The Role Of The Arts In Worship

The arts in worship are never to dominate, intrude, or distract. They serve the action of worship and act as vehicles through which a communication between human beings and God takes place.

Worship renewalists recognize that the primary purpose of the worshiping assembly is to celebrate the saving acts of God through Christ. They also recognize that because God's work in Jesus Christ is directed toward the whole of creation, the worship of God is best experienced when the creation is symbolically set free to worship God in the context of the church's celebration. Consequently the arts, which use the materials of creation and are expressions in the image of God of God's creativity, may become avenues of communication through which God encounters worshipers. They in turn are enabled to respond to God. When music, drama, space, movement, color, furnishings, objects, and the environment of worship become vehicles through which an encounter with the message of God's salvation takes place, creation not only enables worship, but also sets worshipers free to worship. The Theological Basis The place of the arts in worship is grounded in the incarnation of God in Jesus. Essentially, the Incarnation means that God became part of creation, which had been disturbed by sin, in the womb of the virgin Mary. Bearing the fallen creation, God in Jesus died to destroy the power of death over creation and was raised to restore creation to newness of life (Rom. 8:18–22). Thus, the incarnation, death, and resurrection of Jesus restore the created order to its original state. Consequently, when the restorative work of God in Jesus is celebrated in worship, creation acts as a worthy vehicle for God's encounter with us. Even as God chose to encounter us in the flesh of the man Jesus, so God continues to use the physical, tangible, and concrete stuff of creation to encounter us. Thus the arts are vehicles of communication. The Arts as Vehicles of Communication The celebration of God's act of salvation in Christ is not and should never become a purely intellectual act. Worship is an experience that engages the whole person—body, mind, senses, imagination, emotions, and memory. Since the arts in particular communicate to these various aspects of the human person, they act as important vehicles of encounter. Redemption restores the whole creation and the whole person; both creation and persons are to be represented in worship. But the arts constitute an indirect rather than a direct form of communication. As a nonverbal language, they are forms of symbolic communication through which thoughts, feelings, and intuitions are conveyed. The arts touch us deep within the recesses of our being and elicit a response from the subconscious, irrational, and suprarational part of us. As such they deal with intuition, imagination, and emotion as well as with the thinking or will of the human person. Unlike words, which have ready-made meanings, the arts are more of a mine in need of exploration. The worshiper may not even be aware of the reality they communicate. Instead, an artistic expression may take root and grow as a seed, imperceptibly and quietly; yet it affirms the mystery of the gospel, strengthening the worshiping community as well as an individual's faith. Rules for Using the Arts in Worship All regulations for using the arts in worship need to reflect the communal nature of that activity. Worship is more than a congregation of individuals gathered for personal and private devotion. It is the public act of the church: the communal recollection of the mighty act of salvation done by God for the whole church and the world. Therefore, the arts serve the public act of worship. First, arts need to be characterized by simplicity. They should not to be attended by a multiplicity of words, which smother the symbolic action, nor should the actions of the arts be so complex that the message of the gospel they portray be hidden in symbolic clutter. Second, quality should characterize all arts used in worship. Musical works, dances, dramas, or banners, done in a shoddy or haphazard manner, reflect on the message they convey. Care should be taken in all forms of communication so that they express the beauty, the majesty, and the mystery of God. Third, art in worship needs to be appropriate for its task. It must be able to express its message in such a way that it does not interrupt the movement of worship (i.e., the rhythm of coming before God, hearing God speak, entering into intimate relationship with God at the Table, and being dismissed from worship). In sum, art serves the action of worship and is not independent of the structure of worship. The service of worship is a drama which recalls the saving act of God in Christ; it is a drama of praise and thanksgiving, an offering of prayer, and an envisioning of the coming kingdom of peace and justice. Consequently, art is never a performance within this drama, but an intricate part of the whole. Art provides a poetic imaginative means of conveying the drama of redemption for the community gathered to celebrate God's work in Christ.