Worship themes: Multisensory (PT 3)
We’re getting close to the end of our discussion on the themes of transformative worship.
If you want to review you can go back and look at Part 1 where we covered Trinitarian worship, recalling the major acts of redemption, ramifications of covenants in worship, and Christocentric worship.
Then in Part 2 we discussed communal and participatory worship. Let’s move on to wholistic and multisensory worship.
Wholistic and multisensory worship
When we begin thinking about experiencing worship, we often overlook two major theological principals: creation of the material world as a place of worship and creation of our bodies to experience and use during worship.
The created world and worship
When you begin to look at the environments that God created for the purpose of worship, you see that there is a theme. This theme begins in the garden, then proceeds through the tabernacle and temple, and culminates in the new garden city at the end of time.
The ancient middle eastern mind would have had a vivid picture to pull from when the idea of a garden was verbalized. Kings would often create their own personal oasis in the middle of these desert environments. They would go to great lengths to bring water, lush vegetation, fruit bearing plants, and trees gathered together to make their own slice of paradise in a harsh world. These gardens were a wonder of creation in the middle of a world filled with dust and deserts.
So when they heard the story of God’s creation, they already had a picture in their mind of beauty and pleasure. However, God’s story was infinitely larger and more beautiful than anything they had experienced.
Unlike the kings of that time who mobilized hundreds or thousands of people to create their gardens, our kingly God simply speaks, and the garden springs into reality. This garden is abundant with life and with resources. There’s water flowing all around it. There are abundant precious minerals and gold. There are fruit trees with plenty of food to be consumed.
God did not create a world of blacks, whites, and greys. He could have. Instead, he created a brilliant world, bursting with colors and variation.
He could have created a world where food had no taste or just one flavor, just enough to keep us alive. Instead, he made food both pleasing to the eye and pleasurable to the palette.
As we move through the biblical story, even after humanity is banished from the garden because of their sin, God continues to create places of beauty and abundance for the purpose of meeting with his people.
The tabernacle and temple were smaller versions of the garden of Eden. Decorated with rich materials and surrounded by images of fruit and nature, the smells of sacrifices and incense were constantly wafting around in worship. All of the symbols and rituals of the temple were designed to engage the senses and bring to memory what had been lost in the garden. They were also pointing us to where God would take us in the end.
The garden city of Revelation is God renewing and completing this present world, then uniting it with heaven. The garden of earth and the city of God are conjoined. There are images of a great river, trees, abundant fruit existing alongside streets, walls, and buildings which sparkle as if they were made from precious materials.
Our bodies and worship
It was God’s intention for us to experience all the beauty and wonder of this world together with him in the beginning, in the end, and in between.
He created our eyes with the ability to see light, dark, color, shades, and depth.
He made our skin to experience touch, textures, temperature, tingles, caresses, and embraces.
He designed our mouths to be able to taste sweet, salty, savory, and bitter flavors, along with combinations of these flavors in the same meal.
Then we were given noses! We’re able to smell fragrant things like flowers and perfume, woody resinous things like pine trees and cut grass, fruity smells like lemons and oranges, minty smells like eucalyptus, sweet smells like vanilla, toasted and nutty smells like popcorn and peanut butter, chemical smells like ammonia and bleach, pungent smells like smoke or blue cheese, or decayed smells like rotting meat or sour milk.
He gave us ears that can hear the slight whistle of wind through the trees and the complex tones of music and symphonies. We can appreciate the sound of birds, as well as the tone of voice in a conversation.
He placed all these senses in the human body and made them work together to create experiences like standing in the rain, or going to a concert.
God created our bodies to experience the beauty and wonder of this world, so that we would thank him for these gifts. Then he calls us to use them to worship him.
Considerations for worship:
Sight
Light and dark: When are the lights up and on, when are they off during the service? How does this affect the feeling of the space? Does the dark feel more intimate, or isolating? Does the light increase distraction or enhance a sense of connection with others? How might an experience of dark or light take a spiritual reality and make it felt physically? Are we using lighting technology to create beauty, or does it feel like we’re doing it because it’s trendy?
Colors: The use of certain colors for certain times of the year, or to illustrate spiritual concepts, has a deep and long history in Christian worship. Black can be associated with sin, death, despair, and loss. It’s often used on Good Friday. Red is linked to blood and sacrifice. Blue tends to be associated with sadness, longing, winter, and coolness. Purples can be used to evoke the concepts of royalty and the kingdom, and are often used around Easter. There are a lot of ways that theme colors can be incorporated, whether it is in sermon series graphics or fabrics draped on crosses.
Symbols, icons, and art: Art has a bit of a complicated history in the Church because of the fear of idolatry. However, as people created in the image of God, we have creativity wired into us. God gave us the arts and artists to help us engage in worship. I love finding out who the visual artists are in the local church and asking them to create works of art. Sometimes it’s based around a sermon text. One of my favorite experiences with art was inviting the church’s artists to create works of art based on the stations of the cross. Additionally, Christianity is full of symbols that teach us about God and the Christian life: the cross, baptism, a shepherd’s staff, fire, the empty tomb, and so much more.
Text to reality: I remember visiting a church where they were preaching Psalm 1. To illustrate the destiny of those who don’t choose God and his ways, they had a basket full of wheat. They tossed the wheat in the air and you could see the dust and chaff blow away. It was a powerful way of taking an image in the biblical text and actually demonstrating it. The image and message stuck with me 15 years later. Another way I have seen this done was when talking about the Passover. The church had built a door frame on which red paint was painted. What about setting a table on stage to talk about hospitality, or preaching from the baptistry to discuss why God has called us to be baptized?
Smell
Incense: Some liturgical churches and orthodox churches utilize this as part of their regular experience of worship. In most modern churches, however, use of incense could be a powerful and new opportunity to help our people learn about God. For example, on Good Friday we hear about the body of Jesus being wrapped in myrrh. I have participated in a worship experience where incense sticks of myrrh were burned before the service. When you walked in, you couldn’t miss the smell. It gave the impression of being present with the followers of Jesus as they prepared Jesus for his burial. In Psalm 141:2, David talks about how our prayer is like incense, going up before God. It is both a visual image of our prayers rising to God, but also that its smell is pleasing to God and is able to cover the smell we typically associate with our sin and shame.
Bread and wine: It was impossible for the early church to smell bread and taste wine and not think about Jesus, Passover, and communion. God took ordinary food and drink, and made it into a physical way of experiencing his love and commitment to us. I have heard of churches baking bread before the service begins. I know it depends on the church environment, but I prefer to use actual bread rather than communion wafers.
Illustrations: The Bible is full of smells. The problem we often experience is that we read “about” these smells, but don’t “experience them”. The smells then remain “head knowledge”. One way to bridge this gap is by taking a smell which is mentioned in a text from the Bible and help people actually smell it for themselves. For example, a pastor was teaching on the woman who worshipped Jesus by breaking her jar and anointing Jesus’ feet. They brought a jar that was full of a scented liquid. When they broke the jar and poured the liquid into a bowl, you could smell it throughout the sanctuary.
Taste
Communion: Communion is the most common way of integrating our sense of taste into worship. There are a number of ways to increase the impact of communion by using our sense of taste. I’ve mentioned that using real bread is my preference. The experience of the texture in your mouth is significantly different than the experience of tasting a wafer. Additionally, the amount of bread can also communicate truth. When we give people a piece of bread instead of a tiny square, it helps us experience a sense of God’s abundance and how much he provides, verses a small hint of a taste. A way of varying the experience even more is to encourage having a cup for the bread to be dipped in. This can reinforce the idea of body and blood together in Jesus. Lastly, and this may be a little controversial depending on the church background, but using actual wine can have a poignant impact. Actual wine can have both a sweetness and a bitterness to it. This gives an experience of remembering both the sweet love of Jesus as well as the bitterness of the pain of crucifixion. If your desire is to care for those who may have a struggle with alcohol, you may choose to have two stations set up from which to take communion, one with alcohol and one with an alcohol alternative.
Illustrations: What if we were to provide honey packets when we teach on the psalm that says God’s words are sweeter than honey (Psalm 119:103)? You could use horseradish sauce to illustrate the bitterness and harshness of being in slavery to sin.
Feel
Fabric: Keeping with the idea of using various elements to help us experience scripture more fully, and enter into the reality that it represents, we can use fabric in a number of ways. You could use sackcloth and have squares of it available to pass out to people as they enter. You could have them hold it and imagine wearing it as a way of expressing sorrow for sin and the pain and discomfort that sin causes both us and others. Maybe you could pass out squares of linen that have a small cut in the middle, and on Good Friday direct people to tear the cloth and identify with the guards who stripped Jesus and shamed him.
Water: I absolutely love the feel of water on my skin. It has been beautiful to do a service designed around remembering and renewing our commitment to Jesus by having people come forward and put their hand in the baptistry. As they place their hands in the water, they are encouraged to remember the feeling of being forgiven. They can then ask Jesus to help them live out their commitment to him.
Human contact: Most churches have gotten rid of the “welcome time”. While most are quite happy about it, it’s important that we consider the lack of touch we experience in society. Most of us are longing to experience the power of a hug, or of someone placing their hand on our shoulder and showing us we are not alone. Holding hands with others in prayer is a beautiful expression of unity and love. We must always be cognizant of those who are uncomfortable with physical contact, but it’s important to realize that Jesus regularly touched others as a sign of love, friendship, and connection.
Sound
Environmental: Imagine watching a movie with no sound and only subtitles. That’s often what we do when we read the Bible. We can see the images in our heads and we recognize the dialogue, but the impact of the environment and music are completely missing. It’s just not as effective. When we teach the Bible, how much more powerful is it when we can help immerse people in the sound of what they’re hearing about? When teaching about Pentecost, think about setting up a huge fan to remind the congregation of the rushing wind? When talking about Good Friday, we could use the sound of coins jingling, or a rooster crowing, or a fire crackling, or a hammer hitting a nail.
Silence: The power of music is not only in the notes, but in the space between the notes. The rests and silence make the sounds even more poignant. When you read the psalms, the word “selah” regularly shows up. It is thought to be a pause of some kind. It is a break in the song to absorb what came before it and what is coming next. Silence in our worship services serve the same purpose. We need silence to absorb what we’ve already experienced. We need silence to help us be ready and receptive to what’s coming next. We need silence because often that’s where God likes to say what we’ve been needing to hear.
Posture: Has it ever felt strange that we can read or sing things like falling or bowing down in worship while remaining standing? Is is disingenuous to read scriptures where it talks about dancing, clapping, and shouting in a church that doesn’t do any of those things? This isn’t meant to be a criticism; it’s more of an observation. As someone who grew up with a disconnect between my mind and my body, I have found it extremely powerful to begin learning what it feels like to worship God with my whole body. I think it’s time to recapture what it means to worship and pray with hands held up high or out and open, to kneel and to dance (even though I’m a really bad dancer), to clap and shout out loud with an “amen” or “hallelujah”. If we’re people of the book, then I’m sure that doing the body actions described in the book could have a big impact.
Let’s look at the last two themes in transformative worship in our next article.
