some opportunity to speak their own worship language.  For those in the minority, while it is perfectly appropriate to ask for an opportunity for their worship needs to be met, no matter what the answer is, they should be prepared to do whatever they can to support the majority in their worship.  We thus can express our love for God – can glorify Him – can worship Him – in honoring each other’s worship language.

Paul told the believers in Rome, in chapter 14, “One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike.  Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind.  The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.  The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God.  For none of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself.”

It’s all about our heart for each other.  We can’t worship God in Spirit and in Truth while we’re cold-shouldering each other over whose music or style is the most God-centric or most Spirit-ual or most Truth-full.

We may worship the Lord with old traditional hymns accompanied by a single piano, or with a modern worship song consisting of two verses, a chorus, and a bridge, all repeated a dozen times, accompanied by a full rock band at volumes that could be heard over a jet engine.  We may sing only Psalms, and acapella at that.  We may use hymnbooks or three-story-high big screen projections.  We may lift our hands and dance and clap, or we may sit sedately.  There is no one “right” way to worship, but tearing each other down, and disrespecting each other’s worship language is most certainly wrong.

To God be the glory – no matter what worship we use!