Our visiting charismatic worship leader, a very talented, gifted speaker, with obvious God-given leadership abilities (which I applaud) lead her worship set with this monologue.
Hannah I loved what you shared about worship in other countries and where you were at in Ghana…And worship in Africa also has had a huge impact on my mom and my dad and my family and not only worship in Africa but worship in prison had a huge impact on my family. And I love to say that when when we would worship in prison men and women in prison worship like they were free and when we worshiped in church men and women would worship like they were in prison…
And I made a commitment to the Lord at a young age that I would always worship as I was; like I was free, that didn’t matter what environment that I was in. That I would always worship as someone who would stand like a child. I want to worship like a child. I want to worship like a child every day of my life because the Bible says Jesus says, “come to me like a child…” and so to the gentleman who said that he wouldn’t dance: I just invite you this morning; there’s something that happens when we have… when we move there’s something that happens when we make a move in our bodies, because in, active obedience in our heart starts with a shift in our heart often times comes in a shift out here and it’s amazing what happens in a room when people begin to engage with what God’s doing in them and not fear, but not quench the spirit but just engage with what God’s doing. We’re meant to have joy in the father’s presence. We’re meant to find peace and hope and life and you better believe that if I’m going to be getting my groove on somewhere, it’s not just gonna be a Taylor Swift concert… it’s gonna be for the lord of the lords and King of Kings and it’s not just gonna be at a baseball game it’s not just gonna be at my daughter’s volleyball games I will be present in worship and I’m just gonna invite all of you today to worship like no one else’s around you…

Video of monologue before worship set

This sounds heartfelt, authentically spiritual (I don’t discount or condemn her personal experience!) and I even agree with her in some ways. She’s right that worship has different expressions in other places/cultures. I agree that we can learn from and even enjoy participating in those. (I do!) I have no problem with Africans or anyone else moving to song/music more than I’m/we’re used to. But she goes beyond that point and suggests that it’s Thee Only kind of worship God wants/honors; Really? So silent worshipful meditation isn’t worship? So an orchestra playing a soaring religious piece (and nobody but the musicians moving to make the music) isn’t worship to God? So 500yr old Anabaptist hymns that they sang as slow as Gregorian monks wasn’t worship to God? So thousands of years of hallowed hymnody in echoing chapels wasn’t worship to God? So a different personality, who feels closest to God through slower, softer, more peaceful, music or poetry, etc isn’t really worshiping God? So we can’t “engage with what God’s doing” if we don’t move our bodies? It’s only African high tempo and her modern charismatic imitation of that hyper-tempo music that’s real worship? Hmmm…

I don’t think Jesus, the apostles or church fathers or the founders of the Protestant faith taught that. Again, that doesn’t mean that other culture’s worship (or even your imitation of it) is wrong; But it does mean that this teacher’s word to us isn’t the full story. It’s more complex than she suggests and the spectrum of real worship to God is way, way wider than she suggests.

And it becomes even more complex when you bring in the community of Christ following believers, with all the diversity that makes up that Body! She openly discounts that community in this spiel. She specifically says to ignore everybody else; focus only on what YOU want. (or what you think God wants for you) Again, Scripture generally, big-picture, (prophets, Jesus, apostles) teaches the opposite.

Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. – Philippians 2:3-4