I am Baptist, born and bred. I was on the cradle roll and there has never been a time in my life where I was habitually out of church. Believe me, that is not bragging! Being in church makes little difference if you are physically present but your heart isn’t. (Remember that line.) Anyway, I grew up worshipping every Sunday, but we never raised our hands, got on our knees (except occasionally during the invitation), shouted out, or danced. Actually, I do remember that in a sanctuary of over 1000 people, there used to be one man who would shout an “AMEN” every so often. I am sure he got his share of stares. Now, this was no legalistic uptight church. We enjoyed worship and the music was phenomenal; however, outside of singing, there was no physical activity supporting our worship.

That said, why do so many Baptist churches pick and choose Scriptures with regard to worship? I must admit that I kind of cruised through Baptist History at Seminary, but when did the Baptists decide that dancing had no part in worship? When did we begin to look at raising hands as a distraction or irreverent? When did Pentacostals and Charismatics get the patent on energetic and free worship? When did shouting become something relegated to the ball field and rejected in the sanctuary?

Here is my main question: If we, as Baptists, consider ourselves people of the Book, committed to biblical inerrancy, why don’t we appropriate the physical postures we see in Biblical worship into our worship today?

Let me go ahead and address some common responses.

1. The important thing is that I worship with my heart, I don’t have to do that other stuff. There is certainly truth in the statement that the most important aspect of worship is the heart. Let’s be honest though, isn’t that often just an excuse to keep from doing the things we aren’t comfortable doing? When we are worshipping God with all of our hearts, doesn’t it make sense that it would affect our physical posture? After all, when God issued the greatest commandment in the Shema (Deut. 6:4-5), he did not stop with “Love God with heart and soul.” He added “with all your strength.” Worship is a vehicle to express our love for God. Let us not stop with the heart. Remember the statement I said earlier? “Being in church makes little difference if you are physically present but your heart isn’t.” Well, what if we turn that around. Being in church makes little difference if you are there in heart but refuse to worship Him with all of your strength (your posture). Too strong? Maybe…maybe not.
2. I am not comfortable doing those things. You see, I think that really hits the nail on the head. I would greatly appreciate someone showing me in the Bible where worship to God is meant to be comfortable for the worshipper. Granted, we receive a huge blessing when we worship God. But that is a by-product, not the goal. The main goal of worship is to exalt God above all. That might just cost me a little bit of comfort. It doesn’t take long on my knees before they start to ache. The reason we may not be comfortable with biblical postures for worship comes from our tradition, not the Word of God. Not only does the Bible show singing, shouting, raising hands, and dancing to be normative in worship, at times it even commands them. (Ps. 149:1; 100:1; 134:2; 150:4 respectively)
3. Nobody should tell me how to worship, that is my business. You are absolutely correct that no other human being should dictate how you should worship. That is between you and the Lord. But that is the point, isn’t it? Do we involve God in deciding how we will worship or do we just make those decisions for ourselves? Does God have a right to instruct us on how to worship Him? Have you consulted Him? Have you studied His Word on the subject? Too often we make our decisions based upon our own desires rather than what God wants. I am just encouraging you to talk to Him about it and obey what He says.
4. I think it is distracting when people raise hands and move too much in worship. If someone is following a biblical posture of worship and you allow it to distract your worship, then (apologies for my bluntness) the problem is with you, not them. Stop focusing on others and focus on the Lord. That is what worship is all about.
5. Doing those things in worship is irreverent. I have one question. Who decides reverence in worship: Do we or does God?

The Bible is full of references of singing, shouting, dancing, and raising hands in worship to the one true God. I could list them all for you, but it is probably more helpful if you do some research on your on and not simply take my word for it. It is a tremendous study.

One final word: Have you ever paid attention to David as he leads the Ark of the Covenant into Bethlehem (2 Samuel 6)? If you picture David leading in the ark of the Covenant by serenely walking with his arms folded, you are sadly mistaken. He was dancing with all of his might…whirling in fact! {Please note: I need to lose about 70 pounds and do some serious testing of the knee before I would attempt a whirl! But it is a concern of health, not proper worship } When chastised by his wife he states, “I was dancing before the LORD…I will celebrate before the LORD, and I will humble myself even more and humiliate myself.” (2 Sam. 6:21-22a)

Let us be bold enough to worship our LORD with all of our strength!