Music and relevance

Dr. Gene Veith has made some very important comments about the state of music in the United States. Sorry to say, I fear his forray into this subject is too late. Even the conservative Baptist Church I attend, has allowed the camel, so to speak, to get his nose under the tent flap. We have gone to what is called "blended" worship. We sing the standard Baptist hymns with the exception of one song, each Sunday morning. That song/chorus is accompanied by a video and sound track, and is a modern style "chorus." Our music director does his best to keep these scripturally based, but as with anything commercial, there are some that might be a little off track. The purpose for our doing this is to give the "young people" something that is supposed to seem more relevant to them.

What Dr. Veith has suggested is something I have known but did not have the will to talk about. It is the fact that whether we realize it or not, we are contributing to the dumbing-down of our membership by getting involved in these culturally initiated attempts at relevance. God did not call us to be relevant. He called us to take the good news of the gospel to a world that would hate us for it. We can't take the world the gospel if we are so lazy we do not want to retain structural church content that has served "the Church" for centuries. Proverbs 1:21 says, "How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?"

Fools hate knowledge and it is no more evident than through the simplistic jingoes we now sing for choruses. Dr. Veith says:

But that artists have to scale back their talent in order to achieve commercial success is a sobering thought. It makes sense: Complex artistic performances–in whatever genre, including popular ones such as rock and country–will move us into the realm of “high culture.” It requires knowledge, experience, and taste for an audience to appreciate. “Pop culture” has to be simpler and more homogenized to appeal to a mass commercial audience.

"High culture...requires knowledge, experience and taste...." We do not help our young people by feeding them more of what they feed on 24/7 in the way of music. We feed our young and ourselves by singing, playing, and repeating psalms, hymns, and worship music written about God, not about what we are doing for God. Most of the choruses we sing are ditties telling God how we "feel," what "we" are doing in the way of worship, etc. Our focus in worship should be about what God has done, not what we have done or will do for Him.

Veith goes on to say, "...this strikes me as a dysfunction and as a violation of vocation." Dr. Veith is absolutely correct. It is a violation of vocation to capitulate to the desires of sinful men. Vocation (a word we use instead of calling) is God ordained, in that if we pursue our gifts in the way He desires, God will usually place us in a work situation that compliments us, and from which we will be better able to witness about Him. If we do not pursue our vocation using our gifts to the best of our abilities, we begin to lose the effectiveness God intended for us to have. Musicians, nor anyone else, should ever be required to give less than their best just for "comercial" success, or to "be relevant." This is especially true for people serving in church.

A good example of what happens when we try to be relevant, is people begin to shop for churches like they do shirts at the mall. Our church recently lost a couple because they "didn't like" the music. That we preach the gospel apparently doesn't matter to them. Their unspoken complaint is that we were not feeding their ego's and the "entertainment" we provided just didn't make them "feel" good.

Every Christian should make it a point, all day every day, to do whatever is necessary to gain just a little more knowledge, and perform his tasks just a little bit better. I can only imagine what kind of nation we would have today if Christians had been following that simple formula for the past 200+ years.

Whether music, preaching, teaching, or participating in Worship we should always and in everway give our best. After all, these endeavors are supposed to about God, and not about us.