But it is not the goal of worship, it is not an end in itself. Worship is a formative experience (whether we like it or not!) and we need to be aware of this in our planning for worship. Do we communicate that only certain emotions are appropriate in our worship? (The Psalms bring the whole range of emotional experience before God.

      Do we communicate that the Christian life is always fun and exciting or that living as a disciple is "a long obedience in the same direction" (as Eugene Peterson puts it)? Our worship should not communicate something false about what it feels like to be a Christian. Again the Psalms are a helpful guide in this - they do not romanticize the Christian life. This does not mean that worship is always somber and heavy, but it should always be light and familiar either. I am arguing for a more full demonstration of the character of God reflected in our worship. What we often see is that each group reflects part of who God is, one group focuses on joy, one of majesty, one on awe, and one on "Abba" intimacy - yet all of these things needs to be part of our worship!

      Bodily posture matters and so does the mood of the service. The Psalms are filled with directions for our bodies in worship and if we don't work to make this a part of worship, then we communicate that mankind is merely a mind, or bundle of emotion (i.e. we become Gnostics who deny the importance of "physicalness"). People sing differently standing than they do sitting. I am not going to tell you what to do when, but I do want you to think about it and include body posture in your thinking about worship.

      Corporate worship is not a bunch of individuals worshipping in the same room! In our highly individualistic culture we need to be aware of the tendency for people to view even corporate worship as a privatized experience where the only value the other people in the room have is to help the individual "lose himself or herself in God" (whatever that means!) We should pray corporate prayers, read scripture, and confess our faith using creeds, together. This is one limitation of songbooks (unless you include corporate prayers or creeds in your books - which I don't think I've ever seen.)