Raising Hands While Singing

[pastor's wife]

Like most of you raised in the IFB, I was taught that it was wrong to raise hands while singing. I even heard people criticize people who closed their eyes while singing, if they were on the platform. I guess they were afraid that the singer was getting "too emotional."

Since our church has changed, we sing praise and worship now and have several people who DO raise their hands while singing. I no longer think it's wrong to do so; I actually think that WE were wrong for unfairly judging those who did so. But I still feel very uncomfortable raising my hands. Inside, I want to! Inside, I feel like dancing or shouting, but outside, I feel self-conscious and silly even just lifting up one hand.

"Fine," you're probably saying. "If you don't want to, don't." And I understand that. But I wish I weren't self-conscious. I really DO intellectually believe I am totally free to raise my hands, but somehow doing it in real life is really hard.

Something that complicates this is my position as pastor's wife. I don't want anyone to think that I think myself "too proper" to lift my hands. I think sometimes that if I do so, I serve as an example to the other members that it's OK to do it. But then I feel funny even thinking that, because this should be a personal response between God and me. On the other hand, it is rational to realize that people CAN see me and WILL make assumptions about what I choose to do and not do.

Anyone in our church who knows our background might think that my husband or I aren't raising our hands because we think it's wrong, and I don't think that at all! I want to show by example that I'm willing to respond physically while worshipping. Sometimes also I sing on the platform, and I REALLY am being an example, a worship leader, when in front of the congregation.

I don't want anyone to feel FORCED to raise their hands, but I also don't want anyone to feel as if they're not allowed to.

Does anyone else now worship in a church with a more contemporary style and with other members who lift their hands while singing? How have you handled this change from the IFB?

[bean]

Good topic!
I was raised Lutheran and am back in that church. It's not something we did...not that anyone said it was wrong, it just wasn't.

The non denom church I used to attend (with many fundy beliefs) was split. Lots of hand raising. Lots of pressure to do it from praise leaders. "Why won't you raise your hands?" Emphasizing "Lifting Holy Hands" during a praise chorus. It was almost an admonition. I felt uncomfortable and I don't like that. It was almost like "prove you are holy by doing this" and that was too much.

I never felt that it was wrong, but felt it was wrong to insist I do it. (If that makes sense!) In fact, seeing others do it I respected that it was their way of drawing near to God. That's great!!

[Bob M]

I lift my hands.
Ps 63:4 So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands.

I was pastor of a church that we moved from IFB to a more contemporary style of worship, and it was during that time that I resolved it. 2 things helped. 1. We sang Days of Elijah by Robin Mark (I'll post the words) and I pictured that time when Jesus does physically return to the earth. And what I thought was "will I lift my hands when i see Him?" my answer was yes, I will not care what anyone thinks. 2. I took a seminar by a local pastor who is now my pastor and he taught that worship is both an individual and corporate thing (From 1 Cor 14), so it is alright to close my eyes now and then and think of Jesus and get emotional and to recognize that what I do might affect people, especially my kids. If they see a man who is so enthralled by Jesus that he gets emotional and raises his hands, they will see that I love Jesus more than anything.

These are the days of Elijah
Declairing the Word of the Lord
And these are the days of Your
Servant Moses
Righteousness being restored
And though these are days of
Great trials
Of famine and darkness and sword
Still we are the voice in the desert crying
Prepare ye the way of the Lord

Behold He comes riding on the clouds
Shining like the sun at the trumpet call
Lift your voice it's the Year of Jubilee
Out of Zion's hill salvation comes

These are the days of Ezekiel
The dry bones becoming as flesh
And these are the days of
Your servant David
Rebuilding a temple of praise
And these are the days of the harvest
The fields are as white in Your world
And we are the laborers in Your vineyard
Declaring the Word of the the Lord

[pastor's wife]

bean, that's a good reminder. Both of our worship leaders (we have two guys who share the responsibility) come from more charismatic backgrounds and do tend to encourage people to lift their hands. I don't feel they've ever pressured people but instead are just reminding them that they are free to do so. But perhaps they should also say from the platform that people can also just sing without moving if that's their preference.

Bob M, I LOVE that song!!! That's one I want to leap up and down to (I never have; I just FEEL like it!). I like how you explained your reasoning.

[Lady Julian]

Classic, traditional hymns are one of the very few things I miss about BJU. I appreciate many choruses (and have some favourites among them), but many, especially the newer ones, are too poorly punctuated and vaguely worded for my Englishy self. *Sigh. Incidentally, I am also not huge into raising my hands anyway. I tend to reserve emotional displays for people I'm comfortable with, not large crowds of people, so raising my hands in public doesn't fit into that. I am, however, tempted to sway along to the music. And swaying, y'know, leads to dancing!!

But back to the question: As an introvert, I like knowing, from the leaders in a group, what is contextually appropriate in a situation. I watch my boss to know when it's okay to wear jeans to work and when it's not, or which work activity I should attend and which is for the students. If I were in your church, I would appreciate seeing you raise your hand at times as a way to let me know that hand-raising was contextually appropriate. I think it's okay to share publically with people how you personally respond to God - in this case, hand-raising. Prayer is another way to personally respond to God, and we communicate how we pray to people. So the same thing could apply to raising hands, maybe? (Not trying to "preach at you", just giving you my take on why raising your hand, as a pastor's wife, could be an okay thing).

[Lady Julian]

Oh, and Bob M: Thanks for resurrecting Days of Elijah. That IS one of my favourite contemporary songs!

[pastor's wife]

Lady Julian, I do love hymns! When my husband led the music, we were balancing the new stuff with the old quite well, but when he gave it to the younger guys, neither of whom were raised in churches that sang many hymns, we are not getting the balance that I'd hoped for. Although i do enjoy the songs we sing, I still want more hymns.

(05-15-2012 10:48 PM)Lady Julian Wrote:  But back to the question: As an introvert, I like knowing, from the leaders in a group, what is contextually appropriate in a situation. I watch my boss to know when it's okay to wear jeans to work and when it's not, or which work activity I should attend and which is for the students. If I were in your church, I would appreciate seeing you raise your hand at times as a way to let me know that hand-raising was contextually appropriate. I think it's okay to share publically with people how you personally respond to God - in this case, hand-raising. Prayer is another way to personally respond to God, and we communicate how we pray to people. So the same thing could apply to raising hands, maybe? (Not trying to "preach at you", just giving you my take on why raising your hand, as a pastor's wife, could be an okay thing).

I like how you explained that. Since I am in a leadership position, I can help show the others what is appropriate during our services. If I don't, people may not think that I'm just a little reserved; they might wrongly assume that they SHOULDN'T, and I wouldn't want them to think that. I'm willing to go outside my shell in order to signal to others that physical responses to God are OK in our church.

Good point too about prayer. It's personal between God and you, but you also pray out loud for others to hear. Thus my hand-raising may be a very personal response for me to God, but it's OK if others see it too.

[laurat99]

We have a mix of hand raisers in our church, I'm one of them. Hubby, who works in the sound booth, said that I was given the evil eye by an older member of our congregation when I had my hands raised and eyes closed praising Jesus in song. I didn't notice or care. It's a personal thing, and I try not to be showy about it, but it's Jesus' approval I'm looking for, not some biddy's.

Bob M, LOVE Days of Elijah.

PW, I appreciate your dilemma. When I first started attending church as a young adult, I remember the pastor's wife always using the hymnal when we sang hymns. She knew all the songs, but her using it made me feel better about having to use one, as the songs were all new to me.

[bean]

Closing eyes and drawing into prayer during very meaningful words/choruses...I do that. That's just me. Nobody notices...

Yes, PW, I think it's how the worship leader comes across. I would be fine if they said it the way you mentioned...making people comfortable is really all that it's about.

In my former churcn I was one of several people that took turns doing worship leading. One of our traditions was to recognize birthdays (which was kind of neat). The leader would mention the birthdays and then have the people stand and the congregation would sing happy birthday. It was tolerable for me as the birthday person in the pew, but barely. I knew there were some people who looked like they could crawl in a hole when such a fuss would be made..and other people woulld seem to relish it. When i was the leader, if I noticed someone who disliked the birthday announcement, I either "forgot" them or just simply say happy birthday and move on. I had a few looks of relief when I did that!

[elfdream]

There are degrees of hand raising. You can just have them out in front of you, palms up as if you are receiving something. We obviously don't raise our hands while singing at Mass (although there are charismatic Catholics...I don't know what they get up to.. ) but people often do the arms outstretched from the waist palms up thing during the Our Father.

There is a silly video on youtube by Christian comedian Tim Hawkins about the different degrees of hand raising during worship. It goes from the simple outstretched palms up thing to someone waving a flag around. Pretty funny if you can find it.