You Ask, I Answer, Take 9

Today's question is from my friend Faye, who asked:

What do you think about (or know about) flag worship?

Oh dear.  That's quite the question!

Flag worship.  That uniquely charismatic expression of worship involving dancing with brightly colored flags or banners.

Gut response?  Cheesy.  And also lovely.

I can tell you that the colors of the flags used in worship in charismatic churches are often (much like the colors of things in liturgical churches) representative of specific meanings and imagery.

I can tell you that at times my gut response is just what I said it was - this is cheesy!  I feel embarrased for the people up there dancing around with the flags.  I feel uncomfortable with their seemingly unfettered and unrefined worship.  But that response is absolutely all about me.

I can also tell you that there have been times when the colors and the motion and the unfettered and unrefined nature that makes me so uncomfortable has also given me pause, and spoken to deeper parts of my soul.  Where I have seen the unseeable and experienced worship in a different way because someone was dancing with a flag.  Where the noise, the symbolism, the colors have given rise to what Pete Greig described as "a thunderous, resounding, bone-shaking great ‘Amen!’" within my spirit.

I think it's totally a preference thing, and maybe a time and place thing.  I think that it requires a humility and sensitivity of spirit, to know the right time and place, and to be open to what God would teach and show you in the midst of that.  Not easy by any means, but totally worth aiming for.

(oh, and by the way, Faye doesn't blog very often, but when she does it's almost always worth reading and truly beautiful.  You should check her out at the link I posted above.)