Liba Hopeson
BTC, Pfutsero
[dropcap]A [/dropcap]well known scientist, Soren Kierkegaard said, while worshipping, all the worshippers are participants, and there is only one audience – God. It is very much true. However, most of us tend to think that only those who take active parts in worship are the real participants, and those who sit and listen or watch are not. According to me, due to lack of this understanding, the way we worship God go wrong in many ways.Since God is the audience, our focus of worship is often human centred, not God centred. I mean, we are not much concerned about how the real audience (God) is looking at us and watching us, but our concern is more on how the congregation who are also the participants in worship, observe and judge us. So, to gain impression becomes one of the main aims in our participation. That is the reason we use different ideas so that what we do in worship service will be impressive and attractive.
After the worship service, when we receive thanks, appreciations and praises, we feel happy and good. Rarely, we think and ask, whether what have performed is acceptable to the real and only audience, God. Therefore, we have wrong motive often in worship. I don’t mean to say that we need not keep our eyes on the congregation or give importance to them. All the elements of worship need to be emphasized. But, I believe, if the audience, God, accepts our performance or participation, the passive participants (the congregation) will also do.
I feel that, in our worship, over-emphasis on the congregation, who are also the participants in actuality, make our performance unacceptable in the sight of God – the real audience. And, since the congregation fail to understand that they are also the participants in worship, they make many unhealthy judgments which distort the true meaning of worship. If we are well reminded and are conscious that the only audience is God, the true sense of worship will prevail in a better way. Moreover, there will be acceptance, both by the real audience, God, and the passive participation, the congregation.
When I project this notion, some may disagree and argue that, if the congregation accepts our performances, God will also accept, but it’s not true always. One simple reason is, most of the time human beings look at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart. So the logic of my argument is that if God accepts our performances in worship, the congregation will also accept.
Thus, those who are God-centred in worship are also human-centred. If we say that some are only thinking of God and not the congregation, the thoughts they have on God is definitely wrong. For those who have interest in God while worshiping, have interest in the congregation too. Hence, we need to rethink and ask, whether our focus while worshipping is on impression or acceptance, and change if we have been going wrong.
Indeed, we cannot bring change or impact the congregation with our own power and strength. It is made possibly only with the help of God. As I think about impression and impact in worship, I observe that, many are normally impressed, but not impacted. Impression in the real sense is not a negative connotation, but in worship, it may not be healthy always. Through impressions, there will be praise, appreciation and thank to the speakers, singers and any performers on stage. But in reality, those who give thanks, appreciations and praises might not have benefited or changed. Once, after the service, a woman went and shook the hand of the speaker with a thankful heart, and appreciated him for his sermon. She told the preacher that his sermon was very interesting and challenging.
So, the preacher asked her, can you tell me something you have learned. She stuttered and replied, actually, it was really all good, but I don’t remember any point in particular. This is what I mean being impressed, not impacted. In our Church today, we are overly conscious about impression, but less concerned about impact. A person who is impacted may not declare that sermon or song or skit was good, but the outcome will be reflected on his/her change of attitude and lifestyle.
Impact comes with the help of God and thus any performance which gives impact is done with God. However, frequently, we are interested in impression. When we sing, pray, speak and perform anything, we often think of how the people in the congregation look at us, think about our performance and give judgment. The vocabularies we use, styles of speaking, singing and performing often portray our target on impressing the congregation. As we become more and more conscious on impression, without our realization, our liveliness in God and spirituality gradually dies down. If we have been worshipping God with wrong motives, it is the need of the hour to consider this matter seriously and change our way of worship.
Impact takes place with the power of God. So, I strongly believe that if we are interested in impact while participating in the worship service, we also don’t forget the idea of acceptance of our worship by God, the only audience. Mostly, our worship revolves around these three – impression, acceptance and impact. And I opine that, today, we are over-conscious about impression, and we are less concerned about acceptance and impact.
In this write-up, I don’t intend to bring in detail the idea and meaning of worship, but in our context, worship is also like mainly sharing the burdens, pains, sufferings and problems to God, which is not primary in worship. Some are of the view that throwing our burdens to God in worship is not important. Some don’t completely deny its importance, but opine that these are secondary. As I observe, majority of the worshippers in our Church today, consider worship as laying down their burdens to God. Evidently, we are too much into it.
That’s how we distort the real meaning of worship. Worship is literally, “ascribing to God”. It means adoring, praising and thanking God. But, what is primary in worship is not often emphasized and practiced. I believe that we can have a better sense of worshipping God if we remember Kierkegaard’s statement – all the worshippers are participants and the only audience is God.
