#345. Hand Raising Worship – The 10 Styles
Jul 14th by JonThere are some topics that require more than just a remix. Like prayer for instance, I could write a dozen posts on that because it’s so interesting. Or metrosexual worship leaders, I feel like that idea just keeps giving and giving to us.
So when my wife leaned over to me at church and said, “People sure do have different styles when it comes to singing with their hands raised,” I knew I had to cover the topic at least one more time. I had to, like Jane Goodall in the jungle, step inside the world of hand raising and report what I found. I did and here, after deep scientific study in the field of sarcasmology, are the 10 styles of hand raising I encountered, starting with the least extreme to the most extreme:
1. The Ninja
You are tricky sir, truly, you are tricky. This guy is testing the waters. He sees ladies near him that throw their arms in the air at the first hint of a Chris Tomlin song but he’s not so sure. I mean, what if his friends see him? He used to make fun of people that did that. So instead of going all out, he does a fancy little move. He puts his hands by his pants pockets and just flips them over with his palms facing the heavens. From behind, you can’t see that he is doing anything out of the ordinary and from the front it just looks like he is cupping his hands slightly as if to show you what was in his pockets.
2. The Half & Half
This person often wants to sing with both hands raised, but they go to a conservative church and don’t want to be known as “that guy.” So instead of singing with both hands up, they hold one in the air and put one in their pocket or on the chair in front of them. It’s like half their body is saying, “YAY JESUS!!!!” and the other half is saying, “Nothing to see here folks, move it along please, move it along.”
3. The Single Hand Salute
This is the cousin of the half & half but is different in it’s level of intensity. Instead of just kind of floating in the air, the hand you have up goes out straight at an angle, as if you are saluting some visiting military dignitary. It’s possible this move was first instilled in people when they were young with the song, “God’s Army.”
4. The Elevator
This one technically marks our transition into multi-hand motions. In this move, you act like there is a rule against having both hands raised at the same exact time. So you start rotating your arms. As soon as one arm comes down, the other arm goes up. It’s kind of an awkward dance move, but works pretty well when set to “Blessed be the Name.”
5. The Pound Cake
This is what we in the industry, of hand raising in case you were wondering, refer to as an “underhand move.” Instead of sticking your arms out, you hold them with your palms facing the sky as if you are ready to receive something from someone in front of you. In the pound cake, your elbows should be at stomach level, with your hands tilted at a 47 degree angle as if someone visiting your house warming party is about to hand you a delicious pound cake. It’s not a heavy cake, so you don’t have to brace yourself, but can instead just relax and think, “hey cool, pound cake. Let me take that for you.”
6. The Tickler
It’s getting serious now. The tickler is the person that sticks their arms out horizontally as if they were trying to make a big T with their body. This is a fine move except that because we’re all sitting so close, they inevitably bump into you with their hands. So while you try to sing along with the chorus, you can’t help but giggle as they, lost in a moment of blissful worship, accidentally tickle you.
7. The Double High Five
I am very stingy with my high fives. I think the last time I gave one was in the delivery room of my second daughter. The next time I give one will be if I get a book deal. Other than those two situations, I find the high five to be the physical version of using a lot of exclamation marks!!! That’s why I rarely do this move. The double high five looks exactly like it sounds. You act like you’ve just scored a goal in soccer/football and are about to double high five the person in front of you. (Some people call this move the “Secret passageway” because it kind of looks like you are feeling along a wall for a hidden button that will open a secret door. But I’m a purist and don’t use that term.)
8. The Huge Watermelon
This is like the pound cake on steroids. In this move, your arms are held higher and with a considerable about of dedication and determination. It’s still an underhand move, but now, instead of a light and fluffy cake, someone on a truck is handing down a huge watermelon to you. Better get ready, that thing looks heavy.
9. The Helicopter Rail
At this point, both arms are raised high in the air. This is professional hand raiser territory we’re in. Please don’t try to do this at home. With this one, you reach your arms out, way over your head but out in front of your body. Imagine if you were stuck on a piece of driftwood and a shark with a laser on its head was about to get you and you had to desperately reach out for the rail of a helicopter that was attempting to rescue you. Stretch, stretch, you gotta want it.
10. The YMCA
This is my favorite and probably most common hand raising technique. It’s not complicated. Much like the famous song, you simply raise your hands above your body and form a big Y. That’s all, but it leaves little doubt to the folks around you what is going on. You’re worshipping. It’s big, it’s beautiful, it’s messy and it’s great.
Although I tend to be a pound cake kind of guy, I like when people raise their hands. This is the second time I have written about it. My friend said that when her mom did it, it always looked like she was clearing a runway for God to land. I think that’s pretty cool and hope to one day work my way up to at least mastering the huge watermelon.
Some other stuff I wrote today:
1. That’s pretend, right? – A child-sized nuclear bomb gets dropped on me.
2. Important - The greatest risk you face today.
Comments
Have I missed something, or has no one commented on “the hold-up”? This is where you hold your hands up, palms out, elbows bent at a 90 degree angle as if you are being held up at gunpoint. There’s a lady in my church who does this, but no one would want to steal from her because all they’d get is a pair of peach twisty beads from the 70s and a tortoise-shell hair clip.
okay, so i went to church last night and found out that i’m a half-and-half. but i know for a fact that sometimes i’m a YMCA.
i think i was a half-and-half last night because i was so paranoid about who might be sitting behind me snickering at my technique. in other words, i was distracted from worshiping GOD because i was wondering who else in my church is a regular reader of SCL.
These comments are great and deserve a remix one day, I think. I would also like to note the synchronized arm raising, as though everyone in the congregation has been practicing exactly what beat they’re going to raise their hands on. Sometimes I wonder if visitors think they missed the memo.
haha- i loved this! i’m usually a pound cake or watermelon person, but sometimes i get close to the helicopter rail. there’s usually a certain level of people-are watching kind of tension that i have to get past in order to even get to this quasi stage. it’s sort of like the watermelon with palms outward, arms slightly more extended. anyway, just wanted to say in my church that i go to when i’m at college, while the choir’s singing, a few people, the pastor and a couple others, will raise one arm while sitting. i think it’s interesting, like they want to be standing up worshipping, but it’s the choir’s time right now, so they sit, but they still raise a hand to still get in on a little of the worship.
Now, we can’t forget the “Single Finger Toward Heaven” motion…that’s when you simply raise your arm in the air and motion a “You’re #1, Jesus!”
Hip hip hooray!
My husband and I have discussed this very topic with our friends. I tend to be a “both arms straight up in the air” because my husband has a huge wingspan and is taking up all my worship air space. We also have the “blowin’ in the wind” (a favorite of the girls) where they have their arms to the side and back. Very similar to the Titanic worship style (when Rose and Jack were on the front of the ship). Very funny!
I can’t say that I fit into any of these categories. I’m from a conservative background and have 4 kiddos, so I just tend to swoop a kid up into my arms at the first hint of a moving Spirit. That way I don’t look too unspiritual……My hands are just more importantly engaged with the tangible results of my obedience, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
My youngest is 2 now, so I find that swooping up someone else’s babe not only prevents the awkward “what do I do with my hands?” moments, but also showcases my selfless thoughtful nature;)
Have you ever thought about compiling some of your best sarcasmologic musings into a small and easy to carry book, perfect for graduation and secret sister gifts? I’m thinking Jack Handey’s Deep, Deeper, and Deepest Thoughts……on crack……spiritual crack, of course.
I was thinking I might tell you that I LOVE your posts, but I noticed you have an ego problem, so instead I’ll just tell you that you have potential;)
I’m usually a half & half pound cake. Haha.
I’m trying to catch up on stuff I missed over the weekend and I didn’t realize how much I miss in just a few days. Too funny.
Prodigal Jon,
I’m surprised no one else caught this typo. Under the “Double High Five” category, you typed “you are feeling along a wall for a hidden button that will upon a secret door”. Personally, uponing a secret door sounds much cooler than opening a secret door, but it should be opening. Excellent post though.
Why does a shark with lasers on its head sound familiar? What movie are you referencing?
Someboy posted the link to the YouTube video that had the 7 forms of hand raising. Their version of The Tickler was called Shawshank Redemption. I've always wanted to try the Shawshank / Tickler but my 6'3" wingspan might hit the people next to me.
Shark with laser is an Austin Powers reference.
I'm curious to know what types of churches your readers go to. Nearly all the posts were made by people who raise their hands (though maybe non-raisers didn't feel like posting). The church I grew up in nobody, I mean zero people, raised their hands.
The church I previously went to there was the "Standard 10." In a church of 1,000 there would be those same 10 people who raised their hands, but no one else.
The church service I now attend, depending on God's movement that morning, up to 90% of the people might raise their hands.
From a lot of these comments it sounds like most people go to "well-raised" churches, meaning more than just a few people raise their hands.
I'm a half & half on an aisle seat. I don't want my neighbor's nose to be level with my armpit… for their sake.
wow.
i just discovered this site today.
wow.
i’m a worship leader, so i totally love this post.
one congregation of which i used to be a part had a lady just off center in the front row who we all swore was practicing lasso maneuvers… we all called her “rodeo lady” and just tried to avert our eyes.
when i’m not leading, i generally pound cake or watermelon for deeper introspective songs, and do a “rockaparty” when i feel it on an uptempo number…
the rockaparty is so-named for its resemblance to a DJ getting the crowd going. it starts like a half-and-half: one hand straight up, but the hand then bobs back and forth to the beat, usually resulting in an accompanying head bob.
I just found your blog yesterday and I can’t stay away! This is good stuff!! I had to do the “whisper giggle” at work this morning as I sneaked a peek at your perfect explanations from churchdom. This will be hours of entertainment for me. THANKS!!
There is nothing more embarrassing to me than the thought of raising my hands in church. Like, way more conservative than the “White Knuckler.”
I didn’t know whether to be embarrased, angry with offense, or laugh out loud … I still don’t know really … but I’m smiling now. The YMCA version (“It’s messy and it’s great.”) was a nice way to finish it off.
Wow – I’m such a poundcake girl. I love the “47-degree angle” description too – it’s not quite 45 degrees, but it’s close!
Although, I’m getting dangerously close to what ‘rachael and travis’ described – I’m doing so many kids’ songs that I’m starting to unconsciously make up actions to adult church songs too!
I love your blog! It’s so funny to be able to laugh at some of the “christian-ese” things that tend to go on in our faith. It’s a breath of fresh air!
Thought the post was funny, but I think its wierd that in some of the comments people are saying that they feel like its OK to not really lift their hands in worship because a guy who writes professionally says other poeple are ninjas too. Crowd mentality doesn’t make things right, being Biblical makes them right. I dont find where King David did the ninja praise.
Is the pound-caker really a 47 degree angle or a 92 degree angle. When I picture putting hands out to grab a pound cake, my elbows are at a 90 degree angle +/- 2 degrees.
I am in the choir part of the worship team at my christian school, and we have what we call the “puppet song.” It’s a song our worship leader wrote, during which the audience just kind of sits there, the more enthusiastic people with their hands raised in their respective ways. Then, once we get to the very powerful chorus, a strong “Our God reigns!!!” the number of hands in the air increases by at least 75%. After our worship leader pointed this out to us, it’s so hard not to laugh in the middle of worship.
Ahhhhh! lol… too funny!
My current church is moving into more hand-raising… but my last church was one where you wouldn’t make it into heaven if you didn’t hand-raise. (Over the microphone the MC / Preacher / Worship Leader would call people out for not worshiping God!)
So me sitting in a moderate hand raising congregation, I don’t always want to be “that guy” (even though I am) so I cycle through all the above techniques with a little bit of lyrical interpretation sprinkled in.
Oh the fun!
hahaha, sharks with laser beams attached to their heads…
i sometimes go for the pound cake, and on some occasions, the watermelon. otherwise, usually i’m a white-knucklers.
What about the “I’m super spiritual but also super guarded, so I’ll put my hands up a quarter of the way, in front of me, with my palms up and close my eyes.”
That’s my favorite.
My husbands sometimes references a guy from college who frequently used a “crab hands” method.
If there is a photo up on the overhead behind the worship lyrics of a guy or gal with their hands raised, does this mean we are all supposed to do it too?? By the way, I think this would be a great post of its own– Those “Photos of Super-Spiritual Excited Holy People We Put Behind the Lyrics on the Overhead.” It is along the lines of the music played during prayer– is this supposed to make us feel more emotional about the song? because mostly it just makes me feel UNspiritual compared to the super-spiritually excited woman in a polo shirt who is raising her hands to the sky.
You know who else liked single hand salutes? Hint: small black mustache, liked to kill Jews.
One more: hailing a taxicab.
I'm a serious white-knuckler… maybe a ninja if I'm feeling really moved. The very traditional Episcopal church I grew up in DID NOT RAISE HANDS EVER. I'm not kidding. We didn't interact with the clergy during the service either, except to take communion. One time a guy said "Amen" to our priest's sermon, and everyone looked at him like he had two heads.
Now I go to a much more relaxed Anglican church, where hand-raising and amen-ing are very common. I'm totally comfortable with other people doing it, but I can't without feeling weird. I sing on the worship team, so I usually just tap my fingers on the side of my leg or something. I know there are other people out there in the congregation who feel awkward raising their hands, so I feel good about being the one person on the worship team who looks like them – that way, they don't feel obligated to raise their hands if they don't want to.
I mentioned this post to my brother-in-law, who goes to my church, and he came up with a new one, "Holding Back the Crowd." You bend your elbows so that your hands are sticking out at 90-degree angles from the rest of your body, and move your hands like you are trying to hold back an unruly crowd at a red-carpet event.
Had to laugh at this post, since I and some friends have our own version of this same idea. Our concept was a take off of a comment made by another friend about churches where people practice what she called "windshield wipers for Jesus." From there we of variations, based on different sorts of windshield wipers–here's a few variations:
1. The "semi"–one hand raised and waved back and forth.
2. The "delivery van"–two hands raised and waved back and forth in opposite directions
3. The "Mercedes headlights"–two hands being weakly waved back in forth, in very short arcs.
On a similar note, how about a post on typical styles of speaking in tongues? A friend of mine who grew up in the Assemblies of God talked about how she and her brothers and sisters had given names to some of the folks in their church based on the way they spoke in tongues–for example, one of them was called the "Hoodema" lady because most of her speaking in tongues consisted of repeating those three syllables over and over. Another friend mentioned a similar experience, where they had someone in their church who sounded like they were saying, "She came in a Honda." I realize this post might not be as interesting for non-charismatic or non-Pentecostal folks, but for some of us, it could be a lot of fun. Keep up the good work!
vicky – you've made my week! have been looking for that video for 3 years…thank you
must admit some of these moves are new to me, but i've definitely come across the double-high five, with forward-backward rocking. i'm often a half and half-er.
really excited about the book Jon. Me and my friends have had some brilliant evenings reading your posts together, keep it up
Great post. I used to go to a hand-raising church, but then I got Presbyterian so there's pretty much no hand raising now. Never tried the Ninja, but I find that I can do the pound cake while holding a hymnal in my hands and I like to think it's pretty subtle.
you christians are weird
you forgot the teenage girl one, also called the "I'm Famished!"
what you do is raise one hand, palm out, straight up. the other hand is then placed palm down on the stomach like you're trying to channel some supernatural energy straight from your stomach to the sky.
Similar to the Pound Cake and Ninja is the "Oliver Twist" where your elbows are at your side and your hands are cupped in front of you touching your belly with palms facing the Heavens. Kind of like you are asking for more porridge.
I am lucky in that I have a guitar in my hands so I don't have to worry about being a ninja or whatever! Maybe you should add an "air guitar" category, because I've seen a few kids do that on the more rocking tunes.
[...] Funny post – How metrosexual is your worship leader – from a site full of hilarious musings and similarly amusing descriptions of hand-raising methodologies [...]
[...] thought I’d share this link to a humorous account of The 10 Styles of Hand Raising. [...]
Saw an 11th one the other day. I'd like to call it the "Synchronized Hand Raising."
This was one where a couple in front of the sound booth raised their hands at the same time into the YMCA, then held hands in the air until the bridge. When "Shine your light and let the whole world see" started to be proclaimed, they could no longer be satisfied to hold hands, but began clapping along with the background singers. The woman's right hand and then man's left became a rhythmic movement the likes of which have yet to be equaled, as they clapped them together "For the Glory of the Risen King". It was incredible.
The YMCA Xtreme… where the person moves their arms so much it's as though they are actually doing the YMCA choreography.
Soooo distracting!
I haven't read all the comments, but I've seen two others…
1. The Sensei – Forming a fist with one hand (preferably the left), and then wrapping the right around the left, as if playing paper, rock, scissors, and paper won. This is like an, "I'm ready to make this happen," yet "I'm listening" kinda pose.
2. The Limp Wrist – Ha! I need to be careful here. This move is prevalent among teenagers. It's like a YMCA/Double High Five hybrid, except the hands fall limp when they hit their apex. It's like they're saying, "I'm excited, but not really."
Thanks for doing this man. It's beautiful
I would probably be one of the people who does the YMCA or the Helicopter Rail…and now I'm going to giggle in worship sometime thinking of this and someone will catch me and think I'm a heathen!