[Lance]

I agree with Nick. We need to worship with our intellect as well as with our emotions. I wonder how many people have been moved by a particularly emotional worship service into dedicating their lives to Jesus, only to wake up the next day & wonder what they were thinking? Unfortunately, if that happens, it's because they weren't thinking so much as they were feeling. They only had one half of the equation. A good worship service needs to include time in the Word, prayer, & perhaps even a general confession of sins & a pronouncement of forgiveness. It should also be supplemented with daily Bible reading & prayer &, as Nick suggested, service.

My own background is not Pentacostal, but I occassionally attend other worship services. I was at a 2 1/2 hour Pentacostal service a couple weeks ago & the overflowing emotions of the people was overwhelming. We did spend quite a bit of time in the Word & in prayer, although there was no public confession & forgiveness. I don't know if some Pentacostal churches regularly include this or not.

I confess now that the overall emotionality of it left me drained for almost a week afterward. I didn't pick up my Bible again until Thursday or Friday & I couldn't bring myself to listen to the local Christian radio station until Saturday. Maybe it's because my own faith tradition tends to lean too far the other way. We pride ourselves on having a strong theology, but we find it hard to emote in a public setting.

I like a happy medium, which is what I try to bring to worship when I'm leading. Get the people to clap their hands & dance around, but also keep that Law/Gospel, Sin/Forgivess theme in their minds (as well as their hearts).

I see that as I've been typing this long-winded essay here, theworshipfiles has posted a more concise but well-thought out view on this matter that sort of compliments mine & Nicks.

Let me end this by saying that, yes, it is possible for worship leaders to emotionally manipulate the worshippers. It is not the desireable thing to do, though. There's nothing wrong with getting emotional during worship, but it should be more than that. It's good that you're aware of that danger, because, hopefully, that will make it easier to avoid it.