Emotion vs. Doctrine: Where is the Spirit?

So you’ve been doing some church shopping, looking around and attending some services. You picked up brochures for visitors. You’ve asked a few questions of the greeting teams. You’ve seen some congregations you think you like. How do you know when you’ve arrived?

“I will feel it,” you might say. “I will know when I see it.” But what is it that you feel, exactly? Is it a feeling of comfort around socially compatible people? Is it a feeling of companionship around friendly people? Is it a feeling of contentment in an atmosphere that is appropriate to your tastes regarding music or the level of formality or the order of service? Or, is the Holy Spirit actually speaking to you?

Feelings can be an important “gut reaction.” Baseball provides an illustration. The distance from home plate to the pitcher’s box is 60 feet and six inches. The bases are 15 inches square and are spaced out 90 feet apart. The baseball weighs five ounces and is nine inches in circumference. The bat is a solid wooden piece, not more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part, and not longer than 42 inches. If the pitcher can throw the ball at 90 miles per hour it takes half a second to reach the plate. The normal human reaction time is two-tenths of a second. So when the major league batter eyes the pitcher, sees him wind up, and then must choose to swing, step back, bunt or let it go, he makes a decision almost instantaneously. However, that instinctive decision is made based on many measurements and known facts. The batter does not tell you that he logically thought the process through, did some math in his head, pondered his options then made a solid decision. No, the batter reacts in a split second and works entirely on instinct. (See infoplease.com and exploratorium.edu on the Web for the source of the technical details above.)

So a “feeling” about a church could be the subconscious accumulation of facts and  observations that by-passed the logical decision making part of the brain and went straight to that instinctive feeling. Or, from a more spiritual perspective, that “feeling” about a church could be the whisper of the Holy Spirit, speaking in that still, small voice. God created our amazing brains that absorb and respond to information faster than we are consciously aware, and He uses it to speak to us if we let Him. But are feelings always reliable? Is it possible to have some red herrings?

There may be times when your feelings delude you. For example, when you know that

you should do something, but don’t feel like it. Or, when it is more comfortable to stay where you are than to step out in faith. I am not suggesting that when we get that “this is wrong” feeling that we should ever go against it. However, we might get a “this is right” feeling, and be entirely wrong! Part of it might be right, but we might be missing a major piece of the puzzle if we aren’t able to look at things objectively before making a solid decision.

Decisions cannot always be made emotionally. Recent research has shown that the human brain uses conflicting areas of the brain to make decisions: the logical part and the emotional part. (National Institutes of Health) A logical decision might be to save for the future. An emotional decision might be to buy something now for immediate gratification. Emotions might not always be steered by the Holy Spirit, and they might steer us wrong. If a church tends to be filled with people in our age bracket or socioeconomic level, we might feel more comfortable. But is this enough to choose a church on? Is uniformity that is aligned to our preferences the same as the presence of the Holy Spirit?

The Bible says to search God’s Word “precept upon precept, line upon line.” (Isaiah 28:10) This text suggests that searching for a church should be just as methodical. Acts tells us about a group of people who used a responsible mix of emotion and logic: “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” (Acts 17:11) They were excited about the message, so their emotions were definitely engaged. However, they didn’t stop there. They investigated the very thing that excited them before accepting it.

If we agree that emotions can deceive us, then what should we base our decision on? Emotion, of course, should not be ignored. Our emotions tell us a lot about certain aspects of life. However, our emotional experience must be backed up by our logical experience. And what logical foundation is necessary?

Many people believe that the logical, doctrinal platform of an organized church does not matter so much as “the Spirit moving” within the congregation. This sets them up for dangerous disappointment. Waves of emotion do not necessarily denote the presence of God. In fact, Christian evangelists have used the emotions of their audience to send in money, then misused the funds for their own affluent lifestyles. (Belle) When the foundation of a church is based on one idea from the Bible (such as the “prosperity gospel”) but not founded on the entire Word of God, the positive emotional experience of the parishioners could be misleading.

So how important is doctrine when looking for a church? Doctrines define a church’s approach to Scripture and its belief structure. If a church believes that the parishioners

should be lining the pockets of the minister in order for God to hear their prayers, then

you should be highly suspicious! But when the church’s belief system can be logically laid out for examination and when the doctrines reflect the Bible honestly, then your decision is based on something more substantial than a feeling. It is based on a foundation that was built “line upon line, precept upon precept” from the Word of God.