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Our sight is one of only five senses that we can experience life. On this page, we discuss the importance, negelect, and challenge of the visual language of worship. We also discuss the goal of visual worship – "To stir up hunger for God."

The Importance: Visual Is Our Native Language

With the waves of iconoclasm (the Protestant Reformation's destruction and removal of images from churches) the Protestant Church has failed to see the need to incorporate the visual back into our services.

James White wrote, from New forms of Worship:

"By and large, Protestant worship is still in the realm of the communication revolution of the 16th century…after four-hundred and fifty years the times have changed, most of all within the last twenty years.  We must realize that people…are accustomed to much more immediate forms of communication than words read from a book.  And consequently the forms by which worship is expressed must change too." 
Secular culture has left the church behind, and we are fearful whether the church can effectively communicate the gospel to this new experiential culture without using the visual language of worship.  Many churchgoers rooted in tradition are mistrustful of visual arts.  They have seen secular culture’s use of media and imagery and have contrasted it against the literal absence of the visual in our churches. 

Akin to Paul’s illustration of new believers as babes in Christ – as children, the visual is our native language.  We may learn to speak and to read, but we start with our visual input. As John Berger explained, “Seeing comes before words.  The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.”

The Neglect: The Decreasing Relevance Of The Church.  

Margaret Miles wrote in her book Image as Insight: Visual Understanding in Western Christianity and Secular Culture:

"... since Christian churches have relinquished the task of providing life-orienting images, secular culture has seized the opportunity of filling the void ... They provide images from which people form self images, values and attitudes ... Churches, in abdicating responsibility for the training of vision [the visual], have failed to provide both life-orienting images and training ..."
By rejecting and neglecting the visual from our worship for so long, we’ve missed out on a primary language in today’s culture.  Print advertising, billboards, film, television, computers, the internet, and multi-media are the strongest teachers and influencers to every social and economic segment of people in our day – and many churches are fearful to even consider these tools of communication. 

The Challenge: Embrace The Language Of Culture

Let us draw upon some relevant scriptures from the Apostle Paul that encourage believer to use whatever tools available to reach out to all people.

  • In 1 Corinthians 14:9-10, Paul urged the Corinthian Church to speak in languages that others understand.  Although these verses refer to the spiritual gift of tongues, the concept still applies to our languages of modern culture.  Paul wrote, “…Unless you speak intelligible words with your tongue, how will anyone know what you are saying? You will just be speaking into the air.  Undoubtedly there are all sorts of languages in the world, yet none of them is without meaning.”
  • Paul further explained in 2 Corinthians 1:12 that although we do not rely on worldly wisdom and rely on His grace, we still conduct our lives in the culture of this world.
  • Lastly, let us consider Paul’s well-known message from 1 Corinthians 9:22-25 about "being all things to all people" and "running the race to win." We believe that the Church has not been running the race, but have left the race up to popular secular culture.  Isn’t it time we got back into the race, running in such a way as to win the prize so that we may share the blessings of the gospel? 

Isn’t it time that we embrace the languages of culture?

Much of what church worship ministries can strive for in visual worship involves the use of aesthetics in a variety of mediums including music, art, multi-media, etc. But it also includes the simple things such as the lighting atmosphere and the condition (or even color) of the sanctuary or meeting place...

Jewish theologian and philosopher Abraham Heschel is quoted:

“A work of art introduces us to emotions which we have never cherished before. Great works produce rather than satisfy needs by giving the world fresh cravings”
The goal in all of this is as Heschel's quote implies; we are working to create an environment in which people will be hungry for God. Where our environment can support or detract from the worship experience, our more outward works of art (like music, fine art, multi-media, film, etc.) stir up those cravings by revealing the beauty of God's creation and drawing worshipers toward Him.

One great caution is that we are easily lured into worshiping the creation rather than the Creator (i.e. hymns, music styles, artwork, etc.). Our goal is to find ways to allow the visual "produces cravings," rather than "serve as a substitute" for our relationship with God.

Considering the many forms of art and imagery available today, every person has become an artist of some type. Author Leonard Sweet writes about artists in Postmodern society, "Every artist is less a special kind of person than every person is a special kind of artist"  (I’ll give you a moment to figure that one out.)  Although this “cheapens” art and artistry, it also allows God to move more abundantly.

Check out some photos and videos of live worship here.

We'd like to know if this information has been helpful. Please be sure to send us an email and let us know you dropped by.