This blog post is just a shout out really to Jack Hayford, and a recommendation to take a look at his website. Not that I would necessarily agree with everything he writes or preaches, but he has some great insights about worship.

Worship involves physical expressions founded upon biblical guidelines; they are neither ritual, perfunctory actions, or the serving of emotions for their own sake. Among the physical expressions of worship found in Scripture are kneeling, clapping hands, raising hands, verbalized praise, singing hymns and psalms, weeping, laughing, bearing witness aloud (“Amen”), reading the Word aloud, prostrating before the Lord, speaking in tongues, dancing before the Lord, giving public testimony, standing, silence, and spiritual song. In just a single chapter (20) of 2 Chronicles, eleven different Hebrew verbs for active physical worship are found.

Jack Hayford, https://www.jackhayford.org/teaching/articles/why-and-how-we-worship/, accessed 25th June 2021

This article was written in 2011, long before Covid began to affect how we worship, but it is so instructive to remind ourselves that worship is much more than singing. Our local vicar, Mike Archer, has been so clear in services held under UK restrictions that mean the congregation can’t sing. He exhorts the people to worship in any and every way they can, including clapping, raising hands, dancing, and so on. Of course we love to sing, and look forward to singing freely again soon, but in the meantime let’s worship in every way we can in church – and of course sing at home and elsewhere!

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