Are churches replacing presence with atmosphere when trying to create spiritual experiences?
I read this question in my Twitter feed sometime ago and knew the person was on to something. “Churches are replacing presence with atmosphere. True? I think so.”
Have contemporary church gatherings become very good at creating atmosphere and packaging it as presence?
Have contemporary churches become very good at creating an atmosphere and packaging it as presence? Click To TweetThink of it like this -
When we mix together the right combination of songs, in just the right order, with the right accompanying music – music that incorporates an appropriate number of crescendos and decrescendos – and combine it with emotive video presentations, choreographed lighting and darkened rooms, are we not working to generate an atmosphere in order to facilitate a spiritual experience?
I wonder…
I wonder if what we interpret as presence may sometimes prove to be little more than an experience we’ve generated by creating a certain kind of atmosphere?
The two are not mutually exclusive so that it is impossible to experience God in such an atmosphere, but I think we’ve been conditioned to automatically equate atmosphere with presence as though they are one and the same.
I wonder if we’ve become so proficient in creating ambiance that we have at times traded authentic presence for atmosphere?
I wonder if we’ve become so good at creating an atmosphere that we assume it is presence by default?
What are the ramifications of making this assumption?
What if our weekly presentations are designed to feel like presence, but are instead the result of a well-manufactured atmosphere that tricks us into believing we’ve experienced authentic presence?
Another important question to consider is whether or not we believe we have the ability to create or manufacture authentic presence to begin with?
We often make the promise to create a worship experience for those who attend our gatherings, but will the experience we create prove to be little more than a human attempt to fabricate something we cannot actually fabricate?
Replacing presence with atmosphere
Echoing the above Tweet, I too am afraid that our focus on creating an atmosphere has sometimes trumped real presence.
Early on, Charles Finney believed that if he created just the right conditions he could produce an atmosphere conducive to launching a revival.
However, the idea elicits two concerns:
- It demonstrates the belief that human beings can somehow manufacture divine presence.
- It also reveals the underlying belief that we can somehow manipulate the divine to move and act in certain ways on our whims, if we combine the formulaic conditions required to activate such a move.
Both ideas are problematic and force us to ask these related questions:
Have we given up the real for the unreal?
Are churches promising presence and then working to fabricate an atmosphere in an attempt to deliver on that promise?
Are we conditioning people to believe that a certain kind of feeling generated in a worship experience can be automatically equated with God’s real-presence?
What if the fabrication feels real to us but actually misses the real in the process?
My primary concern is that people consistently mistake atmosphere for presence.
While God can decide of his own volition to work in the midst of even the most unorthodox of circumstances, we cannot always assume that an experience is God’s stamp of approval on the methods used to generate said experience.
Pragmatism does not equal orthodoxy. Just because something works doesn’t mean it's true.
Pragmatism does not equal orthodoxy. Just because something works doesn’t mean it's true. Click To TweetI believe that God can work and move anywhere – even in the midst of our failed delivery systems. However, the perceived sense of presence experienced in the midst of these delivery systems cannot be interpreted as God’s approval of the delivery system itself, as though the end somehow justifies the means.
It simply demonstrates that God has voluntarily chosen to respond to lives that are open to him, even if the location, space and method in which they experience this presence is deeply flawed and in need of significant modification.
God is not limited by our limitations. However, we need to set aside time to reevaluate our systems and reconsider our methods.
Concluding thoughts
Contrary to what some have come to believe, we cannot manufacture or fabricate presence. We can no longer maintain the belief that our primary job as the church is to create a certain kind of atmosphere in order to facilitate a spiritual experience.
However, God can neither be defined by or subjected to our delivery systems. God is not a cosmic genie or vending machine who responds to our every whim. And, God cannot be manipulated to show up because we believe we’ve created the perfect conditions by mixing together just the right ingredients.
Are churches replacing presence with atmosphere?
Are we trying to create spiritual experiences – label it, market it and sell it – with the promise of guaranteed results?
I hope not, but I fear we may have.
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