In 'Revelation', John re-imagines this kind of sensual experience when he describes worship in the heavenly realms. There are trumpets and voices, rainbows and lightning, blood and incense, rumblings and tears, and sweet and sour scrolls. In the premodern, western Church, there was a greater sensual experience than what grew out of the modernist enlightenment. European cathedrals were designed to enhance the appreciation of God through all five senses. These attentions to the sensual experience in worship must be regained in the postmodern Church to help this emerging generation attend to God.
At our church, we are attempting to experiment with sights, sounds, touches, tastes, and smells. We use “PowerPoint,” not only to project song lyrics, but also to show beautiful images throughout the worship experience. We listen to songs, speeches, and silences. We are highly touch-oriented (relational). We feel and smell the bodies around us in worship, and we feel and taste the bread and wine in communion, and the coffee and desserts afterwards. The Christian life is a five-sense, corporeal experience. It is rooted in the humus of our bodies in time and space. It is realized through our physical beings. And the authentically Christian, postmodern preacher will engage her congregants' fully sensual lives.
Sensuality in Preaching (Part 1)
Dan Kimball wrote, “God created us as multisensory creatures and chose to reveal himself to us through all of our senses. Therefore, it’s only natural that we worship him using all of our senses.”
Spiritual formation through preaching to postmoderns must be given in a context that engages one’s full sensual experience. With the rejection of modernist rationalism, a greater awareness of the sensorial experience of life and worship is emerging. This is seen in the importance of music, mystery, and beauty in emergent churches. Postmoderns are not interested in anything that is perceived as merely intellectual. The appropriately irreverent, relevantly real, grounded, Christ-centered faith community will engage the whole person in worship.
This is not a new thing for the faith community. The aberration was the modernist practice of intellectualizing and sanitizing the worship experience. The Old Testament experience of worship, at the Sinai Tabernacle or the Jerusalem Temple, was a fully sensorial experience. Imagine a gathering of the masses bringing their daily sacrifices. There were the sounds of the prayers of thousands of human voices mixed with the chants of hundreds of priests, and the cries of thousands of animals mixed with the blasting of worship instruments. There were the sights of the throngs, the blood, the candles, the altar, the smoke, the dazzling gold, and the colorful priestly garments; the smells of the incense, the burnt grain and meat, and the blood, feces, and sweat. There were the feelings of the crowd on one’s body, the washing water on one’s face and hands, the altar fire on one’s skin, the smoke in one’s lungs, the blood-soaked ground between one’s toes, and the animal, vibrantly alive and then limply dead in one’s hands. There were the tastes of the dryness of the mouth in prayer, the tears of joy and repentance, the flavors of the sacrifices, and the feasting on food before and after. This was an intensely sensual experience.
Spiritual formation through preaching to postmoderns must be given in a context that engages one’s full sensual experience. With the rejection of modernist rationalism, a greater awareness of the sensorial experience of life and worship is emerging. This is seen in the importance of music, mystery, and beauty in emergent churches. Postmoderns are not interested in anything that is perceived as merely intellectual. The appropriately irreverent, relevantly real, grounded, Christ-centered faith community will engage the whole person in worship.
This is not a new thing for the faith community. The aberration was the modernist practice of intellectualizing and sanitizing the worship experience. The Old Testament experience of worship, at the Sinai Tabernacle or the Jerusalem Temple, was a fully sensorial experience. Imagine a gathering of the masses bringing their daily sacrifices. There were the sounds of the prayers of thousands of human voices mixed with the chants of hundreds of priests, and the cries of thousands of animals mixed with the blasting of worship instruments. There were the sights of the throngs, the blood, the candles, the altar, the smoke, the dazzling gold, and the colorful priestly garments; the smells of the incense, the burnt grain and meat, and the blood, feces, and sweat. There were the feelings of the crowd on one’s body, the washing water on one’s face and hands, the altar fire on one’s skin, the smoke in one’s lungs, the blood-soaked ground between one’s toes, and the animal, vibrantly alive and then limply dead in one’s hands. There were the tastes of the dryness of the mouth in prayer, the tears of joy and repentance, the flavors of the sacrifices, and the feasting on food before and after. This was an intensely sensual experience.
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