Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Music and praise
Church music: did we get it right or wrong? I have been wrestling with this for some time, but I think by and large we in the churches of Christ have gotten this one right. Our people sing. One of the things that continually amaze visitors is our singing. Much of that has to do with the fact that we sing a cappella, without instruments.
I know we have struggled with this issue. While I do not think our fellowship split with the Christian church over this issue, it was a real and visible difference. We are now going thru the same discussions. Some in our heritage seemed to make the use of instruments a salvation issue. Wrong. And certainly some made it an issue of fellowship. Not sure we got that right either. So I wish we hadn't made singing a theological issue. It was never designed for that.
But don't let the wrong emphasis negate the things that we got right about worship music. We have been one of the major influences in preserving a cappella music. I do think that is the purest form of praising God in song. It is one of the areas where other groups solicit our advice. They wish they could get their people to sing like we do. We have kept worship praise a participatory event, we have made it more of a one another teaching experience, and we have made it a key element of our assemblies.
It fascinates me that as we wrestle with moving away from our a cappella heritage, groups that have traditionally used instruments are seeking to incorporate a cappella in their assemblies. A cappella music will be one of the hot new worship trends in evangelical circles in the next few years.
By the way, I still think we are getting it right. I think praise teams have helped maintain our a cappella tradition and have helped worship be more "one another".
Just my thoughts. Feel free to comment on this issue, or to share other things you think we have gotten right. I will start on what I think we have gotten wrong in the next week or so.
I know we have struggled with this issue. While I do not think our fellowship split with the Christian church over this issue, it was a real and visible difference. We are now going thru the same discussions. Some in our heritage seemed to make the use of instruments a salvation issue. Wrong. And certainly some made it an issue of fellowship. Not sure we got that right either. So I wish we hadn't made singing a theological issue. It was never designed for that.
But don't let the wrong emphasis negate the things that we got right about worship music. We have been one of the major influences in preserving a cappella music. I do think that is the purest form of praising God in song. It is one of the areas where other groups solicit our advice. They wish they could get their people to sing like we do. We have kept worship praise a participatory event, we have made it more of a one another teaching experience, and we have made it a key element of our assemblies.
It fascinates me that as we wrestle with moving away from our a cappella heritage, groups that have traditionally used instruments are seeking to incorporate a cappella in their assemblies. A cappella music will be one of the hot new worship trends in evangelical circles in the next few years.
By the way, I still think we are getting it right. I think praise teams have helped maintain our a cappella tradition and have helped worship be more "one another".
Just my thoughts. Feel free to comment on this issue, or to share other things you think we have gotten right. I will start on what I think we have gotten wrong in the next week or so.
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I think we have gotten it right, too. There is no way to walk away from any of our assemblies and not feel uplifted from the "music".
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