Evoking the senses 1.
How many of the senses do you use in your teaching and worship? One may be two but what effect would it have if you used all five, smell, touch, sight, sound and taste. <P>Supermarkets have for a long time known the power of smells, in-house bakeries to entice you to buy. The smell of fresh coffee is said to help sell your house. Smell has the power to evoke memories and change our emotions. Perhaps their is more than meets the eye in the high church traditions of using insense and candles. Designer smells for our homes are developing and growing in choice almost weekly with seasonal variations to help create an ambiance our hall way smelt of mulled wine over christmas which seemed completely out of place when the decorations were taken down.
I have used smells in worship, bread baking in a bread machine ready to use for communion creates real anticipation as people enter the room is a great example. Incense sticks burning when talking about our lives being a fragrant offering is powerful both with the smell and visually as the smoke rises. Frankincense and myrrh can be used at Christmas to great affect the smell of myrrh is unforgetable and very strong and helps understand the symbolism of the gift, that it was used to cover the smell of death and became linked with suffering and sorrow (nice present). <P>
But you don’t only have to use pleasant smells sulphar that unforgettable smell of rotten eggs can be used when talking about some of the tougher passages where Jesus talks of hell (probably good to have more than one room you can use), but it will really help the message be remembered. I have used fresh fish just for the aromma when talking about Jonah to help visulize being inside a fish. There are loads of ways to incorporate smells into your session that really can have a profound effect. <P>
It is interesting that NASA discovered that astronauts experience discomfort whilst in space due to the lack of smells, so they have developed a way to add artificial smells that are instinctual for our brains and give us reassurance. <P>
To finish what about the room you meet in? Does it help people focus, relax, feel comfortable or is it damp and musty or smell of food cooked earlier in the day? All this can have a huge effect to how the young people you work with feel. <P>
Go on experiment it may surprize you.
