Thursday, March 31, 2005
A couple of years ago I skimmed through an article on musical worship that resonated with me strongly. It suggested that the current practice of musical worship in Churches is not even close to being Biblically necessary. Now I must admit that I normally enjoy singing in Church, sometimes it helps me to worship God, often it helps to generate good atmosphere within a congregation and it normally stops people from just sitting there doing nothing while stuff happens on stage.
But on the other hand I often sing without worshipping, get frustrated by a performance culture in the music, find the words meaningless if meant as a real prayer to God, consider the dodgy theology in many songs, fear the pursuit of music is simply promoting emotionalism and get disappointed with the wars that wage amongst Christians over what music to play. Too old, too young, too fast, too slow, not God-focussed enough, not corporate enough, too loud, too soft, too repetitive – I’ve heard all the complaints. Fortunately I’m blessed with the God-given ability to not really care what the music is like – it’s all the same to me.
For me the best part about singing in Church is that it drums words into your head that I find myself singing during the week, often at strategic times. Alone it can become a great time of prayer and faith for me as I sing an old hymn or occasionally something newer.
I think I would like to have corporate singing that is used regularly when Christ’s body gathers together. How regularly exactly I’m not fussed on. Weekly seems to say that it is essential and stops us from exploring other ways to connect with God. Fortnightly, Monthly, Quarterly? I could be happy with any of these. Surely if we made singing less frequent we would be forced to exercise our God-given creativity and develop new (or ancient) methods of communing with God and each other.
Anyway, I finally found a copy of that article from a few years ago. The author was kind enough to email me a link to it, so I thought I should pass it on. It is quite interesting, but I feel it is lacking a bit due to ignoring Col 3:16 (Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God) and any discussion on possible singing in heaven. Nevertheless, the basic argument seems sound to me. Have a read on http://www.neurotribe.net/blog/2002/03/at-age-of-17-i-took-discipleship.html
Another article I found with a similar bent is http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=601
But on the other hand I often sing without worshipping, get frustrated by a performance culture in the music, find the words meaningless if meant as a real prayer to God, consider the dodgy theology in many songs, fear the pursuit of music is simply promoting emotionalism and get disappointed with the wars that wage amongst Christians over what music to play. Too old, too young, too fast, too slow, not God-focussed enough, not corporate enough, too loud, too soft, too repetitive – I’ve heard all the complaints. Fortunately I’m blessed with the God-given ability to not really care what the music is like – it’s all the same to me.
For me the best part about singing in Church is that it drums words into your head that I find myself singing during the week, often at strategic times. Alone it can become a great time of prayer and faith for me as I sing an old hymn or occasionally something newer.
I think I would like to have corporate singing that is used regularly when Christ’s body gathers together. How regularly exactly I’m not fussed on. Weekly seems to say that it is essential and stops us from exploring other ways to connect with God. Fortnightly, Monthly, Quarterly? I could be happy with any of these. Surely if we made singing less frequent we would be forced to exercise our God-given creativity and develop new (or ancient) methods of communing with God and each other.
Anyway, I finally found a copy of that article from a few years ago. The author was kind enough to email me a link to it, so I thought I should pass it on. It is quite interesting, but I feel it is lacking a bit due to ignoring Col 3:16 (Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God) and any discussion on possible singing in heaven. Nevertheless, the basic argument seems sound to me. Have a read on http://www.neurotribe.net/blog/2002/03/at-age-of-17-i-took-discipleship.html
Another article I found with a similar bent is http://www.theooze.com/articles/article.cfm?id=601
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