One of the things I've noticed about modern worship music (and I think I've mentioned this before) is that there are quite a few songs out there that contain lyrics that make statements like these:

"We lift our hands..."
"We stand and lift up our hands..."
"I stand before you now with trembling hands lifted high..."
"And I will daily lift my hands..."
"Lift up your hands, be lifted up..."
"We lift our holy hands up..."
"Lift up your hands and clap for joy..."
"Our hands are lifted high..."
"We lift our hands in praise to you..."

When I'm in a place like the National Worship Leader Conference, there are way more hands in the air than there are at people's sides. But when I'm leading worship in my church, on a "good" day there might be one pair of hands lifted up out of fifty, or even a hundred. You could pick almost any other phrase in any song that prescribes a certain posture (e.g., "We bow down..."), and more times than not (in my church, anyway), what we sing is not reflected in our posture in worship.

I suspect that to a great extent, this is a cultural thing that varies considerably from church to church, and our church is (apparently) not much of a "hand-raising" church. Should I be concerned about that? It is enormously tempting for a worship leader to assess the effectiveness of his or her worship leading on the basis of how many people seem to be "into" the worship singing enough to lift their hands, clap their hands, sing along, what have you. Is that reasonable?

I have led worship for groups of pastors and lay leaders from time to time, and I must admit that when I've led groups like that, they tend to get physically engaged in worship far more than our regular Sunday congregations, and I find it more exciting, more rewarding and more satisfying when that happens. Should that be the case? Is it really fair to assess one's effectiveness as a worship leader, or the effectiveness of a given worship set, based on what percentage of the group has their hands in the air (or clapping, or weeping, or (pick some other criterion)?

Maybe I should just chill out about this--but I confess that it bothers me just a little bit that so many of our people can sing songs like the ones I quoted from above, week in and week out, without actually doing what it is that they are saying they are doing by singing those songs. Is it disingenuous for us to sing lines like those while we're just standing with our arms at our sides (or folded, or with our hands in our pockets)?

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that I've not traditionally been much of a "hand-raiser" in worship myself. This is partly because I am a worship leader who plays the guitar, and one typically needs both hands for that, and the times that I'm in worship and not leading worship are, sadly, few and far between. And even in the context where I'm worshiping but not leading (like when I'm at a worship conference), I'm not likely to have my hands in the air all the time. I suppose I reserve that physical expression for times when I am (for lack of better language to describe it) "in the moment" emotionally.

Does that say something negative about me as a worshiper? Does it say something negative about anyone in worship who doesn't lift their hands (or clap, or otherwise become physically engaged)? Are those who don't raise their hands in worship somehow less spiritual or less earnest in worship than those who do? (Should I even be asking questions like these?)

If the raising of hands in worship is merely a matter of congregational culture and/or personal preference and style, should those of us who lead worship in churches that typically don't raise their hands avoid leading our congregations with songs that seem to encourage the singer to do that? To put it a bit more bluntly, are we singing lies? If I sing, "I lift my hands up" with my hands in my pockets, have I been dishonest in some way, or do we view such lyrics as merely poetic or somehow suggestive of the internal, unseen posture of our hearts?

As it turns out, the Scripture actually encourages worshipers to lift their hands (see Psalm 134:2, for example). Shouldn't I, as a worship leader, do the same? Should the members of our worship team who aren't busy playing instruments actually be modeling this posture for our congregation?

Is there danger that the lifting of hands in worship could become a peer-pressure thing? By encouraging the lifting of hands, are we running the risk that someone whose heart really isn't into worship will go along with it merely because they don't want to be seen NOT doing it? Shouldn't this expression of worship be genuine and natural, flowing from a heart that is truly yielded to God in worship?

And if the lifting of hands is to be encouraged and modeled, what of those people who are extremely uncomfortable, perhaps not really ready to express themselves in that way? Have we put them in an awkward situation?

Or is the lifting of hands in worship something that we do outwardly in obedience, whether we truly "feel it" inwardly or not? Is it the sort of thing that can affect our hearts in the same way that serving someone we don't really like can often end up endearing them to us?

I know that others have written about this extensively (yeah, I Googled it), and I'll go read what they have to say when I get more time, but in the meantime, I'm just asking these questions.

Do you have any thoughts on this?