Source: Flickr | davidyuweb
As the light bounces off the walls, floors, and ceilings, I find my mind wandering a bit. Here I am, in 2012 with light washing over surfaces of the entire room. Yet outside of this room, and probably even in this room at times, people are wondering why there is so much colorful light everywhere.
Across town in another church, people are worshiping in a different room with light bouncing off the walls, floors, and ceilings. Shades of the rainbow playfully move across every surface and the people in the room. Outside of this room people wonder why so much money was spent on something that just makes color light.
In either example I could be in a church with moving lights and no windows, or magnificent stained glass windows filtering sunlight in a room with limited artificial lighting.
In both rooms people find a reason to complain about the cost of the light. “The stage lighting is too expensive. I bet each light costs several thousand dollars!” And in the other room, a similar complaint: “Stained glass windows are too expensive. I bet each window cost thousands of dollars!”
What both people fail to see is that neither the stage lighting or the stained glass windows are the problem. The problem is in the perception of each. The cost of the lights or the windows is trivial. The money is spent. Move on.
We fail to see the artistry required for both. We fail to recognize that the stained glass windows and the moving lights above the stage are not the center of the experience. They are there to enhance the experience.
Light evokes emotion. Bright lights stimulate. Dim lights calm. Fast lights energize. Slow lights cause us to slow down.
Allow the light in the room to simply be that: light. Allow the light to be art, and the art to be seen and experienced, not judged. It doesn’t matter if the light in the room is coming from windows, moving lights, or candles, it’s all part of the same purpose.
We spend too much time finding fault with where the light is coming from in church that we often fail to realize it is just another dimension of our worship.
Photos used under Creative Commons. Source (left): Flickr user arichards63 - smile if you missed me. Source (right): Flickr user Today is a good day.
Thanks for the blog post and the comments. Very thoughtful and thought-provoking. All too often we get all up in arms about “what works for us” and forget that we are with others who see God maybe slightly differently and worship differently. Trust: right on. And when that trust is built over time (through relationship), big changes can happen in us.
Interesting thoughts.
I think it comes down to trust. Do we really trust our church? And do we trust the creative people behind it? Do we trust that what we are experiencing is art that can lead us in worship? Or do we have lack of trust, leading us to be skeptical and jaded and judgmental b/c we think it’s all propaganda… and an inauthentic experience that is contrived and controlling so we get an emotional high.
We also associated these images and production practices with theology, doctrine and tradition.
I know Baptists who don’t like candles b/c it’s too “catholic” for them.
I know people who don’t like incense b/c that’s what the Buddhists do.
People don’t like stained-glass b/c that images stirs up baggage from the past…where they were spiritually abused and busied to death in a boring, legalistic institution.
and I know people who love stained glass b/c it roots them in the past and causes you to be more reverent.
Some people hate moving lights and smoke b/c they think the worship leaders are just trying to put on an entertaining rock show to get their emotions stirred up… and that’s “good worship” to them.
and others hate all the slick production b/c it sends a message that this church spends a lot of money on entertainment value and hype.
and others LOVE the production b/c for once in their life, church can be fun and colorful and energizing.
To paraphrase Yoda, you get what you put into it.
Everyone is bringing their own journeys and baggage and past experiences into a church service… and they perceive what is happening around them through their own flawed lenses.
I experience the same thing when I project cool, flowing smoke creeping down the walls during “Revelation Song.” It becomes a metaphor for the glory of God and Jesus returning in the clouds.
But if I do a big ploom of smoke from a fog/smoke machine or hazer and shine an intelligent light through it…. well, people write it off and condemn it as “entertainment” and “performance.” And say “it’s not worship. It’s not art.”
it’s just funny to me.
but one thing I have seen that transcends all of this… is when there is trust involved. And strong relationships. And if you are who you say you are, and you are to me what you say you are… then your degree of authenticity heightens…. and thought shining lights may not be my preference, i will still follow you and trust you and be able to worship with you and through your art better.
Posted to my facebook site…so true, have been guilty of that myself at times (the complaining about lights) but learned so much more about their benefit after YOUR four years at Belmont…see, even the parents learned something – ha-ha-ha-ha!! But seriously, stained glass makes the light do really cool things and I have always loved seeing how it changes a room. And while I appreciated the stage lighting in churches for various reasons I also learned to have more appreciation after attending various churches with you while in Nashville, TN and now in GA. Excellent article!!