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Is it o.k. for the congregation to engage in hand clapping during the worship services?

No!  There are 5 acts of worship authorized by the Lord revealed to us by His New Testament.  These acts of worship are praying (Acts 2:42), the teaching of God's word (Acts 20:7), partaking of the Lord's supper (Acts 20:7), giving (1 Corinthians 16:1-2), and singing (Ephesians 5:19).  There is not one explicit or implicit command or apostolic example given to us showing forth God having authorized hand clapping during the worship services.  

People that are in favor of hand clapping say that it is only an expression of one's emotion.  Is not our worship to be in spirit and in truth (John 4:24)?  Yes, but we express our emotion, i.e. attitude (spirit), by doing as God commands.  We express our love for Jesus by keeping His commandments (John 14:15).  By following the New Testament pattern of worship and having the right attitude to do so is how we worship God in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).  

Would it be right for one to stomp his feet, shout, jump up and down, dance, run around, wave his hands in the air, etc., etc. in the worship services?  No!  For we are to do things dencently and in order (1 Corinthians 14:40).

Hand clapping is adding to the worship, which involves the adding to God's word, but we are commanded not to add or take away from God's word (Revelation 22:18-19).  

Finally, are we to worship God for our enjoyment in a manner that will be entertaining to us, or are we to worship God for our spiritual enrichment in a manner well pleasing to His sight by offering to Him those things, which He commands of us?  He does not command us to clap our hands in worship, therefore by doing so in the worship services we will not be well pleasing in His sight.

Jimmy Simmons

Also, please note that hand clapping is the first step into liberalism. The pattern seems to go something like this. A congreagation will begin using an overhead projector or PowerPoint presentations to display the songs and sermons (with Bible verses) on a large screen, this then frees up the hands of the congregation. Next comes the clapping, then microphones placed on certain people in the congregation to "make the singing sound better". This becomes a choir and it just keeps spinning out of control until there is no trace of the Lord's church left. Christians need to be wary when things like this begin to be suggested. On the surface they may not seem bad, but it may lead to worse problems down the road.

I agree with both of you.  Whats funny is that I just had this conversation with my brother a couple of days ago.

WHen people talk about hand clapping, they often are talking about two different things.

The first: Clapping along with singing.
The problem with this is that we condemn instrumental music in worship because we're commanded to sing.  We don't condemn it because there is anything SINFUL about instruments.

But some brothers attach the sin to the instrument and then think that its ok to replicate the drum as long as you dont use a drum.  Thats what clapping is about.

If singing is commanded, then EVERYTHING else is excluded; including clapping.


The second thing people are talking about when the issue of clapping comes up is: clapping for the preacher or the song leader.

They defend this practice by saying that clapping is just another way os saying "AMEN".  

OK. If you're mute, I can live with that.  But I don't believe that's whats going on.

When I've observed it, it mainly seems to be applause!  They seem to be applauding them instead of focusing on what is beign sung or preached.  The focus is then off of Christ and on the man.

Clapping seems problematic regardless of what it is for.

But lets say that it is another form of saying "AMEN". Do you guys see a problem with that?

Hi John, nice to see a new face around here.  

Clapping/applause is a congratulatory message to someone for something they said or did. I just don't think you could ever make clapping the same as saying "amen". It'd be like calling an apple an orange. It's just not the same thing.

Let me add just a little to the whole hand clapping "issue". First of all I don't like hand clapping in the worship service - I just find it kind of creepy. But is it a sin? Doubtful. Look for a moment at the church at Corinth. Here was a church that was making a feast out of the Lord's Supper, they tolerated and celebrated incest, they were in violation of Jesus' teaching on marriage and divorce, they abused the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the list could go on but I think you get the idea. However; Paul never refers to them as anything but brothers, and never once questions their salvation.

I believe that being united with one another across the brotherhood is so much more important than dividing over trivial issues. and yes hand clapping is a trival issue. Sitting at my desk the other day I listed 50 issues the coC has divided over at one time or another. This was just off the top of my head. To list a few I came up with hand clapping, PowerPoint, felt boards (the PowerPoint of the 1960's), one cuppers, humming, use of songbooks, shaped notes, wearing hats, paid ministers, etc, etc, etc. For the sake of argument lets suppose that God has a firm position on each of these issues. Do you really think anyone could go thru and pick out exactly how God feels about each and every one of these? Again, doubtful. No, if you look at what Jesus continually called for and prayed for right before He left earth it was unity. And dividing over these trival matters certainly does not please God. And I would also encourage you to read Romans chapter 14. You'll see that differences of opinions are not only Ok within the church - they'er to be expected and we're to tolerate them as much as possible.

What issues must we agree on? That Jesus Christ is the Son of God. That baptism is the point of salvation and is for the remission of sins. Much more than that and we are only dividing the Lord's church. Look at the Corinthian church and 6 of the 7 churches of Asia in Revelation. These were all in extremely bad shape but they were still considered brothers and were in full fellowship.

Hi JD and welcome!

Breaking fellowship with a congregation at the first sign of wrong you see them engaged in is definitely not the best thing. Every effort should be made to show that erring congregation the error of their ways. Using your examples, the church at Corinth was indeed weak and engaged in several things that were unscriptural and we see Paul admonishing them and showing them how to correct such things. If they had continued in those things without listening to Paul, what would have been the outcome? For that we go to your other example in Revelation. As you said here we see six of the seven churches of Asia who are currently not walking as they should. Were they immediately cut off? No. They are warned to turn back to their first love and to remember from "whence thou art fallen, and repent" (Rev. 2:4-5). They are given time to correct the wrong and make things right. If they did not, what would happen? They would be spit out of the body of Christ (Rev. 3:16); or in simpler terms, they would be lost.

So is clapping during services a sin? Let's see what we can find on it in the Bible. First of all, it is not mentioned as anything done by the New Testament church in their worship to God. Ok. So why do people clap during services then? The two reasons mentioned in the previous posts are the only reasons I can think of for why people do it. So let's boil those two reasons down... if someone claps in addition to their singing, they have sinned by adding to God's commandment to sing, so that would be a sin. So what if they are clapping to approve of something or to agree with something that was said or done. If you approve of a prayer, what do you do? You are allowed to say "amen" according to the example given in 1 Corinthians 14:16. So is it alright to clap after a prayer? What about after the Lord's Supper? If it's not alright to do that, why would it be ok to do so during the sermon or after a baptism? So instead of using the approved method of saying amen, people have changed that to clapping. Have they added something to the worship? Yes. Is that a sin. Yes, as previously mentioned below in Rev. 22:18-19.

Are Christians who do this still Christians? Yes, but they are sinning and it is our duty to lovingly show our brethren the error in their actions and bring them to a better understanding of the Truth.

Hey Jake, Lots of good comments. One good brother wrote an article several years ago entitled "Let God do the Clapping." Thats good advice. We are not the audience, He is.