Glenn Packiam explores emotional expressiveness in worship:

I. Why do Emotions Matter?
Contemporary worship is framed within a paradigm of encounter: we gather to sing and to meet with God. In fact, many scholars have remarked that in charismatic worship, singing is the place of encounter. It ought to be noted, however, that Christian worship has in one sense always been about an encounter, which historically was God meeting us in the bread and wine.

The paradigm of encounter is significant because encounter involves emotion. What we mean in modern worship when we say that we ‘encountered God’ is that we were able to truly expressour hearts to Him and that we are somehow in a mysterious way able to experience His presence. Both expression and experience have emotional qualities to them. This is not to see that they are solely emotional; only that they include and perhaps even rely upon emotion in order to occur.

Thus a worship paradigm of encounter places emotion as a key player in the process. The question, then, is not so much whether or not worship ought to be emotionally expressive, but rather, what sort of emotional expression is appropriate—and, furthermore, who decides?

II. Emotion as Perception and Motivation
First, we briefly explore what emotions are, beginning with what emotions are not. Emotions are not moods. Moods have no object; they are undirected feelings. Emotions are aimed at something.

That’s why Bob Roberts (Baylor) argues that emotion is a kind of perception—it is a way of seeing the world. Based on a concern, we construe a situation in a particular way. If you had hoped to go on a picnic (your ‘concern’), you will see the rain (your ‘construal’) as a negative thing. But if you were nervous (your ‘concern’) about wildfires in the summer, you will see the rain (your ‘construal’) as a blessing. The emotion—either of disappointment in the first example, or of relief in the second—is a clue to your construal and, deeper down, to your grounding or orienting concern. So emotions are ‘interpretative perceptions’; they help make sense of a situation. However, emotions also have a kind of ‘perceptual immediacy’—they happen some times before we realize why, pre-reflectively.

Emotions are not just a way of seeing; they are a reason for doing. They are not simplyperceptional; they are motivational. Because they are concern-based, they are affected by what the subject cares about and can move the subject to ‘action in a way that is suggested by the concern that is basic to the emotion’ and ‘along the particular way of construing the situation that the emotion involves’ (Roberts).

Ashley Null summed up Thomas Cranmer’s (and indeed, many of the Reformers’) anthropology this way: ‘What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies.’

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Bob Kauflin highlights areas that might be problematic:

1. Pastors, not worship leaders, will give an account to God for the people in their church. (Heb. 13:17)
Pastors are ultimately responsible for the teaching and song diet of the church.
Pastors should know in advance what songs will be sung, and should play a part in choosing them.
If you want a pastor’s trust, you’ll have to earn it.

2. God’s Word to us matters more than our words to God. (Is. 66:2; Ps. 19:7-11)
Music ministry is Word ministry.
Don’t underestimate the value of proclaiming God’s Word passionately.
Seek to know your Bible better than your instrument.
Lead us to sing the Word, hear the Word, see the Word, and pray the Word.

3. We are what we sing. Therefore, choose our songs and lyrics wisely. (Col. 3:16)
You are discipling the congregation through your song choices and words.
For better or worse, our churches will remember more words from our songs they sing than from the sermons they hear.
Build a repertoire of songs that enable us to express the many varied aspects of God’s glory and the many appropriate responses, and make sure we’re singing them.

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Allen Paul says those of us that love God must have a resource beyond our music alone.

And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. – 1 Samuel 16:23 (KJV)

How shall we sing the LORD’S song in a strange land? – Psalm 137:4 (KJV)

In times of tragedy and loss, musicians and artists are asked to use their gifts to comfort the brokenhearted. We bring our songs, our art, our expressions to people in pain to give them a sense of peace.6070931149_864b5f9b0b_z

But what if the artist feels the same pain?

Does a song bring adequate solace to the singer? Can a performance bring peace to the musician?

Sometimes, the music is not enough. Those of us that love God must have a resource beyond our music alone. There are three places we can run to.

1. The Christ. No matter how deep the pain or loss, Jesus promises to be near to the brokenhearted. An artist must find comfort in the One that can comfort all hearts. We can not give solace to others if we don’t know the Savior’s love for ourselves. If you don’t draw from your own well of worship, your vessel will run dry while tending to the hurts of others.

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Hillsong Worship says bringing big creativity to smaller services is always a challenge.

Have you ever found yourself saying, “We can’t do that”...

…“if only we had more people/resources.”

…“we don’t have enough budget.”

…”that would never work here.”

Bringing big creativity to smaller services is always a challenge. You might think that you don’t have enough people, resources, budget, etc. to achieve what you envision… if so, then you’re just like us!  As our Pastor Brian always says, “We’ll always have more vision than resources!”

People often assume that in our worship team at Hillsong Church, these problems don’t exist and every weekend looks like a Hillsong Conference or album recording. We have incredible services and events in our larger campuses every week, and these run alongside many smaller services that carry the same heart and culture on a different scale. Like most worship teams, the challenge we face every week is how to bring thriving creativity and powerful worship to our church services, with much less resources than in a congregation of thousands. Fortunately, this challenge often becomes the breeding ground for ingenuity and resourcefulness.

So what does that look like? We definitely don’t have all the answers, but here are a few practical strategies that might be helpful for you and your team!

1. Work with what you have

What’s in your hand right now? 

In Matthew 25, Jesus tells the Parable of the Talents, and teaches us the importance of doing the best we have with what we’ve been given.

“Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much.” (Matt 25:21 ESV)

Looking to larger teams as an example is a great way to set goals and stretch, but there are times when smaller churches simply don’t have the same resources, so the final outcome will look a bit different. It’s in these times that you must consider what’s in your hand at that moment. For example, your team might not have any keyboard players, but you might have a great cellist or violinist. You might not have any electric guitarists, but you might have an incredible banjo player.

All this to say, your smaller team doesn’t need to look exactly the same as a larger one to carry the same level of excellence. When we allow creativity to overcome our desire to simply copy, we can shape unique, God-breathed services that outwork His specific purpose for each of our teams. Take a look at your own team. What are its strengths? Begin to build on those strengths and you will grow a stronger team. It sounds simple, but it is so easy to overlook areas that could be built on because we are trying to have exactly the same look and feel as another team.

Your team is unique, as is any other team. Allow God to work through youruniqueness to build a team that best serves your congregation.

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Chris Gill says one of the most powerful, yet underrated tools on a mixing console is the mute button.

One of the most powerful, yet underrated tools on a mixing console is the mute button. While that may sound odd, I’ve had more issues getting volunteers to use it correctly than just about anything else. At this point you’re thinking I’m a nit-picking, perfectionist nut job… and you’re right. So what’s the big deal? It’s just a button. You push it on. You push it off. That’s exactly how most church sound techs view it, and they’re missing out on the larger subtext. So I decided to create a list of mute procedures to help you grow as a sound engineer.

If the channel is not in use, make sure it’s muted.

This may seem like a no-brainer, but I’ve been in several situations where the music is over, the worship team has left the stage, but the channels remain open. There’s nothing harmful about leaving channels un-muted, it’s just not a good practice. If you have a worship leader, three to six background vocals, six drum microphones, a couple of mic’d guitar amps, area mics for the choir, plus an army of SM57’s and SM81’s for the orchestra… you have a LOT of sources capturing and amplifying audio that don’t need to be. Let’s say the pastor is speaking and something starts ringing. If the pastor’s mic is the only channel open, you won’t waste time wondering if it’s one of the other hundred microphones on stage.

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