Physical Expressiveness Part 1: Ten Problems With It

Pentecostalism. Yes. Yes. Although... Yes. Well, you know, American Christianity is not the only Christianity that exists, for example. Or even Western Christianity. Other ethnicities are much more movement oriented than us, but let's get into that. So I don't want to say much about it here. These are just previews. These are just small previews. These are just jokes. That's exactly right. This will get you hooked on the podcast. So, yes, I conducted and taught in the UK, and people there said: I remember conducting music at a big conference, 3,000 people in Wales. And we would sing this song Alone in Christ, Alone in Christ.

That's one of the two songs I always use as an example In Christ Alone, Before the Throne. But it was that song that we were singing and: "Until he returns or calls me, here in the power of Christ I will be." Silent. Crickets. Crickets. And it's... I just thought, "Wow, that's amazing." The same thing happened in South Africa, when trying to lead. And I mean, always leading. And well, we are South Africans, we don't do that. Sydney Anglicans, so in Sydney we just don't do that. Or there was a time when I was in the northeast, or rather the northwest, in Seattle.

The grunge of our culture. We are not

physical

ly expressive. It's not what our culture does. So I'll answer that in the next podcast, but I'll leave it there. And just say that's one reason, that's a problem that a lot of people have with the

physical

expressiveness

of their church. Well, if your church has 300 people and none of them are expressive, you might feel trapped. Oh, your church culture? Yes. Yes. Good. That's good. Yes. Going one step further, you're talking about different... geographical culture. Yes. But even in your church culture you... That's our next point. Well, no, more or less.

The number nine is personality. In fact, it could be the personality of the church, it could be your personality. Yes. I've heard a lot of people say that I'm just not physically expressive. Yes. I'm calm. Yes. I don't really get excited. I am sober, phlegmatic, soft-spoken and even-tempered. I am an enneagram number one. I am a rational, principled and determined idealist type. I think you are. Self-controlled and perfectionist. You are definitely one. By the way, this is in no way an endorsement of enneagrams. I know. I'm playing with you. I had to do research to find out what they were.

I'm a three. Follow, follow. We'll talk about that later. In the Myers Briggs test, I am more of a sentinel than a scout. Wow. Yes. Then you know yourself. So I just don't do that. So yeah, it's just not my personality. And a lot of people say that. Number 10, and I think this is maybe the biggest. And usually no one would come up with this as the first one, but sometimes they do. I fear man more than God. I only think about what other people think of me when I do it. Normally it is not given as a reason, but I think it is often behind the other reasons.

You're in a conservative church and if you show any kind of physical

expressiveness

, it's like people think I'm charismatic or that I'm attracting attention, that I'm crazy. That I'm inconsiderate. They think I'm pretending. I mean it's legit in terms of it actually happens to a lot of people when we're just more aware. We're not saying it's a good thing, but we're just aware that yes, I'm very aware of what the people around me think. And even the perspective that says everyone seems to be much more engaged than I am, so I should put that together. Well, that's the other way around, yes.

You're saying that if the people around you are expressive, I should look like that. Yeah, and I'm not, so I should put that together. So it's like even that is a misunderstanding of why. Yes. That is what we intend to talk about. Yes. And it's very difficult not to address all of these things right now, but to save time and honor people's time, we're going to break it up. But this is an area, it is not a primary area. And this is not a primary meaning, but I would and will say that I think it is an area that people live in confusion with.

They do not always go into depth to explain the reasons they give for why they have

problems

with physical expressiveness. Now we should also say that there are some people listening who are too expressive. And yes, they just don't think about it enough. They also fear man, but that results, as you were saying before, in them simply doing what everyone around them is doing. My granddaughter just started going to Grand Canyon University, one of my granddaughters, Maddie. And she sent me a picture of 1000 college students in one of hers... Oh, I don't know, it was a night of worship, a retreat.

I think it was a night of worship. And everyone was so engaged and I was like... Well, first, I'm so excited that my granddaughter is there loving it, totally enjoying it. But I have no doubt that there are several of those kids who are just doing it. It's like, "Wow, this is so exciting. I'm going to be so free." But they don't necessarily honor the Lord with what they are doing. Yes. So are you saying that at Sovereign Grace Church in Louisville, when you play the first chord, all the hands go up? Is that what you're saying?

How did you know? No, that wouldn't be the case at all. Good. And we're going to talk about... Which is really interesting because I think sometimes people watch our videos and think, "Yeah, this is what you do." Yeah. And it's not just... It's like one plus one equals two in that sense, but what we're saying and what you're saying is that it's not, "Hey, we're meeting. Here they come." Correspondence. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, I'll go ahead and share something that I was going to share in the next podcast, but it's important that we know what our goal is.

Our goal is not for people to raise their hands. Get people's feet moving. Our goal, we could summarize it this way, is to respond to God, to his glory and greatness naturally, in ways that point to his glory and our satisfaction in him. There should be nothing artificial in this, artificiality. It must be what we do naturally. While we were talking here, our hands were moving. Our bodies have been moving. I mean, we haven't jumped or anything, but our bodies... God gave us bodies, and we're going to get into that in the next podcast, so I don't want to get too deep into that.

But it is a natural response. And again, I think there's a lot of confusion about this. It's something we have to talk about, something I've wanted to talk about for a long time. And here we are talking about it. And yes, pray that they find it encouraging and that they do not take what we have done here; I hope some of what we said today resonated with you. And he said, "Yeah, that's my problem." Yes, those are things I agree with. But next time we want to see what the Bible says. And then talk about each of those concerns that we had and see where it takes us.

Excellent. So by the way, if you have any questions about us, which we really appreciate, just give us a call. David's cell phone number is...   No, don't do that. He should email us at [email protected]. That's all. And you explain the plus. Yes, good. We'd love to hear from you and look forward to the next podcast and hope you can join us. I'm so excited. Yes, thanks.