So, anyway, I have been thinking lately about emotional manipulation and arts and how we have become so good as churches to manipulate people's emotions with arts - whether that be music or pictures, etc. As an artist myself, definitely not the drawing kind though, I really struggle with this. Because, of course, arts reach emotions and that is what speaks to people and moves them. But, are we going too far in using them to manipulate reactions?
I am just thinking about our now fancy power points to worship songs instead of the plain old overhead sheet with no color background and artsy picture included. I am also thinking of the little soft music that is almost a continual play during our services, our prayers and I have even seen churches that use it during announcements! Then, there is the typical picturesque slide show, or the 'raise money for missions while everyone cries' video which always includes a picture of a starving child and soft emotional music playing. Come on, anyone who's had a little bit of hard things on there minds would start bawling there eyes out through this video.
Is it really necessary to manipulate people like that into a reaction? I will tell you very honestly that I believe the church has become so desensitized to the presence of God that it can only feel it if soft music is playing in the background. The minute silence shows up everyone gets very awkward and doesn't know what to do. I also believe that we have become so selfish (I am speaking generally here, I know not everyone is like this and I know a lot of people that are EXTREMELY generous without even an inch of manipulation) that unless we are manipulated into a reaction, we won't do anything. I think this is very sad.
I think we shouldn't need to be manipulated into a reaction, and I don't think we need to be made aware of the presence of God. Isn't His presence always there in the first place? Why don't we acknowledge him there until after we have had a few songs to warm up? Why do we need to use the arts to help meet our own needs, when God has given us these gifts to glorify him? Shouldn't these gifts - music, drawing, dancing, painting, etc - be used to glorify God and not to help bring us closer to him?
I love the arts. I love using them in the church to express our relationship with God and draw us closer to Him and glorify Him. But, I always worry that instead of using it to glorify God I only use it to get what I need out of it. As if, if people cry that the presence of God is there and I was anointed that Sunday. It reassures me to see people react emotionally. And given our love for Pentecostal alter calls, I believe many pastors feel the same way.
I have the gift of making people cry I believe. Seriously, everytime I speak, everytime I do worship, everytime I make announcements(ok, that's not true, just sometimes), people cry. Even men cry (that's crazy, I know!)! Some Sundays I lead worship and honestly I know the songs will bring a reaction out of people. I honestly pick those songs because I know they will bring people to emotionnaly react. Isn't that terrible? Why am I so drawn by physical emotional reactions?
I have grown up in church where having 2-3 hour alter calls was a normal thing. But I have also been in so many of those services where I ask people who show physical emotional reaction what God is speaking to them or spoke to them through the message and they say, I don't know. I just feel like crying. I just can't stop crying. If God isn't speaking to you and you're just crying, then what's the point? I know you can find healing in the presence of God and sometimes just resting in Him is good, but I strongly believe that the kind of environment we create is what makes people "feel" like that. God can move in 20 minutes, so if he hasn't done anything by then... get over it. You're the one that is the problem. Not God. Crying for hours on end because of the soft music that is playing is not going to make things better.
Like I have said before, I long for an authentic move of the Spirit in my life and in our church. However, this longing means that I must NOT manipulate it. It should simply happen. And it might not happen as I want it too happen, or as you want it too happen. But, lets not try to recreate something that isn't real. Lets just be in the presence of God whether there is singing or quiet or blank screens or nice pictures. Lets react to what God tells us, not to what we feel.
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