Awaken Your Affections

There's been an ongoing conversation about what worship is supposed to be:

"Are we truly worshipping God, or are we doing it for ourselves?"

The debate centers around the kind of songs we sing, whether they are God-centered or man-centered, are they from honorable sources, are they singable for a congregation, etc. 

I have my views (some of them quite strong) on all of these topics, but there's an aspect of worship that gets ignored in favor of these debate points. 

And it comes to an essential part of experiencing God at a core, deep level—in your spirit, or in your affections. 

What Are Affections?

Affections, at a basic level, are feelings of fondness or to "like" something. It can also refer to the process of being affected by an outside influence. 

In Christianity (and religion/philosophy in general), affections are understood in much the same way. We have affection for God, and we are affected by God—which feeds our affections for Him, which leads us to be more affected, which leads to greater affections...

You get the idea. 

The theologian Jonathan Edwards arrived at his definition of affections by dividing our faculties (ways of thinking/feeling/doing) into "understanding" and "will." To put it [over]simply, "understanding" is the result of being affected by God, and in turn, we direct our "will" in the form of affections to Him. (If you want to get absolutely wrecked in your view of salvation and confirmation of faith, go read his book The Religious Affections. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!)

How Does Worship Affect Our... Affections?

(I know, the heading feels a bit repetitive—and it's only going to get worse from here 😅)

The worship service, where we gather together as God's people to give thanks, praise, and requests to God and in turn, we receive the truth from His Word and means of grace by taking the sacraments, is an opportunity for affections to be awakened, both as a process and a result. 

The emotional side of affection is the one that is greatly ahem AFFECTED by the musical portion of the worship service. And since music greatly influences affections, we often confuse its role in relation to the Holy Spirit. 

I've written about it before, but there's a moving of emotion during musical worship that I think gets misappropriated to the moving of the Holy Spirit. I make the analogy that worship musicians use dynamics, texture, tone, melody, harmony, and rhythm much in the same secular musicians do, and both musics are moving, emotionally speaking. 

So when someone says, "The Spirit really moved today," I think it oversimplifies what we are experiencing, and as as a result, it adversely affects (😏) our understanding of what a moving of the Spirit really is.  

What is really happening is our affections are being awakened. As musicians, we can shape the intensity of those affections to amplify the themes of the lyrics and overall setting of the service. When we feel those "feels," we are drawn even closer to God and His Truth, which affects us even more. Pure and simple: We feel affection, supported, amplified, and intensified by a creative experience, and in turn, God affects us because of what we are confessing and doing together. 

Where We Get It Wrong (And How to Make It Right)

Because of the misunderstanding music and its role in affections with the Holy Spirit, some folks either: A) Double down on musical manipulation to heighten the experience; or B) Avoid extremes of highs and lows altogether. The first option is a rollercoaster that relies more on hype than substance, and the second option is stale and static. 

Over my career as a church music director (and especially in the last year), I've been trying to find the middle road between these options, where our worship services balance emotional expression with the fruit of self-control. We are not afraid to "dig into" intense, emotional moments, but we are careful not to get carried away with hype. 

As a result, we've changed some of the structure behind our production value to support this approach. For instance, I largely don't use tracks anymore because it keeps us tied to a form from which we can't deviate, but sometimes need to do, based on "reading the room." We need to rely on greater flexibility, and I don't have someone who can use something like Ableton Live to follow my lead with those tracks. 

Another result is my loosening up, philosophically speaking, from a strict regulative approach to worship. Much of my background post-college was informed by Reformed worship, which is highly regulative of "do's and don't's" in worship. I still don't support things like dancing and flag teams in corporate worship, but allowing for spontaneous moments, with clear focus, is something I've found to be powerful and incredibly edifying for our congregation. The only caveat is that, unlike those who would use spontaneous worship to receive new revelation from God, I'm careful to limit those moments to only readings of Scripture, improvising on phrases form the lyrics of the song, and overall, maintaining a proper, Biblical direction of these spur-of-the-moment parts of worship. 

It's moments like this where I feel we can make room for emotional expression without compromising right theology and its practice, which serves to awaken our affections all the more. Some might disagree, but that's OK. 

Don't Miss the Bigger Picture

It might seem like I'm making the case that musical creation is what solely drives affections, but this couldn't be further from the truth. Rather, I see musical creativity as something that augments the experience of hearing God's Word and receiving His means of grace. Hearing and experiencing the grace of God alone awakens the affections of the believer, and we can use musical worship to celebrate and enter those affections at a deeper level.

TL;DR

If you come away from this post with anything, it should be this: Worship informs affection, both as a process and a result, all tying back to God, His Word, and the faithful practice of His Truth. As musicians, we hold some of the keys to how our congregation enters into those affections, and we can either knowingly or unknowingly affect those affections, for better or worse. (Did it again!)

Just remember your call and the example mentioned by Paul in his letter to the Colossians: 

In other words, the Word should saturate your spirit and then pour out in what you do, especially in worship. The result is a heart affected by God to return greater affections to Him. 

Be blessed 👍✌️