Christian Music?

I listen to Darius Rucker, when he's on TV, because my nephew "Q" is his lead guitarist. The First Baptist Church from somewhere in Texas has a lead guitartist who sounds pretty good as well, although not as good as "Q.". The difference in them is that "Q" and Darius do not try to pass off what they do as "Christian" music. Both are Christians but they do not try to use the music they entertain the world with as a front for some kind of "Christian" outreach. They are entertainers and that's what they do - entertain.

Lenny Kravitz' music (I don't listen to him so this is the only song of his I know about) is a not very Christ like - IMHO. Here in the Detroit area this sounds like Em&Em's rap music blaring from some car. Where do we draw the line or do we? Should a church Choir sound just like the latest rap-group to mumble its' way through questionable lyrics? Is this what you want your kids to emulate?

I thought as Christians we were supposed to somehow attempt to be just a little bit different from those in the world around us. (Rev 18:3,4,5) But hey: What do I know?

Little Things Mean a Lot

I read somewhere the other day, that worship music (I still think hymns) was written by theologians as poetry to which music was then applied. Anne Steele, (1717-1778) was such a person. The words for one of her pieces are below.

The Saviour calls, let every ear
Attend the heavenly sound;
Ye doubting souls, dismiss your fear,
Hope smiles reviving round.
For every thirsty, longing heart,
Here streams of mercy flow;
And life and health and bliss impart,
To banish mortal woe.
Ye sinners come, ‘tis mercy’s voice;
The gracious call obey;
Mercy invites to heavenly joys,
And can you yet delay?
Dear Saviour draw reluctant hearts,
To thee let sinners fly,
And take the bliss thy love imparts,
And drink, and never die."

Today we have muscians writing "choruses" which seem to revolve mostly around the narcissistic "I". For example this is from "Give Me Your Eyes,"

(Chorus)
Give me your eyes for just one second,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
Everything that I keep missing,
Give me your love for humanity,
Give me your arms for the broken hearted,
The ones far beyond my reach,
Give me your heart for the once forgotten,
Give me your eyes so I can see,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Both are written from a perspective of concern for the lost. But, in Ms. Steele's prose, we get the sense that her concern is God centered and oriented ("Dear Saviour draw reluctant hearts") and that it is He who must intervene. The opposite sense is explicit in the "Give Me Your Eyes," chorus. From this it is obvious that the concern is self-centered and the idea is that we can do everything if God will just help us a little.

These are subtle distinctions I know, but without caring about the little changes in thought, it isn't long before larger issues become almost insurmountable.

Worship or Paganism

Our church, not long ago,  gave in to secular ideology by instituting what it calls "blended worship." The intent was, I think, to somehow use catchy, rythym-based choruses with words and images digitally presented on two large screens in the mistaken belief the "young people" will somehow become more involved in "church stuff." They haven't, and there is a consequence in using worldly ideology in an attempt to promote God. (There is no other way to describe what we are doing).

I have always believed Worship should be about God not about what "young people," or old people, for that matter, wanted. We have had a couple of people leave us to go elsewhere over this issue. They wanted a different style of music. Music style should never be a reason for contention and if music were properly used it wouldn't be. If we sang scripture as instructed in the Bible there would be no room for argument, people would define their loyalties when they quit.

Scripture read at length, taught in depth, sung in congregation and prayed at length is not popular so we don't do that in our Church. We pay lip-service to those things, but that's about all. We are, I suppose, a typical American congregation. Few of us read books, let alone the Bible, and our attention spans are getting shorter by the day. We have become so immersed in the idea that digital technology is a gift from God, we sometimes forget to turn off our cell phones for the Sunday morning "Worship" service.

Worship should be about "renewing our minds" but there are so few people who actually think anymore I'm not sure they are aware that concept is a command of God. (Rom. 12:2) We are so far gone now that one of the "choruses" we sing has images that are idolatrous, if not blasphemous. It is a repetitious ditty which show some of the national flags of the world. One of those flags is the Iranian.

The Iranian flag has script on it and symbolism. Here is a description of the flag:

(The flag is made up of) three equal horizontal bands of green (top), white, and red; the national emblem (a stylized representation of the word Allah in the shape of a tulip, a symbol of martyrdom) in red is centered in the white band; ALLAH AKBAR (God is Great) in white Arabic script is repeated 11 times along the bottom edge of the green band and 11 times along the top edge of the red band.

So, by dumbing ourselves down to be historically, intellectually, spiritually, vacuous we have inadvertently changed our "worship" into an idolatrous perveyor of foreign gods. The only word in English to describe this is: Pagan.

Here is what one article at the Banner of Truth has to say about this:

Pagan worship is non-cognitive, but we are called to worship God with our minds, and that which we are supposed to have fill our minds is scripture. The language of Christian worship is scripture. We are either reading it or expanding upon it through exposition, singing it, or praying it. We do this because faith comes by hearing the word of God; it is the Gospel that is the power of God unto salvation.

The article ends with this:

"People are coming to church and just hearing a bunch of talk and singing a bunch of songs," says the preacher. But faith comes by hearing the word of God, and if it's not being preached, sung, read, and prayed, and if the content of our services are decreasingly Biblical, it is an ominous thing that is happening - a tragedy unfolding before us of monumental proportions.

God help us! (Hosea 7:2)

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.