Contemporary Worship and the Performer’s Burden

Guest Post by Charles Jacobi

The contemporary worship so widespread today is often accompanied by lights, screens, and other strobes that all form the stage into the epicenter of attention. By design, the congregation is led to follow a select few from a distance—the performers—in lieu of the intimate, participatory nature of regulated worship. A chasm splits the observing congregation and performers in this contemporary scene.

Among Christians who enjoy its regulated counterpart, there is consensus contemporary worship is detrimental to the congregation facing the stage for the aforementioned reasons. Such is rightly agreed on. But, we should consider how contemporary worship affects the performers as well. The members on stage may suffer the most, albeit gone unnoticed by many. Their burden might be concealed on the surface though the observant eye will notice the performers never fail to be emotive. They have few bleak moments, less during dramatic songs demanding sentimental mannerisms. The pressure to manufacture expressions with the repeated choruses and mood-setting strobes must be great under the crowd’s gaze. Everything points to the stage.

This is not to say some performers could be sincere in their expression throughout the entire service, as some are surely capable, but to suppose every gleaming mannerism on stage is backed by genuine emotion is untenable. Here is where the contemporary culprit lies.

The performers do not bear the brunt of the error, and, indeed, church members should stray from ingenuine expression during worship, but the contemporary environment’s design pressures the performers into doing so. Individuals in the crowd may not reserve explicit expectations for the performers. But the performers will feel implicit expectations, then pressured to generate an outward passion to satisfy the crowd lest they appear unspiritual. The architecture of the worship is to blame. It can be exhausting, at times heart-wrenching, to watch the members on stage satisfy their demands.

By consequence, the performers are coerced to worship with a feigned heart. Every Lord’s Day their elated passion is expected, but, there is no guarantee the performers will be in the state to do this. The emotions of the Christian life are not static. Far from it. Perhaps their souls desire to lament, or, instead of brimming with passion, the performers could be tranquil in reflection. Maybe they yearn to cast their daily anxieties at the foot of Christ. Far from stage-worthy these are. These emotions undoubtedly felt during their lives must be bottled. On Sundays, the performers mustn’t cease to mask them, and inner turmoil abounds because of this. One must wonder when they last experienced a Sabbath rest. This is all the while the observing congregation can express their genuine, unpressured emotion be it lamentation or otherwise.

What of the homogenous singing and liturgy in regulated worship? Doesn’t it, too, bottle the corporate body’s emotion during worship? One could object the environment’s reverence and uniformity cripples genuine emotion on the same token as the contemporary environment. But, here, the attention is pointed towards God. Not a select group. The uniformity of regulated worship diverts attention away from the individuals. Thus, the homogeneity may appear to dampen emotions at first glance, yet, it is freeing.

Everyone, equally, is spared from the demands—demands provided via public attention—of contemporary worship by taking the form of one body. The individual is cloaked, tucked away in the corporate. Such is one of the many beauties of the regulative principle. If performers in the contemporary worship so common today failed to signal their passion one Sunday their fellow church members would remember it for weeks. If someone broke down in lamentation in a regulated service, most of the corporate would fail to notice. And those who might would not bat an eye.

Thus, the regulated worship has equal weights and measures for each individual in the congregation. Unequal demands abound in the contemporary scene. A perception of “I must perform” is bestowed on a select group, which, as I’ve explained, comes with emotional repression, while an observing group is spared. Consequences arise when we point to anything but God during worship. Not only does our worship become unfit when we do, but we end up inflicting ourselves in the process.

Charles is a PhD student at Texas Tech University, studying neuroscience. His writings have appeared in Lubbock-Avalanche Journal, WrongSpeak.net, and American Pigeon. He often writes about Christian life, culture, and politics.