Tuesday, February 14, 2006
There Is More To It Than That
Cerulean Sanctum has tried to call a truce in what Dan describes as "the worship wars." Dan looks at five common arguements in the discussion and points out both sides of the issue as valid. I agree with Dan on the arguments he addresses, but there are others that I think important.
Contemporary worship music usually crowds out the liturgical. While it is not a hard and fast rule, most services featuring contemporary music lack liturgical depth. By that I do not mean liturgical style, responsive readings and so forth, I mean a definitive and thorough order of worship. The praise aspects of the service crowd out things like confession sometimes even thanskgiving.
Contemporary worship music often does not set the stage for The Word. A sermon, when properly done is not a lesson, not a speech, it is the pronouncement of God's Word. I, for one, really like it when the rest of the service reinforces that Word. While some modern worship music can do that, it's rare.
It usually does not stop with contemporary worship music. In my experience, the implementation of contemporary worship music is part of a larger package to try and change the focus of the particular institution to a different direction - towards "the seeker" is the usual direction. I have discussed my problem with this before.
Frankly, to debate music is to look in the wrong place, it's the symptom, not the illness. If the issue was simply a matter of dropping "Rock of Ages" from the rotation in the order of worship and substituting "My God Is An Awesome God," I doubt there would be much to talk about.
Where I finally have a problem is the consumeristic mindset that typically is what is behind a move to insert contemporary worship music. The church is not to be consumed - it presents an all-consuming gospel. It's where we forget that that I have a problem
Related Tags: worship, church, worship music, contemporary worship music, hymns, seeker sensitive, Christianity
Contemporary worship music usually crowds out the liturgical. While it is not a hard and fast rule, most services featuring contemporary music lack liturgical depth. By that I do not mean liturgical style, responsive readings and so forth, I mean a definitive and thorough order of worship. The praise aspects of the service crowd out things like confession sometimes even thanskgiving.
Contemporary worship music often does not set the stage for The Word. A sermon, when properly done is not a lesson, not a speech, it is the pronouncement of God's Word. I, for one, really like it when the rest of the service reinforces that Word. While some modern worship music can do that, it's rare.
It usually does not stop with contemporary worship music. In my experience, the implementation of contemporary worship music is part of a larger package to try and change the focus of the particular institution to a different direction - towards "the seeker" is the usual direction. I have discussed my problem with this before.
Frankly, to debate music is to look in the wrong place, it's the symptom, not the illness. If the issue was simply a matter of dropping "Rock of Ages" from the rotation in the order of worship and substituting "My God Is An Awesome God," I doubt there would be much to talk about.
Where I finally have a problem is the consumeristic mindset that typically is what is behind a move to insert contemporary worship music. The church is not to be consumed - it presents an all-consuming gospel. It's where we forget that that I have a problem
Related Tags: worship, church, worship music, contemporary worship music, hymns, seeker sensitive, Christianity
