Chuckles. Giggles. Guffaws. Belly laughs.

In church? Are you sure it’s allowed? Allowed, yes. In some instances, encouraged and even provoked!

“If we don’t have one good belly laugh in worship, I consider it failure,” says the Rev. Tom Gildemeister, pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Franklin, Tenn. Laughter and mirth permeate the services he leads, sparked by his “out there” sense of humor, his ability to laugh at himself and his shortcomings, and occasional quotes from Monty Python and other contemporary humorists.

“Humor gives me the freedom to be myself and laugh at my mistakes,” Gildemeister says. “I’ve discovered that I don’t get penalized for being myself.”

‘Laughter is God’s great gift’

Christians are called to worship God with all of their being and whole heart, and that definitely includes laughter for the Rev. Greg Schick, associate pastor at St. James United Methodist Church in Little Rock, Ark.

“If we can’t laugh in worship, then I — and many people I know — don’t want to be there,” Schick says.

Schick is a former youth minister who sometimes utilizes extreme visuals to make his point.

 At one contemporary worship service, he jumped on a trampoline and spoke about reaching out (and up) to God, illustrating that one must go down, as in kneeling and praying to God, before being propelled heavenward.

On another occasion, Schick spent the first 10 minutes of his sermon vigorously shaking an unopened soda can, explaining that it represented a person’s life and belief in Christ.

“We should be so excited on the inside about sharing the Good News of Jesus that we can’t contain it,” he told his wide-eyed audience. “And when we share the gospel, we need to be getting lots of people wet with that news.” (Ultimately, he had a young volunteer dress in a plastic suit, climb into a large garbage can and open the explosive soda.)

Laughter is “one of God’s great gifts” that Christians need to share and celebrate more often, Schick says. “Humor is a need of human existence,” he adds. “It makes you feel good, as God intended it to.”

Laughter breaks down barriers

While the Puritan settlers in the United States frowned mightily at anything less than total seriousness in church, many Christians today are bolstered by doses of levity along their faith journey. Today’s seekers, as well as longtime Christians, often find their faith strengthened and enriched by perspectives that find laughter and humor in life.

“When you’re trying to deal with something very serious or very controversial, laughter is almost always a good way to break through people’s defenses,” says the Rev. John C. Holbert, professor of homiletics at Perkins School of Theology in Dallas. He calls laughter a great equalizer, with the ability to unite and bond those who share in it.

“Humor is a way to break down barriers and connect with people,” Holbert says. But using humor requires caution as well.

“By humor, I don’t mean humor at the expense of anyone, or making fun of persons who are different or with whom we don’t agree. That’s cruel,” Holbert says. “But humor that can lead to joy … finding humor in my own foibles, being able to laugh at yourself and where you’ve fallen short. These kinds of things connect us in the church to real humanity. And the congregation can relate and understand.”

The Revs. Greg Schick (left) and Eric Van Meter, associate pastors at St. James United Methodist Church, Little Rock, Ark., entertain at a United Methodist Women’s Christmas dinner.

Humor should never be used to “suppress, deflect or deny conflict,” Gildemeister warns. “Trying to laugh something off — that’s a grave danger.”

His own experiences are most often the source of his congregation’s laughter. “I laugh at myself a lot,” Gildemeister says. “The greatest compliment I can be paid in my ministry is when someone comes up and says, ‘You give us permission to be ourselves.’ That’s what humor does. Humor takes the deadly serious edge off of being ourselves.”

The mood and attitude of the worship leadership is “critical” and sets the tone for any congregation, Gildemeister says. “Your worship leadership should model reverent humor — humor in the service of worshipping God as revealed in Jesus Christ.”

Communities of faith thrive when hope and joy are emphasized. Congregations “come to see life as more than just a serious crawl toward death … they see a life of possibility and hope,” Holbert says.

‘God wants us to laugh’

“Christians use the word ‘joy’ but look very sad when they say it,” observes Dan Brennan, and he’s determined to change that. The administrator of Calvary United Methodist Church in Waldorf, Md., has launched a career as a stand-up Christian comedian. He entertains church groups and is a popular presenter at “Walk to Emmaus” events.

“You don’t have to be sad and unhappy to be a Christian,” Brennan says. “God wants us to laugh. God gave us the gift of laughter.”

Brennan’s humor has to do with common, everyday occurrences “like standing in the express checkout line in supermarkets. Boy, what a place to practice being a Christian!”

Brennan believes in his calling as a comedian so much that he gave up his 30-year career with a telecommunications company to pursue comedy as “a way to give back to God. … If I have a sense of humor,” he says, “I got it from Him.”

‘I think Jesus smiles’

One of God’s promises to followers is a life that can be lived more abundantly. Cathy Lee Phillips, a United Methodist speaker, writer and retreat leader from Canton, Ga., says she “can’t imagine life being more abundant without laughter.” She also finds humor and joy in everyday life and God’s presence in the midst of life’s difficult and sometimes painful twists and turns.

“God smiles. I think Jesus smiles. I would go so far as to think He laughed,” Phillips says. “We get so busy and bogged down with things that we forget to laugh.”

Phillips stresses God is with us, on the good days and the bad. “You can find God in the midst of whatever is out there,” she says. “And finding God means finding joy.”

Humor in the Bible

When it comes to sharing laughter and injecting humor in Christian faith and learning, one can find a host of examples in the Bible.

Consider the exchange between God and Abraham after the prophet “pawned his wife off not once, but twice, as his sister,” Gildemeister chuckles. “I mean, don’t you think God was saying, ‘Hellooo, Abraham! And you’re supposed to be a man after my heart? Abraham, what’s going on?’ I think that’s really funny stuff.”

Gildemeister believes many of Jesus’ parables were “either inside jokes that only He and a few others laughed at, or they were just blatantly funny.” He advises taking a fresh look at stories of the Bible. “If you read it as a story,” the humor is more apparent.

Phillips refers to God telling Abraham and Sarah, who were well into their senior years, that they were going to have a baby. “What was the first thing Abraham did? He started laughing,” Phillips says. “And guess what? God didn’t zap him for that.”

If there’s humor in a Biblical text, then by all means bring it out, Holbert advises his students. “It’s a delight to realize that the text we revere as the Word of God is very funny.”

‘The best joke of all’

When it comes to jokes, no one can top the Almighty.

“In many ways Easter is the best joke of all,” Holbert exclaims. “That is to say, ‘You thought Jesus was dead, but He’s not!’ It’s the sense of God saying death is not the last word. Death is not the end!”

With the Resurrection, God leaves people with a profound sense of hope and surprise. The joyful message is “we worship the God of the living, not the God of the dead,” the theologian says. “It means my life is caught up in the hope and future of God, and that’s what believing means.”

Easter signals “the extraordinary reality that God is not through with us … and that’s delightful and joyful,” Holbert says. “This surprise that God pulls on the world is the greatest laugh of all!”

--Jane Dennis is editor of the Arkansas United Methodist, the newspaper of the Arkansas Conference.