Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Church Music
Michael Spencer made made a few comments at BHT linking to a very interesting iMonk post. In the iMonk post he lists "Stupid Evangelical Tricks:"
But that last phrase about "the work of the people" is extraordinary. Church is the body of Chirst on earth, we serve it, not the other way around. The "priesthood of the people" says we have direct access to God, we need no intermediaries. Yet the sin in us, makes us want one. Why? Simple, then we don't have to do the hard work of being as God would have us be. But shouldn't the true church be calling us to exactly that, instead of enabling it?
Related Tags: music, chruch, service, iMonk, transformation, Young Life
- Eliminating All Hymns
- Goofy Youth Minister Style Preaching
- No Church Membership
- The MegaChurch Agenda vs The Healthy Church Agenda
- Too Much Music
From my perspective, I would wrap this all up into a package and call it the "Young Lifification of Church".
I have said many times that when I attend a fully contemporary Evangelical church, I feel like I am going to Young Life club, which leads to lack of depth, etc., etc, etc.
The most telling thing Michael wrote though was in the BHT blurb:
Evangelicalism is a music-music-more-music movement. A strong post-evangelical impulse is to moderate and regulate music into an overall expression of the worship of a congregation. What is going on now is bullying, out of control, commercial…it’s the opposite of the “work of the people” that is liturgia.There are two incredibly important phraes in there:
moderate and regulate music into an overall expression of the worshipToo often we use the word "worship" synonomously with corporate singing. Worship is a life enveloping expression and when it becomes synonomous with merely singing we set a low bar indeed. Worship involves making Jesus KING of our lives, not merely the object of our poetic and muscial expression.
it’s the opposite of the “work of the people”
But that last phrase about "the work of the people" is extraordinary. Church is the body of Chirst on earth, we serve it, not the other way around. The "priesthood of the people" says we have direct access to God, we need no intermediaries. Yet the sin in us, makes us want one. Why? Simple, then we don't have to do the hard work of being as God would have us be. But shouldn't the true church be calling us to exactly that, instead of enabling it?
Related Tags: music, chruch, service, iMonk, transformation, Young Life
