One of the neat things about the Qs from the Pews series is that one good question leads to another.
Since the ‘Can Christian music cause an emotional response?’ message, I’ve had a few people ask what I meant by ‘artificial emotional responses to God.’ I’ll try to unpack that here.
‘Artificial emotional responses to God’
Admittedly, there is a lot going on in this phrase and it has a lot to do with the modifiers ‘artificial’ and ‘to God.’
To be sure, when someone (regardless of their religious conviction) experiences a thing of beauty, whether a song or painting or sunset, they may have a genuine emotional response (they are moved to tears, they get shivers or goosebumps or whatever). When people hear the Hallelujah chorus (Handel’s or Cohen’s) ;), they may genuinely be moved by the music. There’s nothing illegitimate about that – as people made in the image of God, we naturally respond to beauty and wonder and talent. Those are genuine, emotional responses to those artifacts, whatever they may be.
That’s also true for people who are actively following Jesus. When we witness something that is particularly moving, we may very well respond emotionally. The difference though is what exactly we are responding to. ‘Solid Christian music’ should help us to respond to God.
To take an example, some may respond emotionally to the haunting Celtic melody of Be Thou my vision, while others will respond to the God who is ‘our vision.’ The first group may be having a genuine emotional response, but if they’re responding to the music, rather than to the God it describes, then (in the language of the original question), it’s an ‘artificial emotional response to God.’ I suppose you could also put it this way – they are having a genuine emotional response to the music, but not to the God that it points to.
And that’s why this is an important question pastorally. One of the most basic dynamics in the Christian life is that ‘God acts and we respond.’ One of my most basic jobs as a pastor is to enable people to respond to the God who has acted in Creation and Salvation. And so my goal is to enable people to have opportunities for genuine emotional responses to God where through teaching and music and prayer, people are able to draw nearer to Him.
Let’s take one more example. Let’s say that someone comes to Christmas Eve at Langford and is moved to tears by the experience of hearing a whole congregation of people singing the carols that they grew up with.
Are they having a genuine emotional response? Yes, absolutely. Is there anything wrong with that? No, absolutely not.
Given that it’s a Christmas Eve service at Langford Church though, I think that we also need to ask ‘are they responding to God or are they responding to something else, say, the music or the nostalgia of it?’
To use the language of the original question, if they’re responding emotionally to the experience of hearing people sing traditional hymns in a cute little church building on Christmas Eve, that would be artificial emotional response to God.
What I would love as a pastor is to be able to point that person beyond the music and tradition of the moment to the God who inspired it so that they can experience and respond to Him specifically, rather than just the music.
And that does bring up an important point – a lot of this depends on how we CHOOSE to respond. I can see a beautiful sunset and be moved by the colours, but I can also choose to recognize that it points to a creative Creator and so choose to respond TO Him specifically. I can go to a big worship concert and be moved emotionally by the power of thousands of voices singing together, but I can also choose to make use of that artifact (corporate singing) to respond to God in genuine praise. I can fully admit that Christmas Eve at Langford is essentially ‘people singing traditional hymns in a cute little ‘candlelit’ church on Christmas Eve, and choose to respond to God through it.
Emotional responses are good; in church, emotional responses to God that draw us nearer to God are even better.
By all means, contact me if you have any other questions or want to explore this more!