The Over-Emotionalizing of the Church

Have you ever been told that you have to have an emotional feeling in church to truly be feeling God is at work or even there at all? I have. I'm sure we have all heard that crazy music minister talk about how we need to "get into the Spirit!" by singing louder or clapping. This kind of characterization of Christian interaction with God can make it seem like people who aren't doing this are not in the spirit. This can make people who are not on an emotional high doubt if they even believe.

 Many times Christians look for a feel that is commonly known in christianese as a "church camp high". This is basically when have insane spiritual emotions that overwhelm every other thought that you have. You can feel like you are so in tune with God, because you had a great intimate experience with God. You may even feel like you could charge hell with a squirt gun (not advised). But the question is, what happens when those emotions inevitably fade away or get dulled by day to day life.

One of the problems in the church, especially the church in America, is the massive emphasis on emotions. As an alpha male type of guy, emotions don't always click with me. I only have three emotions; happy, hungry and mad (and I don't think hungry even qualifies!). Going even deeper, I analyze things more objectively than I do emotionally, purely because I want to know what is true, not what makes me happiest. So you may be asking, whats that problem with all of that? Well there are a few problems.

First, this places the experience of Christianity on a subjective emotional response. And unfortunately emotions lie to you. If you don't think so, tell me if the first person you were "in love with" and you swore you would marry was the one you actually did marry? Five bucks says it wasn't, expect in extremely lucky cases. God's word even says that our emotions lie. In Jeremiah 17:9 it says

Christians aren't just happy. They hold other emotions

"the heart is decietful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?"

Doesn't exactly affirm that "listen to your heart" song, now does it?

The thing of it is when we search for truth in purely emotions, we can lie to ourselves. Not on purpose of course, but it is a response to the stimuli that is given to us. We can even reject things because of our emotions and visceral reactions to the actions. Many people reject Christianity not because a percieved lack of soundness of the teachings, but rather from the history of atrocities performed in the name of Christianity. When you hear about things like the Inquisition, it is easy to reject something without thinking about all the facets of the thing you are rejecting. This is much like rejecting a life saving medical treatment, because there may be adverse side effects like an upset stomach.

Another problem with living too emotionally in the church is that this can force out people who are more analytically. Especially people who are intellectuals and skeptics of Christiantiy who regularly analyze things to determine the validity of claims. Rather than relying on pure, raw emotion they look to reason to decide if something is true. So when Christians make it seem like emotion is all you need, we push away people who want to look for truth in a more objective study of the claims of Christianity.

Many people want objective reasons why Christianity is true. Not an subjective reason based off the emotions of a Christian whose mood changes more regularly than the tide. Discouraging the use of reason in the search for God goes against the church's very history and fabric. Men like Thomas Aquinas ,Justin Martyr, and Francis Schaeffer gave objective, academic reasons for the validity of the claims of Christianity, not the dronings of people who seem to be constantly listening to motivational tapes.

While I agree our emotions connect us with God in a way that is unique of Christianity, we can also place our emotions above reason and allow them to decieve us, rather than allowing them to reinforce our reason. When our "church camp" like emotions are swept away by things like a mundane work day or a family tragedy, what foundation will your faith rest on? Let's hope that your faith rests on both the love and emotion that you share with God, as well as a firm understanding of the reasons for why we can intellectually and objectively accept Christianity.