The Role Of The Arts In Worship

The arts in worship are never to dominate, intrude, or distract. They serve the action of worship and act as vehicles through which a communication between human beings and God takes place. Worship renewalists recognize that the primary purpose of the worshiping assembly is to celebrate the saving acts of God through Christ. They also recognize that because God's work in Jesus Christ is directed toward the whole of creation, the worship of God is best experienced when the creation is symbolically set free to worship God in the context of the church's celebration. Consequently the arts, which use the materials of creation and are expressions in the image of God of God's creativity, may become avenues of communication through which God encounters worshipers. They in turn are enabled to respond to God. When music, drama, space, movement, color, furnishings, objects, and the environment of worship become vehicles through which an encounter with the message of God's salvation takes place,…