This past Sunday, Pastor Jack talked about our first and foremost core value as a church: Upholding Biblical Integrity.
This value flavors all of our ministries, including our worship ministry. One of the ways it flavors our worship ministry is through a value that we state this way: theology before feeling.
I have seen two extremes in worship.
I’ve witnessed worship that had very little content lyrically, but the music was full of slow and steady crescendos and decrescendos that got people excited and emotional. After 15 minutes of worship we had sung a total of 4 sentences and people’s emotions were off the charts!
I’ve also witnessed worship where people were so keenly aware of possibly having their emotions manipulated by music that they resisted any inkling of emotion while they were singing!
I’ve heard people say, “I love the way worship makes me feel.” Conversely, I served at a church for some time where we loved God with all our minds really well, but we weren’t so great at loving God with our heart, soul, and strength.
Our value of Theology Before Feeling means we don’t choose songs just because of a feeling. We scrutinize our song repertoire with diligence. We make sure that we are worshipping in Spirit and Truth as John 4:23-24 says.
We make sure our songs uphold Biblical integrity.
There are some new songs we don’t sing because they are simply too vague, there are lyrics we have changed because they were misleading, and there are some verses of old hymns we have taken out because they are not true. Many of our newer songs are also very rich in theology or taken directly out of Scripture.
Thank you to the many of you who have taken notice of our commitment to singing truth and expressed your appreciation for it!
We also recognize that truth set to beautiful music can deeply affect our emotions.
You’ve probably all witnessed me struggle to sing or pray because I’m so overwhelmed by the truth of the gospel. Our feelings are not evil; they can deceive us, but when worship through song moves us because of truth, let’s allow the affections of our hearts to be stirred!
It’s not theology as opposed to feeling, it’s theology before feeling.
This coming Sunday we’ll be diving into our second core value: Pursuing Authentic Community. Whether in person or virtually, I look forward to being with you!
- Pastor Kyle
[Editor’s note] PS: We will be celebrating communion together as we study pursuing authentic community this Sunday. So, if you are planning to join us from home, make sure to have some bread and juice handy when you sit down to watch the service!