LAUGHTER ENHANCES A WORSHIP EXPERIENCE
Months ago, while planning our Mitosis conference, the creative team at The Rock Church sat down in hopes of planning a conference with a solid message, powerful worship and fun. In our brainstorming an idea surfaced about how to achieve all these aspects. We all agreed we needed laughter. After all, Prov 17:22, “A merry heart does good, like medicine…”
Is laughter the best medicine? Studies are continuously coming out of Universities indicating laughter is good for the human body because it releases stress and anxiety. People are paying top dollar for what is known as Laughter Therapy. There is a ton of scientific evidence that laughing helps the heart, the brain and the attitude!
What we've discovered at TRC is that laughter enhances a worship service. On Thursday we opened up with Leeland Klassen, a Christian comedian, who had the whole place in stitches, and then on Friday we opened up with a William Wallace impersonation and a 45-second foam sword fight.
Now certainly it would depend upon the comedian and/or the activity, but setting each night up with some comic relief was a home run. People who were feeling stressed from a busy days work were laughing hysterically and melting the stress away. Others who were running late walked into a room full of relaxed people instead of a bunch of awkwardness. There is just something about hitting your neighbor with a foam sword that makes you friends and sets you at ease. I even had the chance of dueling with a local pastor in our city. One of his elders jumped in, whom I have known for nearly 20 years and I had never seen the expression of pure joy on his face like I did when he was swinging his foam sword at me. It was cool!
Both nights, when the worship set began people were immediately engaged. In our experience, there is often an unspoken resistance during the first song where the worship band has to break through and earn the trust of the listener before there is a real connection for worship, but not after laughter. After laughing people at TRC were ready to worship; consequently, they went to a place of worship I had not heard before. Even on Sunday, after the conference there was a new level of worship.
People admitted to me they were a little leery about having a comedian open the conference; afterward, they were totally raving about the entire worship experience. Not only was the comedic relief fun, but it was helpful to set the cares of the world aside.
As an aside I would caution anyone trying to add comedy to a worship experience of a few pitfalls. "Easy comedy" is when the comic makes cruel fun of another or uses what I call “dark humor.” There is no place for dark humor in a worship experience, but there is a ton of material about our own personal lives that is hilarious. The cleanest and best comics are the ones who make the most fun of themselves.
Great job creative team! Adding laughter enhances the worship experience. TRC will continue adding laughter to our worship experience intentionally.
