So, a while back I wrote this blog post and it seemed to be well-read, so I thought I'd re-post it in my new address so it would be more accessible...I might do that from time to time as I look through old stuff...
Today I have a topic to think about and you all get front seats to this thought storm; here goes:
As
one who was brought up in church, I got involved with worship music
somewhere around 8th grade. Since then I have been a part of music teams
as they transitioned from "traditional" (whatever that means) music to
more "contemporary" (again, that's pretty non-descriptive) music. I've
also had the incredible experience of playing a role in re-building a
worship music program from the studs. Along with all of that, I've
studied for a worship music minor (that I decided to drop my senior year
of my undergrad college experience) and have studied theology,
philosophy and church history intensely for going on 4 years now.
I
preface this post with some of my credentials in order to say that I
have probably spent more time thinking about how we as western,
American, Evangelical, Protestant, mostly modern Christians worship
today than your average Christian.
Qualifying
statement: This does NOT in any way make me a better Christian, person,
etc. but it does make me more likely to have made some observations that
others may not have come across.
While there are
several different aspects to our worship which I could comment on, I
don't intend this blog to be an all inclusive thought project, so let me
establish some parameters:
1. I want to begin by
delineating between what I'll call a "private worship life" and a
"corporate worship life". There are many nuances here, but I'm going to
use these broad categories in order to remain focused.
2. I have
no intention on attacking any practice currently in place. Over against
any hard teaching, I only want to flesh out some of my recent
observations and reflections, so please try and take this for what its
worth and if you don't like it, ignore it.
3. While there are many
many ways that Christians have worshiped throughout the life of the
Church and stretching back into our Jewish heritage, I will only be
speaking of things that are relevant to my western context because that
is where I have personal experience. Also, this lets me off the hook for
having to do research just to write this blog.
ok, I think that's most of it, pressing on...
Today,
I want to assess how we choose which songs to play at church. Now,
while I think that there are many issues with how we do church
(everything from over-emphasizing Sunday worship to marginalizing
congregation participation and beyond, but that's a bit outside the
established parameters), I think that if we accept the generally
established music utilization in our Sunday gatherings, we ought to give
due diligence with what kind of music is played.
Before
getting too far in to what songs we choose, I think that it would be
good to put some preliminaries out there about our Sunday worship:
1.
I think that it is most correct to approach Sunday for what it is;
specifically, it is a corporate worship gathering. This means that,
against our current culture of hyper-individualism (no citation, sorry),
we should spend this time coming close to each other. We often fail on
this point and it is evidenced in many ways, some of which are how we
tend to sit only with our family and often not right next to anyone else
if we can avoid it. By way of example, I remember getting a bizarre
look when I sat next to a guy who was not a family member and I didn't
leave a space in between us... man-law violated, I know. But we should
not shy away from this nearness; we are part of the body of Christ and
no hand would try and shy away from its fingers.
2. Closely
related to the above, this is specifically NOT individual worship time.
My interior life is maintained daily so, I should not feel the need to
hijack this time to selfishly serve my lacking spiritual life. We are
gathered for each other as much as we are gathered for
ourselves...perhaps more. There are many implications of this that I
encourage all to think about, but there you have it.
3. As much as
our culture has made this a "show" in which only a few men (rarely
women) are highlighted an given the stage, we are all to engage which is
not the same as saying "we are all to sing along". No, instead, we
should feel that the service would not quite be the same if we were
gone; that kind of impact. Maybe this happens behind the scenes like in
giving the preacher/teacher or band leader feed back, but however it
occurs, we ought to feel some ownership of this time.
So,
with those preliminaries out there, we turn our attention to the music
itself. I think that there are many things to be conscious of, not only
as music leaders but also as elders, leaders, worshipers and members of
the body who are being asked to sing the words on the screen week in and
week out. The qualifiers that I'll list below for songs are not meant
to be all-inclusive and they certainly are my opinions, but I think that
they transcend music style preferences and volume of music etc. So, to
be more pointed, my opinions here have little to do with what kind of
music is being played or how its played, but they are focused on the
content of the songs. Lets begin:
1. Our music should
be theologically sound. While you may be tempted to say "duh", we often
don't put songs through the ringer. I think far too often we gauge the
value of a song based on the feeling we personally get or the response
of the crowd without very much thought given to the truth or context of
our words. Without pointing to specific songs (because I do care about
offending people and their song preferences), some problems that come to
mind are like using the word "lord" without acknowledging that this
isn't simply an interchangeable name for "God" or "Jesus", but is
instead a title that reflects a relationship that may or may not be real
for everyone in the congregation. Another issue may be in using
metaphors with no explanation. This is one that happens with hymns often
(i.e. what's an Ebenezer? Does everyone in your congregation know that?
Is it a good metaphor for our current context?). We ought to be
theologically thoughtful.
2. Our music should be corporate in
voice. Again, we're discussing corporate worship settings, so I believe
we should more or less stay away from songs that are heavy with "I",
"me", "my life", etc. to the exclusion of more corporate language like
"your church", "the bride", "the kingdom", etc. When we fail to avoid
those songs, what happens is that we perpetuate the selfish,
hyper-individualization that our culture pushes that prizes our
individual comfort over community. This is starkly anti-Christian. Now, I
should say that those songs often elicit worship because we connect to
them more easily and, as a song writer, I have myself written songs like
that, so I think there is value in them. I only want to say that their
proper place is in our private lives, not in a larger communal setting.
Sadly, this may mean re-vamping most churches musical libraries; but I
think it's worth it.
3. Our music should teach. I feel like it is
more or less irrefutable that music teaches. This is why everyone was
mad at Eminem when I was kid. Ironically, he said in a song "music can
alter moods and talk to you..." and here, I have to agree. Music is so
much easier to remember than oral, written or rote-memorized teachings.
With that in mind, I think that we ought to be careful what kind of
things our songs teach. Not just theology, but in building a picture of
God, we ought to take care. I believe that our mental picture of God's
character is probably the single most important part of our worldview
and as such, we ought to be careful what kind of mental picture we are
painting. Are we perpetuating the butler God? Are we perpetuating the
tamed and cuddly Jesus? Are perpetuating the angry, warrior God? The
cosmic vending machine? a deist or heretical picture? I know this can
seem like a slippery slope, but we ought to seriously ask these
questions of the music that we're asking people to sing.
Those
are just three things that I think about when thinking about songs we
sing in church. I hope that discussion opens up in the comments section
or through different social media venues. Most of all, I hope that this
lands in front of church leaders. When I began to first think of myself
as a Christian leader, I was terrified for several reasons (among which
was not feeling qualified). Since then, I have more confidently come to
terms with that role, but the one thing that has not left me was the
urgency of the office; that is, the seriousness and eternal implications
of what I may teach people. After all, who wants to go swimming with
cement shoes...or a mill-stone around the neck...At any rate, I fear
that the consequences could be dire if we mislead people with the music
we put in their mouths. God will move regardless of our foolishness, but
we should still honor the call we've answered.
I'm
sorry if I offended. Truly, my goal with this entire blog is simply to
better the church and provide space for me to work out my own beliefs
and in that context, I thank you for following along. I would only ask,
if you were offended, that you ask yourself why. Furthermore, feel free
to open it to discussion; often we learn best together.
Peace,
C.M.
