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Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall you worship the Father. You worship that which you do not know; we worship that which we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." ~John 4:21-24
I have been involved in music ministry fairly consistently for the past nine years - eight years in various worship teams, four years in church choirs, a solo here and there and even served as the worship leader for a ladies' retreat when I was 21. I know from experience that church music is a big issue of contention among Christians. Should we sing hymns or choruses? I answer with a resounding, "Yes!" When we get caught up in the form or age of the songs that we sing are we losing sight of what worship is about? We are called to worship God in spirit and truth. The content of our songs is vastly more important than the form. I grew up singing hymns and I love them. I am saddened by the attitude of so many people my age, expressed quite aptly once by one of my friends: "I hate singing hymns. They're so boring." My last year of college I spent every Friday night at a professor's house with a small group of students from school singing through the hymnal, every verse of every song, from the most beloved and familiar to the ones none of us had ever heard. Then we talked about the songs. What do the words say? Are they consistent with our faith? Some hymns are very wishy-washy or even doctrinally unsound. Some are full of amazing truth and praise to God. I have found modern choruses to be much the same. Some are shallow, some are quite questionable in their message, some sound like they belong on a soft rock radio station as the only thing that differentiates them from a cheesy love song is the capital "Y" in "You." Some are great songs of truthful worship. Everyone is entitled, I think, to their own preference of musical style, but should that become a divisive issue among the children of God? Let us first seek truth in our worship!
Truth alone is not what God seeks in His worshipers, however. He seeks those who worship in spirit. Isaiah 29:13 writes of God's people who "draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote." This is not the spirit of worship God desires from us. If we concern ourselves so much with form that we allow it to cause divisions in our midst, are our hearts tuned to worship or are they turned away while our lips repeat the things we have learned by rote, whether that be music new or old? Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
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8 comments:
You must know my preference on worship, but you could guess it even if you did not.
It is vital not to get caught up debating form, but maybe a lot of people ignore form altogether. I think it is my tendency to obsess over formalities.
I have a Reformed friend who favours Metrical Psalms only. But he sings hymns and sound choruses at our church.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
Yes, I believe I have read something in which you mentioned your preference for hymns. I think I left mine out: I prefer my music upbeat, but that's the beauty of the Christian music industry. I can listen to my contemporary Christian music and modern arrangements of hymns at home and worship God there as well as at church, right? I am still planning to get together with a friend to sing hymns sometime soon. I dislike some of the more Charismatic churches because I think their worship becomes irreverent.
The worship at my parents Charismatic church is really irreverant and the worship at a Pentecostal church I used to attend was just as awful.
Every Blessing in Christ
Matthew
Jess! Good to hear from you! I'll be home Wednesday afternoon. If you're free on Thursday afternoon would you like to get lunch somewhere? Send me an e-mail or I can call you on Wednesday when I get home. I miss you!
I agree that charismatic music can become irreverent but I also think that some of their songs are the best able to capture JOY, just pure joy. I don’t know how to explain it. :) I also agree that form (or anything else that is not the basic tenets) be the cause of divisiveness or judgments. I equally like hymns and contemporary music. However, in my humble opinion I do think that form can sometimes aid or hinder the tone of worship. For example, sometimes for more solemn occasions, like the Good Friday services, I find myself wishing we would sing the more solemn hymns instead of contemporary music which, even though they may choose the more “solemn” contemporary music, to me it just never has the same weight that hymns do. But I guess it just goes back to that whole subjective personal preference thing again. ;)
ahem, i cannot type today.
correction below:
I also agree that form (or anything else that is not the basic tenets) SHOULD NOT be the cause of divisiveness or judgments.
lol
I just love those good old hymns!
Actually, I find it rather diffult nowadays to find cds with christians hymns in christian bookstors.
My brother gave me his mp3 player and it's wonderful to be able to download the hymns I love so much.
Shieryl and Jessica both commenting on my blog in one day! That is so exciting! Thanks for visiting, and I will see you both next week.
Sarah, I download songs from the internet (legally, of course!), usually because I am looking for something in particular. It is easier for me to do that now than to purchase entire CDs for one song. Hymns can be hard to find, at least hymns decently arranged.
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