It goes without saying to most who know me and my theological persuasions that I am, shall we say, less than enamoured with the ministry of Joel Osteen. Perhaps in another blog I will delineate the many problems that I have with him. In the current installment, I am reminded of a sermon of his I caught on a late night televised service of his mega church Lakewood. As he preached, I was unclear of whether I was listening to a sermon or to the State of the Union address for it seemed that at every other sentence, the huge auditorium of people would burst forth in applause. With the acknowledgement that I can tend to be a little critical, it did seem to me that he reacted to the applause as any stage actor might.
Perhaps we might learn from the wisdom of Pope Benedict, who wrote somewhere: "Whenever applause enters the liturgy, something has gone horribly awry."
An overstatement? Maybe. But I think his point is valid. For I believe that those who are fond of applause in church must always ask themselves, "For whom am I clapping?"
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2 comments:
Re: clapping in church. I know exactly what you mean...the question "For whom am I clapping?" is a really valid one.
I have two thoughts to add, however.
When I have directed kids' choirs, there have been times when I really appreciated applause for the kids as an encouragement to them for their offering. I'm not sure that children understand the value of thoughtful silence after a musical offering. However I realize they could be TAUGHT about the meaning of the aformentioned question, and be made to understand WHY they sing in church, not as a performance, but as an offering. And the other church applause that your blog brought to mind was the one that, on many Sundays, spontaneously erupted after a particular rousing last praise song at Grace Community Church in Boone. I really felt that the whoops and the clapping were absolutely not for the worship team, but were just a physical reaction to the the message we had just heard and the joys of energizing corporate worship.
So there are my thoughts on the matter. Clap, Clap, Clap, Clap,Clap,Clap,Clap.
MomK
Good thoughts MMK. I think that part of the issue here is the differences between Protestant worship services and the Catholic Mass. I suppose that there are times in the Catholic Mass (such as when children perform) that clapping would be appropriate, so long as the children are taught to understand what it means, as you said. But when the mass proper begins, that is the Eucharist liturgy, it is a solemn and mysterious occasion. Protestants do not have a divide like this, therefore clapping seems appropriate to some throughout the service.
But I think that while clapping can be appropriate, it seems that the majority of times I have seen it lately (the example given in the post), it is done for the wrong reason. Hence, my weariness of it.
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