Atmosphere

What is it that generates atmosphere in worship?
Someone said to me on Sunday 'There was a great atmosphere here this morning.'
What does that mean?
There were more people in church than last week, which helps. There was less anxiety because it wasn't the first one, people thought they knew what to expect. We didn't try any new songs, so in a sense there was much that was familiar.
Can we also say there was a sense of the Spirit moving, welcoming people to what is going to become their home, a safe place where God can move and transform us?
I was watching Martin Cluny involved in a therapy session with a horse this week, doing a great job of projecting some subconscious stuff onto the poor animal, which in the end allowed Martin to process and reflect on himself in a way that became moving for him. Most of us project at one time or another, and our perceptions of worship are sometimes projections of our inner anxieties.
None of us come as clean slates to worship. But we can prepare for worship. As a congregation member, we can come expecting God to move, watching for His work, looking for the signs of his activity - or we can come expecting God not to move, and for the service to once again not meet our expectations.
If we reflect on our responses to the worship, we move towards a sense of being self aware. If we understand that our perceptions of worship reflect as much about our own spiritual state as they do about the actual worship, we then have a choice about being open to what God wants us to hear in this moment.
It is about being present, present to our deepest selves and the community of worship and the activity of God in and through all of that.