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The Divisiveness of Church Music
For the past few decades, churches have lamented the exodus of young people. Their answer has been uniform: Make the service more like a rock concert through praise music, and the young people will flock to church in their skinny jeans and hipster vests. Nowadays, it’s more common to find special music consisting of electric guitars, drums, and lighting effects than traditional choirs and organs. But has turning church into a dressed-up version of Bonnaroo really helped bring the coveted Millennials back to church?
I am vehemently against praise music, though I thoroughly recognize that this is a matter of personal preference. The pervasiveness of praise music has made finding a church I like very difficult. It has made it difficult to attend church with friends, because I just stand there with my hands folded in front of me while everyone around me sways their hands in the air, singing with their eyes closed. The difference in worship style preference has even made dating difficult in some instances. Still, I was interested to see how many of my fellow Ricochet Millennial contemporaries have a similar bias towards traditional music. They may not be as militantly against contemporary worship as I am — I will turn and leave if I walk into a sanctuary and see it looking more like a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert than a church service — but they still seem on the whole to enjoy the traditional worship style.
In short, I contend that this:
Is more reverential and evocative of God’s divine love than this:
But I’m also a classical music snob, admittedly. So what do y’all think? How much does worship style influence where you worship? Have your churches embraced a contemporary style that has successfully brought young people back to church? My fellow Millennials: which style do you prefer?
Perhaps all this boils down to this question: What is the purpose of music in a worship service?
Published in Religion & Philosophy
I know!
To me it is a politically correct gesture to make everyone feel good but it looks silly because all of the words are on the screen but it must be something that people enjoy because the hardcore participants like to mime along with her. I suppose it is inclusive for the deaf person, if there are any, in that they can sing along. It would be fun to imagine a Monty Python skit about singing with sign language but I don’t think that would be permissible anymore.
If they are not saying or doing something that contradicts the Bible’s own outlines for proper worship, to tell them they are doing it wrong because you don’t like it is to set yourself up in the place of God. That’s sin.
I think it comes from a laziness, frankly. Worship services aren’t supposed to be evangelism. They’re not for seekers; they’re for the congregants. Now, I think it’s basic courtesy to include the words in the service book or bulletin, but that’s not much to ask.
And as for seekers being scared of a liturgical service, 75+% of my congregation are refugees from contemporary worship services, and our church is growing by leaps and bounds.
Here is our routine: Hubby and I go to church and find a spot. I EXIT IMMEDIATELY and find a nice quiet niche somewhere outside until I’m sure the abrasive din has finished. I go back in and listen to the sermon. Done.
I’ve been known to do the same thing. Still, the lack of beautiful music takes away from the service for me.
I cannot stand praise music. I drag my wife to the traditional service.
This is a part of why I changed denominations. What was the point of being a member of a church I disliked attending?
Agree 100%. Beautiful music feeds the soul.
I completely agree. Fortunately, there are many approaches to worship for people to choose from. Unfortunately, finding a church that has the theology and worship style that one wants can be very difficult.
One of the great lines from Charles Cooke at the Kansas City Meetup was his comment that listening to Mozart’s Requiem makes him wish to not be an atheist.
I’ve also heard Bach’s works described as the Fifth Gospel. Not bad for boring white guys.
During one church service, the “worship group” was so loud and so offensive I could not hear my husband, who was right next to me, speaking in a normal tone of voice. By this time I’d suffered through enough of these crash-boom-bang services that something snapped. I turned to him and in my loudest voice yelled, “WHAAAT?!”
Hubby was not amused, but it was so loud in there that nobody had even heard me.
Yeah, “Be still and know that I am God” isn’t a terribly popular concept in contemporary worship.
And yet he’s still an atheist so what did it actually accomplish?
He’s only 31 … beautiful music (with the help of Mrs. Cooke) may yet bring him to Christ. I’ll eat one of my hats if it’s Marty Haugen or the next Jessica Simpson who manages it.
Do you not hear how condemnatory that sounds? You are creating a straw man because you don’t like certain modes of worship. You are more concerned that people worship God the way you want them to than that He is worshiped at all.
He is blathering romantic sounding nonsense, and the end result is it did nothing to change his heart. Music does not change people’s hearts towards salvation. The Holy Spirit does that.
If Bach is the 5th Gospel–and that’s a long, long gospel, then Mozart’s Requiem is the 6th. Simply gorgeous.
I think it is funny (funny-sad) that CWCooke could wish that…Resistance to Mozart is futile.
I will sit with him, and explain the words, because that work is so much more powerful with the words.
And I’m concerned about the people who end up leaving their churches because they feel unwelcome by the caucophany. I’m concerned about the people who’ve been fed spiritual baby food and find that “Shine Jesus Shine” and “Give Thanks with a Grateful Heart” and “Awesome God” are weak sauce indeed when one is faced with hardship. And since far too many churches are more interested in catering to the unchurched than in ministering to the people in their pews, people like me are told to get with the program and shut up or get out.
I may be fighting an enemy that’s bigger in my head than reality, but it’s not a straw man.
Being also a participant in this conversation, Mr. Cooke’s interest in the metaphysical seemed real. His atheism, actually, seemed more born of his Britishness than particular convention (apologies to James, wherever he may be). It’s kind of a general “not our sort” thing than a particular rejection. And given his tastes, I would not bet against Amy on the hats.
However, it is drawn from his peculiar tastes. We established that despite both being a bit snobby, he and I have very different taste in opera -to the point where I vehemently disagreed with him that opera can be judged apart from its blocking.
From such disagreements are not made general principles.
It is when you paint with a broad brush that condemns all contemporary worship out of hand. To hear your complaints, you would prefer a world that catered to nothing but the deeply intellectual which would leave a void for converting the lost. Catering to one extreme at the exclusion of the other both are wrong. There needs to be a balance. If you’re in a church that is more focused on outreach and evangelism than discipling the converted and you need discipleship, then you need to find a church more in line with your needs. The answer is not to belittle churches that are focused on areas that don’t align with your needs. Both kinds of churches are are necessary and should minister as they are led to minister.
I’d have to disagree. Part of the value of music in worship is that it prepares the heart and spirit for worship.
Someone wishing they weren’t an atheist, while listening to music that pretty much sums up the past, present, and future of a person, seems like a step in the right direction…
Don’t be so sure that the Holy Spirit does not employ music.
I didn’t say the Holy Spirit doesn’t employ music. I said it is not the music that changes the heart. When Cooke hears sweeping movie scores, does he want to be a character in the movie, too? That’s my point. Cooke is describing an emotional response, and emotions change all the time. The change manifested by the Spirit does not change with the emotions of the moment.
You have twice now mentioned “Shine Jesus Shine” which I passed over on FB. Here is the complete text:
Lord, the Light of Your Love is shining,
In the midst of the darkness shining,
Jesus, Light of the World, shine upon us,
Set us free by the truth You now bring us,
Shine on me. Shine on me.
**chorus**
Lord I come to Your awesome presence,
From the shadows into Your radiance.
By the blood I may enter Your brightness,
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness.
Shine on me. Shine on me.
As we gaze on Your kindly brightness.
So our faces display Your likeness.
Ever changing from glory to glory,
Mirrored here may our lives tell Your story.
Shine on me. Shine on me.
Is there a particular part of that theology that is offensive? In what way is this less theologically dense than “A Mighty Fortress” which is 4 verses on the theme “God wins.” Is it entirely because “A Mighty Fortress” names the source of Darkness as the Devil, where here it is a vaguer “dark world.”
Now, if you were to argue that you hardly ever hear the verses of “Shine Jesus Shine” I would agree. Of course, you hardly ever hear anything after the fourth line of “A Might Fortress.”
*cont*
*cont*
Let there be no confusion -“A Mighty Fortress” is a superior hymn. Which argument I can make another time.
But we are comparing the actual world where the chorus from “Shine Jesus Shine” is sung without the accompanying verses -let alone an explanation of what those verses refer to -to a perfect world where everyone sings all 4 verses of “A Might Fortress” and also magically can interpret the odd locution and what on earth (let alone how to pronounce) “Lord Sabaoth” means; again –without explanation.
Your complaint is not with the music. Your complaint is with a church that refuses to teach, and that refusal extends to their music.
And that’s true of the non-denominational Joel Osteen “we all feel good about Jesus” church as it is to the empty Anglican cathedrals filling the caverns with Handel’s deeply meaningful music while the vicar doubts the very existence of God and the reliability of the Bible itself.
At my church, the “Worship Leader” mostly gets traditional hymns that have been “updated.” Updated means arranged for a stage band, with the traditional lyrics and music tweaked around enough that whoever did the tweaking can slap their CCI license on it and make a buck off it without having to exert the effort to be creative in any meaningful way.
Last Sunday there was just enough of a dip in the decibel level that for an instant I could hear myself and the people around me singing. Then it went back to normal leading me to the question: With the soundboard cranked to 11 (or 12), what’s the point of congregational singing?
[Rhetorical question, I could cobble together a “even if you can’t hear it God can” kind of answer, but seriously.]
I go home from work and bake a pie, and you folks add 3 pages of comments!
At our church we sing acapella from a Psalter. We do not have to worry about the theology of what we are singing; it is directly from the Bible. When I was younger I was more into contemporary music in worship (though I never did like the overly repetitive choruses). Then I moved onto the modified hymns that were described above. I am not convinced of the theological necessity of the Psalms or singing acapella, but I do enjoy it. I definitely prefer worship songs to be firmly rooted in scripture (if not word for word). Worship should not be a concert. It should be the congregation singing together.
Mrs. Cooke is Catholic, so I’m sure he’s heard a translation. :D
Does or does not the Holy Spirit speak through music?
I say it does. I say that because music is so important, only the best music should be used in service to God. Best in musicality and best in doctrinal soundness. I don’t believe in excusing bad media on the grounds that “it’s for the kids”; I don’t believe in excusing facile pop music because “it’s Christian.”
It’s mostly that at this point, I can’t even remember the worst of the praise music I’ve been subjected to. It all blurs together in a jumbled memory of pop song powerpoints that my last pre-Lutheran congregation loved. In search of praise music examples, I have to go back 20 years to the music my mom had in the car. Those songs I at least heard often enough to remember them. (SJS was also included in my ex-church’s latest hymnal)
Fair enough. But as this thread started on Facebook, I’ll go back to my original point from that thread: the problem isn’t the guitars. The problem is that the guitars are often wielded by those who don’t teach doctrine in order to accompany songs that don’t teach doctrine, and this correlation is strong enough I didn’t bother returning to congregations that had guitars when I was searching for a new church home.