Emotionalism

One thing I heartily dislike in "worship" (praise, actually), during most church services is when it is done in such a way as to foster a "worshipful" emotional state.

This focus in "worship" does two things:

It supports the (false) idea that worship consists in a certain feeling, rather than the consecration of my will to God's will.

The second thing that it does is to take my eyes off of true worship and puts my focus on a warm/fuzzy feeling which is so far from the true service of God.

I would much rather skip the portion of the service (though song is a very appropriate form of praise) and spend more time strengthening my faith with preaching from the Word of God. Perhaps I am waxing slightly heretical to favour rationality over emotion, but I think not.


"Even so ye, forasmuch as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church. Wherefore let him that speaketh in an unknown tongue pray that he may interpret. For if I pray in an unknown tongue, my spirit prayeth, but my understanding is unfruitful. What is it then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also." (I Corinthians 14:12-15, emphasis mine)