On Sunday when we talked about growing spiritually, I noted that this is not just about taking more classes or gaining more knowledge. Because there are lots of learning styles and ways people connect with God, there also needs to be multiple ways for people to learn. For some people, sitting in a class talking and reading is fulfilling, for others they can’t imagine anything worse. That means we have to encompass a multiple ways of learning, and for us to also push ourselves by trying different things. The same thing is also true in worship.
I’ve mentioned that I did a learning sabbatical a number of years ago to study worship, and studying how to integrate multiple learning styles into worship was one of the things I spent time learning about. As I was talking with my counselor about what I was learning, he told me about a friend who couldn’t sit still. She was always moving, or needing to move, which led her to a career in personal training. But, he said, there was no way she could sit through a “normal” worship service because she would be too fidgety.
More than likely, she is a kinesthetic learner, that is she leans by doing, and by not recognizing that learning style we are ignoring a large portion of the population in what we do in worship. There are some “emerging” churches that are catering specifically to this learning style in having a lot more movement, including worship stations, that allow people to be moving around and learning by doing.
Now, we are not going to go that far, except maybe for some special services, but when we allow people to come forward to light candles, or even to move to make their offering, we are breaking up the worship service making it easier for this type of learning style. Allowing for more bodily worship, such as putting your hands up or clapping also helps them. It may not work for you and you may wonder what’s going on, but it is very helpful to others, and I know there are other things we can do to help.
Now, as you might guess, especially since I read so much, I learn through reading and writing. I am also an auditory learner. That’s part of the reason that I did well in school, and why most worship services work for me. In most churches, those are also the predominant learning styles of most of the congregation as well. And so I have to push beyond my comfort zone in order to think of the other learning styles.
The other major learning style is visual. For our visual learners, they noticed right away when we started putting images in the worship guides in order to break up all the words. And I know that some of you who are not visual are now saying, “There are pictures in the bulletins?” You didn’t notice, or maybe didn’t notice for a long time, because that isn’t where your eye instantly focuses.
The decorations we put up in the sanctuary also fulfill this role for those who need to have something to look at. We also change them out somewhat regularly, and with each series, so that interest can be kept up throughout the year. I would like to increase what we do in our visuals, and so if you are artistically inclined and would like to participate, please let me know.
Now this is not anything new, but a recovery of what worship used to look like. If you’ve ever attended worship in an Orthodox church (Greek, Russian, etc.), there is tons of stuff to keep your eye moving, and there is movement throughout the service, and bodily participation plus reading and speaking and singing/chanting. That may be one of the reasons why Orthodox churches are growing. But, much of that was removed during the Protestant Reformation, and so now we are learning to regain much of what we lost when we tossed the baby out with the bathwater.
Now for those who are hearing this and panicking that I am going to be changing worship up, please rest assured that the vast majority of worship is going to remain exactly the same. And remember, as I have said before, while some things we do in worship may not work for you, they will work for others in connecting them with God and allowing them to be free in worship, and vice versa. That’s part of what it means to be inclusive and also part of what it means to be in community and to worship in Spirit and in truth.
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