If emotions—ours or those of others—become the final arbiter of truth, we’ll quickly lose our way. Christians are called to submit every part of our lives, including our emotions, to Christ’s authority. When our affections are grounded in Scripture’s truth, we’ll be able to better navigate the complexities of contextualization without compromising the gospel.

At a Christian youth rally, I observed something that gave me pause. As one of the worship sessions was winding down, the worship leader led us in the song “There Is None like You,” which is meant to highlight God’s incomparable greatness:

There is none like you
No one else can touch my heart like you do
I can search for all eternity long
And find there is none like you

Near the end, he declared that God wanted to sing this song to all the teenagers who filled the room that evening, which meant the object of worship suddenly shifted from the incomparable greatness of our God to a group of teenagers.

I felt my blood pressure rising, but more surprising was that as this song was sung to them, many of the teenagers in the room cried. No doubt, they craved love and affirmation—the worship leader rightly recognized this need, but his approach was flawed. It manipulated the emotions of susceptible teenagers rather than addressing them with honesty and care. Had a poll been taken that evening, the leader’s actions might have received overwhelming support, but popularity doesn’t justify compromising truth. Just because it felt right in that moment didn’t make it right.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a preacher who loves good music, and I’ve been to many worship events throughout my life that featured gifted speakers, vocalists, musicians, and sound engineers (praise God for such people!). Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed a few instances where a soothing tongue, a catchy bass riff, and the right ambience took over an entire room.

Our emotions play a significant role in the Christian life. It’s undeniable that throughout Scripture, God calls us to feel certain things—love, joy, sorrow, fear, anguish, and hope. The Psalms, for example, is a rich tapestry of human emotions expressed before God, showing that our feelings aren’t to be suppressed; they should be appropriately expressed through worship, prayer, and song.

However, due to the rise of the postmodern self and therapeutic culture, emotions have become not just part of the human experience but the central authority in people’s lives. This makes evangelism challenging today, specifically as it relates to contextualization—connecting the changeless gospel to our changing times.

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