Thursday, 06 November 2008
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Worshipping with Both Sides of the Brain
Guest post submitted by Theimperfecthomemaker
My 6 year-old daughter is wonderfully extroverted, active, noisy, messy, cheerful, dramatic, easily distracted and spontaneous. God has entrusted me- introverted, studious, quiet, organized, sober and reflective- with at least part of the responsibility for home-schooling this little bundle of ill-contained energy.
While researching how best to help our little girl learn her math facts, I came across the left-brain/right-brain theories that have been floating around for decades. If you’re not familiar with them, the premise is that the right side of the brain tends to be the emotional, spontaneous, intuitive side while the left side of the brain is more analytical, intellectual and deals with the written word and symbols. Now certainly this is a pop-psychology simplification (the whole theory may be pop-psychology to the core) but it does help to put words to experiences that are difficult to describe.
Lately, I’ve really begun to notice how Christians and Christian worship seems to have both “right-brained” and “left-brained” aspects. Neither side seems to really understand the other; this causes some major battles and misunderstandings in some churches.
Christians and denominations on the “left” side (remember, this has nothing to do with politics) tend to be more word-oriented, with Bible studies, logical apologetics, scholarly sermons, historical facts and traditional hymns. They may encourage studying the Bible in the original languages. At times they may elevate the “Letter of the Law” above the Spirit of the Law, though, and their worship may strike others as being too somber, serious and rigid and their worship as rote and boring.
Those with a more right-brained approach value more emotional worship and sermons and more emphasis on vibrant music, images, videos, personal experience, mysticism and intuition. Some of these face the danger of straying from Biblical orthodoxy simply because they haven’t studied scripture enough to know what the Bible really says, or they feel that what the Bible says is inferior in importance to their internal impressions. These groups/people are lively, tender-hearted and often zealous, but may not always actively “test the spirits” as the Bible commands. Left-brained Christians may view their right-brained brothers and sisters as being anti-intellectual or lacking in self-control.
From my study of scriptures, it would seem that both are important: the Bible has its songs, poems and outpourings of emotion along with its historical facts and serious doctrine. Yet, I get the feeling that our emotional, intuitive side, even when sanctified, is always to be under the control of our [sanctified] logical, rational processes. Our logical side makes sure that we stay within Biblical boundaries, and our emotional side keeps our service to God from being rote and lifeless. (Of course, it goes without saying that each side is limited by our innate sinfulness and can lead us astray- one side into emotionalism and mysticism, the other into philosophy and sophistry. Intellectualism and scholarship are not an infallible guards against heresy.)
I wonder if the church as a whole in the US is moving in a more right-brained direction. I wonder if this may be due to a greater reliance in our society on the visual image (videos, TV, movies) rather than the written word; or maybe it simply a matter of personality and gender-based differences. I wonder if gender-based differences (emotional intuition vs. intellectual analysis) are the reason why Paul portrays women as being more easily deceived than men and forbids them from teaching. What do you think? After reading some of these posts in this group lately, I've come to respect the opinions and scholarship of some of the contributors, and I thought I'd throw this out for discussion.
Do you consider yourself a right-brained or a left-brained person? How does this affect your spiritual life and approach to worship?
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Comments (17)
1. I agree that right-brained and left-brained aspects are both important to worship because clearly God has both aspects to His own personality. Over emphasis can be a bad thing.
2. Some of us do not believe Paul was forbidding all women to teach in all times and places and take a different view of that passage. I am a woman, and I happen to be very left-brained in many ways and extremely logical in the way I view the world.
3. I believe that neither right-brained nor left-brained worship should be our focus. I don't even believe our supreme focus should be on achieving balance. I believe our focus should be God Himself. Sometimes we might need to focus on one thing for a time, sometimes another, as He leads. I do believe that if a pastor is very strong on one side, he should include others on his staff who have strengths on the other side.
4. This post makes it sound like mysticism is bad. While mysticism without Christ is certainly not good, my definition of Christian mysticism is belief in actual personal experience of God, which I believe is an essential part of the Christian life.
5. I'm guessing that the author is coming from a more left-brained church perspective, but of course I could be wrong.
I was graced with the ability to connect my left and right brain. though I connected this through music I still beleive god had a hand in it.
I forgot to say thanks for the post! It's very thought-provoking.
I'm a left moving right. As a musician (usually church-related these days) I've come to appreciate both the hymns and the choruses. My favorite songs employ both truth and passion, like A Mighty Fortress. I long to see more such songs written with truths we can truly sink our passions into and music which reflects the passion, like the Newsboys seem to do on a regular basis lately.
I feel as if God has blessed me with a right-brain. Because of this, the early years of my Christian life were emotional and passionate. That came to me easily. But eventually I came to a time when my faith was put to the test and I realized that I was inadequate and that's when I began to read my Bible more and educate myself on historical contexts of the Bible. But I never do these things purely out of discipline or habit. What drives me is my love for God and the passion he gave me.
"Yet, I get the feeling that our emotional, intuitive side, even when
sanctified, is always to be under the control of our [sanctified]
logical, rational processes. Our logical side makes sure that we stay
within Biblical boundaries, and our emotional side keeps our service to
God from being rote and lifeless."
I think I am closer to achieving that. Thanks for the great post.
Great post, thank you. I don't really have a reply because I don't feel I'm well-versed enough in this circumstance to comment. But thank you!
great post. My church is more of the "right side" but now that I'm getting older I can definitely appreciate the "left-side". I don't know why the change in ideas though.
Very interesting thoughts for this discussion, and a fairly unique perspective from what I've read.
I don't really believe in a strict duality of left/right brain-- in many activities, e.g. composing music or writing good prose, I find I use my "creative/emotive" and "logical/analytical" faculties about equally. i.e. I have to use my logic to make sure the harmony is progressing according to the rules of music theory, but the end result should be a very emotional piece of music. It's the same for writing: logically following the rules of style makes for good prose that affects the emotions. In other words, though there may be a valid distinction, it's more of a both/and than an either/or.
Thus, what I think we need is holistic worship that will involve both the mind and the emotions-- hymns with good texts and good music-- sermons with good theology and compelling illustrations-- prayers where we can interact with real needs and kneel, bow, cry, etc.
This I think is similar to the conclusion Paul comes to in 1 Corinthians 14:15--"I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the understanding also; I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also."
I think I'm pretty balanced, though I do tend to lean to the right a little.
This post goes along the lines of something I've been thinking about for a while. I think we tend to approach God according to our personalities, and we approach the parts of Him that are the easiest to understand. For instance, I know artists who see God as the ultimate artist, and He is. I know intellectuals who see God as the ultimate thinker, and He is. Same for mathemeticians, engineers, etc.
I think the key to not become inblananced is to come to God with our whole selves, that is, our heart, our minds, our bodies, our spirits. Every part of us that we know how to use, we ought to use to worship God with. Deut 6:5 says that we ought to worship God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
I think when we do this, we encounter aspects of God that will stretch our boundaries. We will learn things about ourselves, and Him, that we will never expect.
In school I've always learned better if I learned through the... left I think, side of the brain. I learn from reading and writing and then rewriting and listening to a lecture. But I'm the complete opposite when it comes to churches. I haven't been to church in years but I remember the last time I was there, I got really impatient with just sitting and listening to a lecture. I think it just depends on the environment for me though. At school, I don't know much more than listening to lectures and I've always loved reading! But once you know God and how exciting He is, it's hard to go back to just listening to someone chatter on. You want to be a part of it. At least that's how it is for me. :)
Doctrine must always be foundational (Ephesians 2:20). Our emotional/experiential responses to Christ can be rightly formed through a correct understanding of the Father's plan of salvation, Christ's person and work for us and the work and power of the Holy Spirit and so forth. The NT is full of doctrine for a reason--because we simply must have it and cannot neglect it.
My frustration is that there are few churches who combine good, solid doctrinal teaching with mystical/emotional/experiential worship. Many of those who are intent on doctrine (what you're calling left-brained) are often skeptical of experience, so worship can be cold, calculated and stiff. On the other hand, those who are more focused on experience (those you call right-brained) often neglect to study and immerse themselves in doctrine.
If you look through the NT, the continued emphasis is on guarding the doctrine, contending for the faith, so we might not be deceived or carried about by wind of doctrine. So I'm all for worship in those right-brained ways, but first and foremost, we must be sure our doctrinal foundation is solid.
The Bible says that we should worship in spirit and in truth. does this not incorporate both types of worship?
Good thing our church is balanced. Thanks for sharing this post. :)
I actaully think I am a little bit of both, but most of the time more left brained. I love the artsy, creative, spontaneous, emotional/intuitive aspects of worship and serving. But most of the time (dangerously) I tend to be more of the logical, scripture thumping/researching, biblical facts/accuracy, regulated kind of girl. I often am convicted to think outside of the box, and allow God to do what i believe is impossible. It noramlly depends on who I am talking to and the situaiton. To someone who is dominately left- brained, I may seem slightly liberal, while someone who is predominately right-brained would think i was way to conservative. And to me there are somethings that you ought to be right-brained about, such as how God is working or what he is doing and others that you ought to be left-brained about, for example the interpration of scripture and living it out. God has used one of my best friends to shake me up a little bit and to see things differently. She is more right-brained while I am more left-brained. I try to be more open and accepting of the differences, pros and cons, of both kinds of people....What I have noticed though depending on which side of my brain I am using when it comes to spiritual things, not that I can consciously control it bc I can't, it changes my perception on the matter.
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