After slamming Eddie and Alistair last week for dissing Matt Redman’s song Heart of Worship, one of my old friends reminded me of my own guilt in a similar area and asked what my penance should be. I had written:
My friend wrote, “David, ever since I read your blog about the Worst Worship Songs ever, I have wanted to ask you what YOUR penance should be for mocking people who worship kinesthetically through sign language or the like?”
Don’t get me wrong, I am not making fun of deaf and hearing-impaired people that use sign language for communication. You might not know it but I’m hearing-impaired myself and have worn hearing aids for most of my life. But I’ve never needed to learn American Sign Language (ASL). The thing that strikes me funny is hearing people who use sign language while singing songs in church. What is all that about? They’re not deaf. God’s not deaf. Nobody in the congregation is deaf. What’s the deal here? Everyone’s singing along and invariably you have one or two people who are making all these strange gestures with their fingers and sweeping their arms around in a way that is sort of coordinated with the words of the song. It’s really weird. Being a linguist, I’ve sometimes tried to figure out which signs stand for which words. You say “Jesus” by alternately touching your middle finger to the palm of the each hand, etc. I think linguists who study sign language should be called “finguists.”
Is this real ASL that these people are speaking or is it some kind of WSL, “Worship Sign Language?” Don’t get me wrong. I’m all in favor of people expressing themselves physically in worship. The people at my home church are really stiff and usually only raise their hands or sway a little bit. But these people that can do WSL liven things up. It looks like finger disco to me. They’re moving their arms and wiggling their fingers. It’s fun to watch but a bit distracting. Can a person sing and sign at the same time? If sign is a language isn’t that like speaking two languages at once? Try that with Spanish and French!
When I was in college a friend asked me if I wanted to go to Mexico on Spring break because his church needed a Spanish interpreter. At that point my Spanish was really basic. I think I was in my second year and had almost no conversation skills. But I said, sure, what the heck. So we went down to Tijuana and got to drive the church van and we were surrounded by adoring high school girls. It was pretty fun. There were a couple other interpreters that were native Spanish speakers and they kept the secret of my pathetic language skills through the whole week in Mexico.
One morning, the kids asked me to help them interpret for the Rich Mullins song Awesome God. They wanted to teach all the street urchins sign-language that went along with this song. Thankfully they only did the chorus and not the verse about “putting on the Ritz” because that might have been tough to translate. So I stood up there and interpreted for the church group while they all made all these ornate motions that supposedly went along with the lyrics to that song. It was a goofy scene. The kids were singing in English. I was saying things like “Nuestro Dios es un Dios poderoso.” And all these little Mexican kids were waving their arms along to the song. Maybe that was the origin of my bias against WSL.
More recently, I had a chance to visit Madrid, Spain and there I met Bible translators who are translating the Bible into Spanish Sign Language. If you visit the Ethnologue, you will find for almost every country a statistic for deaf population and in some cases a Bible translation has been done or is being done.
So now you know the truth. I’ll do penance as long as it’s not listening to Women of Faith CDs.
Why do you think it is OK to speak or sing words of praise to God in a variety of languages but not in sign language? Or do you consider it wrong to praise God in any language other than your own mother tongue?
As for speaking two languages at once, that is obviously impossible unless you are Zaphod Beeblebrox, but people can and do shift rapidly between two different languages – as I sometimes find myself doing when addressing both my translation team and the visiting consultant, who have no common language which they know well. Also sign language interpreters learn to speak and sign together, for the benefit of lip readers. So why shouldn’t they use this skill for God? And why shouldn’t others imitate them, especially when by doing so they are doing something beautiful for God?
But I do know that these things can get out of hand and become a distraction from worship, both for those doing them who are concentrating on technically difficult things rather than on God, and for other worshippers who don’t understand what is going on.
“But I do know that these things can get out of hand…”
Ha ha, a pun!
Thanks, David, for clearing that up! I’m learning in life that everybody has a reason for their opinions, and if you take the time to listen, usually those opinions really make sense.
I’m with you on the distraction thing! I’ve often said I wish worship leaders would stand in the back where we could hear and follow their singing lead, but not be distracted by the rest of their worship process (whether it be show or actual worship for them is something I wish I didn’t distract myself thinking about as I worship). Lo and behold in the little church I visited this week, the worship was led from the back!
Still, if I weren’t so self-distractible, I’d love to be able to do the Hallelujah Disco with my voice AND my hands, to get one more part of my body actively involved in my expression of worship, without having to concentrate on the technical difficulty. That will have to wait for heaven, I suppose, where I will easily be able to express my praise as thoroughly as I’d love to now.
“Oh for a thousand tongues (languages) to sing (express) my great Redeemer’s praise…..”
Anonymous, you could always shut your eyes during worship. That would have a bonus, that the others who don’t will think you soooo spiritual!
I could do that. But since I often can’t hear/understand the words unless I’m reading them on the overhead projector and I haven’t figured out how to block out my peripheral vision. So, then I end up still distracted.
Has anybody written a book on “Worship for Highly Distractible People”?! I’m realizing through these posts how I battle NOT to be distracted in worship.
I really can, at times, block out what I experience as distracting noise and chaos (which is not a judgment on others who can worship freely in that way, but a statement on what it does to me inside), and really focus on God as the words on the screen direct and point me to him. It takes a lot of work, though!
I haven’t figured out how to block out my peripheral vision.
What do they call those things they put over horses’ eyes to stop them being distracted?
Seriously, Anon, I know just how you feel. It is different things which distract me, but I have the same problem. All I can say is that sometimes I get through it and am able to worship properly. I know this is partly a matter of my attitude, partly a matter of the worship team and my fellow worshippers, and partly depends on what God is doing. I wish I knew the technique of how to break through in worship, but somehow I’m glad that it isn’t just a matter of technique.
Wow! With blinders I could distract OTHER people
“Somehow I’m glad that it isn’t just a matter of technique.” So true, Peter.
Two things have helped me with my self-irriation about my distractibility: (1) It doesn’t surprise God. He knows how frail, weak and “but dust” I am. and (2) All roads lead to God. Well, not really. But, if my face is always turned to the Lord, if directionally I’m oriented to Him, I end up coming back to Him, even in my distraction. Well, not even “coming back to.” He’s with me and I’m with Him even on the rabbit trail of public worship distractions.
I might have ADWD (attention deficit worship disorder), but it’s not like I’m oblivious to God when my mind is jumping.
Just because I’m thinking about somebody or something else doesn’t mean I’m not thinking about God. I may or may not be thinking about God in the context of what the worship team is singing or the preacher is saying, but in each mental diversion, the Holy Spirit is very much there, teaching me, correcting me, wooing me (sorry David for verging on “God is my boyfriend theology”!). Sometimes in my distractions during worship time I end up in more awe about God from the distraction then from the song or whatever.
It’s pretty funny actually to think about worrying that God can’t speak to me or I can’t worship Him if I’m not tracking exactly with the corporate worship. Obviously there is something good about tracking with group worship, in community. But it’s not a pass or fail thing.
Anyway, realizing I can still worship and listen to God in the distractions is helping me get less frustrated with my distractibility.
Just to let you know the what you call WSL is literally a connection with God! Those who haven’t ever been able to do this do not really understand. It is a form of worship! You are commanded to worship the Lord with all of your heart, soul, and might! I like to explain liturgial or drama worship such as this… Some people when they are learning things do not get them by just reading or hearing, they need a visual. This is the visual! This is an expression or interpretation, not from some book or at least most of it is not. It is from the heart. This is something that I am very passionate about because it really made an impact on we when I first saw something like this. But if they are doing it from the heart you can tell it is from the heart because something just pulls you into the movements that are bringing praise to our Lord and Savior. There is just a different realm that I go to when I do this. The focus is not on the church or pleasing people, there is a connection with God that I just get lost in!
[...] Someone left an enthusiastic comment about Worship Sign Language (WSL) on my post Hallelujah! Finger Disco! ”Finger Disco” is what I call the practice of signing along to music in church. [...]
I am a very expressive person and when I am in the middle of worship sometimes I find that words just are not enough to express how I feel about my Lord and Savior, as a result I am learning sign language and it is just awesome, I feel like I am worshipping with my whole being. I have learnt two of my fab worship songs and when I am at home i am in my own little world just me and God. I believe what people should do is focus on telling God how much He is loved and appreciated and if they do this then they wouldn’t have the time to be distracted by what others do.Christian should try closing their eyes if dancing, sign language/worship distracts. When we are in the presence of the Lord WE SHOULD FOCUS ON HIM and nothing OR NOONE else SHOULD matter because it is about giving to God what is due to Him. I also look forward in the coming yrs to sharing the gospel with the hearing impaired who really needs christians to get into it so that they can know and love the savior as much as we do, so the same way I worship with my friends using words I will be able to worship with them using sign. God bless and remember its not about YOU!!!!