Years ago, when both my sons were still at home, they would occasionally offer observations about the music at our Sunday services. Often, there comments would be something like, “Well, Dad, this morning every song was from 18th century,” or “Today, we didn’t get into the 20th century even once.” They’d learned to look at the information at the bottom of the page to find out when a song was composed and were too often surprised to discover that George Washington could have sung the hymn the church had sung that morning.
Whenever a congregation is comprised of older Christians, I suppose those Christians will inevitably turn to the old familiar hymns and songs to give expression to their faith. In the early 1990s I asked some church musicians, “What do you think of contemporary Christian music?” The most outspoken of the group, who had been involved in church music for at least three decades, said, “Oh, I like Andraé Crouch.” As it happen, I also like Crouch, but his career began in the late 1960s and his earliest album had appeared twenty years before I asked my question. It seemed an unusual definition of “contemporary.”
I am familiar with most of the old songs. I know about the lives of people like Augustus Toplady (author of Rock of Ages and such a mean-spirited Calvinist you wouldn’t want him as a pastor) and I know what it means to “raise my Ebenezer,” but I sometimes wish for something a little fresher and I certainly sympathize with the younger members of our congregations.
Church music has been the subject of so many discussions, seminars, books, and magazine articles that it would be hard to keep up with all being said. I am not a musician but I don’t think the “worship wars” have reached a truce. Rather, the antagonists have simply entrenched themselves on different strongholds. Think of the number of church signs you see announcing a “contemporary service” and a “traditional service.” This is not the place for an exhaustive look at what the Bible says about music but I do want to make some observations, based on what Paul says in Colossians and elsewhere.
àPaul seems to see the music of the church as a blend of the old and the new, the traditional and the contemporary (from "psalms" to "spiritual songs"). What is important to Paul is the content and character of what is sung. He wants it to be scriptural and spiritual. It should be rooted in scripture and promote spiritual health.
Some have been too narrow in applying this principle. In the 16" century, Swiss reformer John Calvin decreed that churches should only sing the psalms and for almost two-hundred years the Reformed churches sang only from the Psalter. In the same century, German reformer Martin Luther was composing hymns which reflected Biblical themes in the language the people. I think Luther had a clearer vision for what Paul had in mind. Two centuries later Wesley asked "Why should the devil have all the good tunes?" and church music really began to change.
In any case, we can be thankful there have always been those who have kept us rooted to the Scripture as they have helped us sing out our faith.
à Paul says nothing about style, nothing. As a consequence the style of church music over 21 centuries has been rich and varied; and often changing. Yet, change is not always easy to accept.
During the 90's there was a conference at a college in Northern Michigan where a number of church leaders met to discuss changes in church music. One group of pastors was particularly incensed by the introduction of what they considered to be "worldly" or inappropriate instruments into the churches. Another group, while appreciative of their denomination's musical tradition, felt these new instruments might help reach a new generation. The conference ended with the participants agreeing to respect one another despite their differences. They allowed the "peace of Christ" to rule in their hearts.
By the way, I should tell you this conference took place in the 1890s and the instruments which caused such controversy were the saxophone, the guitar, and the piano. As late as 1903 the pope declared the piano unfit for use in a Christian worship service. We’re so accustomed to the piano in church that some might believe Euodia and Syntyche’s squabble was over who got to play on Sunday morning. (Philippians 4:2)
Beloved hymn writer Fanny Crosby, author of "He Hideth My Soul" and "To God Be the Glory," originally published her works under an assumed name because some people reacted so negatively to her new style of music.
We can be thankful there have always been pioneers, like Luther, Wesley, Watts, Sankey, Crosby, and others with a vision for celebrating their faith in song.
à In I Corinthians 14:26 Paul mentions those who come to church with "a song" apparently inspired in some way by the Holy Spirit. Although problems at the Corinthian church made is necessary for Paul to limit the number of such songs that could be used in a worship service, what he says, at the least, is reminding us that from the beginning God has "gifted" certain people in the area of music. These Christians, some with formal training and some without, have blessed us with their writing, their composing, and their performance.
But this doesn’t mean church music must be in the hands of the professionals, those who have trained at the conservatory. God has honored the words of those part-time poets who have put their faith into words in journals or diaries. In 1873, in the depth of his grief at the loss of his two daughters in a shipwreck, Horatio Spafford wrote a poem to express his faith in God. That poem became the hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul.” He was a businessman, not a professional musician.
àWorship is not about me. Too many Christians complain because the worship isn’t to their liking. I’ve heard the proponents of “traditional” worship and the proponents “contemporary” worship opine that only their preferred form of worship is “real” worship. What they really mean is, “That kind of worship is different, I don’t like it, it can’t be worship.” Save us from that kind of self-centeredness. Sadly, I’ve heard church musicians take similar stands. They like only one form of music so they aren’t going to incorporate any other form in their worship planning. They should know better.
Do we have to sing to worship? I don’t know. I do know that singing seems a natural outflow of our deepest emotions. Mothers (and fathers) will sing to their infants even if their singing is so bad it would go viral You Tube after they are voted off the first audition show of the new season of American Idol. They sing, not because they are gifted singers, but because of the way they feel about the squirming bundle they are rocking to sleep or trying to comfort. Singing is a part of who we are as humans.
Still, any activity, singing, Scripture reading, and even preaching that becomes perfunctory contributes little to worship. Better not to sing than to sing because we’re supposed to sing at this point.
I learned recently of a “home church,” where the participants have been meeting for years without singing. Now, they are beginning to introduce the occasional praise song into their meetings. Makes sense to me. These young Christians have long dedicated themselves to looking into the Scripture, discovering what it says about the glory of God and the richness of his salvation. Now, with those truths planted deep in their hearts, they want some way to express their gratitude and praise.
