I was reading through the ads in my email, and one from Musicademy.com caught my eye. I was intrigued by the question so I read through everyone’s posts and decided to add my 2 cents. It turned into a rather long posting and I thought it would be a great addition to the church worship blog here, since I took so long to write it, I am posting it here.
Are Moving Visuals during worship Distracting or Helpful? Discernment and Yet freedom of expression: I agree that moving visuals behind images requires discernment. Not using them at all, though, in order to focus on the words, … Why even sing them at all? Indeed, there have been movements to restrict singing, or restrict it to a cappella, or to just familiar tunes … all so that the music doesn’t distract from the message. All of these seem to contradict the basic spirit of Psalm 150 … “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” There are layers of meaning and expression that singing offers us that just can’t be achieved in any other way. The same holds true for using instruments. There is an atmosphere that can be created with instruments that is hard to achieve any other way. There are things that I can say with the guitar or piano, or bass, or drums or lyre or harp or…. that are hard to express with the human body alone. That same thing is true of lighting, decorating and visual imagery. There is an emotional difference between an office flourescent tube and a candle lit dinner. They communicate, express, set the tone for different things. You may very well be able to read better in bright office lighting, but is that the atmosphere you want for reading a love poem to your wife? In the same way, we need to use all of the creative arts at our disposal in glorious extravagant worship of our King and Savior and Lover of our Souls! A few more thoughts though: Newness We are commanded to sing a new song. (Psalm 98:1) It is always distracting at first to do so. However, singing and doing something new speaks of the very character of God. He is the Great I AM. While we certainly should not be slaves to the “keeping up with the Jones’s” modern infatuation with the “new and improved”. We need a healthy balance. What are we saying about God if we only sing songs that were written hundreds of years ago? We certainly don’t want to lose our heritage either, which is why we aren’t told to “Only Sing New Songs!” We need a healthy influx of the new, and if at all possible Local! How cool is it to have a local testimony through song, even if it isn’t quite “AS GOOD” as the professional nashville songwriters or the tried and true classics. The content of the songs is NOT the only thing we need to be aware of. Singing a NEW song, says something about God. Singing a PERSONAL testimony of God’s work in our lives communicates something to the community too. Everything new is distracting at first. Every classic song was once a new song. Every classic instrument (guitar, piano, organ, drums, …) was once looked on with suspicion as that “new” instrument. Let us not be fearful or infatuated with the “new”, but walk a healthy balance. Context There are communities and contexts where I am sure it is wisest to simply sing from the hymnal or songbook, and times to just speak the words out loud together. Let us pray to God for wisdom to fit every situation, and yet the grace to allow others to do the same! Our situation At our church we put moving backgrounds behind most of the songs. We are careful to try to match songs with the right “atmosphere” kind of like you would the right lighting, or the right musical groove. This is art, not science, so it’s often a subjective thing with layers of better, even better, best of the limited choices we have. We usually provide printed song sheet handouts for those who have trouble reading. Sometimes we miss and there’s too much motion and it’s distracting. Sometimes we have people who are moved as much by the background as they are by the song. All talking about the same song even! As leaders we can’t and won’t make everyone happy. Let us ask God for divine wisdom as how to best make use of all the tools at our disposal in each situation with skilled hands and servant’s hearts. Solo Deo Gloria (To God alone be the glory) -jason So… Question Time: Tell me about a time that the visuals during worship were helpful or distracting, or your general opinion! Give me some feedback here! -jason
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