Setting the mood?

[Jack K]

This is a good topic, and I agree that "setting a mood" is the wrong approach to worship. We should look to Christ and the gospel to make us worshipful, not to the music and the lighting. But nevertheless, I think a right approach includes acknowledging some subtleties.

Gathering to worship does demand a frame of mind that approaches worship as a holy activity. And it is normal for humans to reflect or support frame-of-mind in some external ways. As an example, my church recently completed a building renovation that closed off the sanctuary from the area where folks gather for coffee, erecting a wall with windows and doors between the two spaces. The main purpose was to help people prepare for worship and to treat it as a holy activity by giving a quieter, more set-apart space to enter into before the service. Was that "setting the mood" (a big non-no!)? Or was it a reflection of our belief that worship is a holy activity, and a practical step to help folks approach it that way?

Let's take it further: The lighting in the two spaces is also different, with ugly fluorescents in the coffee area but more pleasant lighting in the sanctuary. Now have we gone too far? Or is this too simply an appropriate reflection of the truth that drinking coffee and worshipping Christ are different sorts of activities? And some of us dress up for the service. Are we setting a mood by the use of external things? Or are we merely acting appropriately given the holy purpose for which we gather?

I think that indeed it is easy to go too far. The windowless church Brandon described above is usually a bad sign because it signals an obsession with mood creation, and we can get to that point very quickly. But because worship is not just another everyday activity, I also think there are bound to be some ways it looks and sounds different from the rest of life. It takes wisdom and subtlety to support this while, at the same time, we also keep our focus on Christ rather than on sensory appeals.

 

[Jeri Tanner]

I have to chuckle. We are currently meeting in a graciously loaned, unused room in an office building. Bright fluorescent tube lights glow above us; acoustical tiles are missing here and there from the ceiling; the occasional spider dangles down upon us from somewhere therein. The floor is bare concrete! We hope for and are looking for a place that will be a little more “normal,” I guess- but we love and have been grateful for our little setting. None of what I described has been a distraction at all (well maybe the spiders on occasion).

 

[StephenMartyr]

I have to chuckle. We are currently meeting in a graciously loaned, unused room in an office building. Bright fluorescent tube lights glow above us; acoustical tiles are missing here and there from the ceiling; the occasional spider dangles down upon us from somewhere therein. The floor is bare concrete! We hope for and are looking for a place that will be a little more “normal,” I guess- but we love and have been grateful for our little setting. None of what I described has been a distraction at all (well maybe the spiders on occasion).

Back before we moved to this location, we attended a church there and a spider did just that! All of a sudden this small black thing comes down right in front of me. I'm like taking my fingers to get it, but I can imagine what others might have thought if they saw me: "What is that guy going pinching the air?!"