Listen to the Music

Here’s something to think about. I was talking with a friend the other night on the way to the scrapbook store. Somehow the topic of church came up (who knows how we got there - we cover so many topics every time we talk there’s no telling). We attend the same church, which is where we met. We just started attending there about a year ago, and around the same time, the church hired a “music minister” who is probably in his early to mid-twenties. Super nice guy, good voice, loves to lead worship. Back in the fall, there was an announcement that they were going to have a meeting to discuss putting together a “praise team” (I forget the terminology he used but you get the idea). I asked her if she’d heard anything about that recently and apparently, many of the older members were not OK w/that degree of change. I’m not sure what I think about that but that particular discussion led us to the following two points.

When she told me the older members had vetoed the praise team, I was reminded of the place I attended growing up. My dad (who, in my humble but honest opinion, is the most Godly man I know) tried singing some of the “contemporary” songs. I think he actually did it once and many of the older members didn’t like that. While we were discussing it, I mentioned to her that, now that I think about it, I honestly don’t understand why they were so hung up on not singing those songs and only singing the ones out of the song book (a la Fannie J. Crosby). Many of these “newer” songs ( you know all the ones you learn at church camp) are written so that they are just verbatim scripture set to music! Can that really be bad? My friend’s reply was as follows:

I like to sing things I can understand. Seek ye first, Oh God You are my God; I mean, “Here I raise my Ebeneezer”? Come on! I don’t even know what that is. What if I’m singing something like “Here I raise my middle finger”? I know that’s not what it means but as much as I know about that word, I could be singing something like that and never know it. (We both know that’s not what it means but she’s using hyperbole for the sake of making a point…)

I guess my issue here is that I don’t understand why the opposition to these songs. I don’t believe that we need to NOT sing the old traditional hymns - there is absolutely a place for those songs in worship, and with a little effort, we can understand what they mean. HOWEVER, I also believe there’s a place for the newer songs in worship too. I am familiar with MANY more scriptures now that I think I would be otherwise, because of contemporary worship songs that I’ve learned over the years. (I should also note here that I’m not advocating abandoning study of the Bible on one’s own, but just that singing something almost ALWAYS helps with memorization - how many songs off the radio do you know because they get continuous air time?)

Coincidentally, we actually sang “O Thou Fount of Every Blessing” on Sunday night at church and “Here I raise my Ebeneezer” is not the only antiquated phrase in the song.

The other issue we discussed was instrumental music. It’s a hot topic in our area because a congregation in our brotherhood (I recently learned we are not technically a “denomination”) has instituted a second Sunday a.m. service that uses instrumental music in worship. My stand on this topic has always been that I don’t think it’s a salvation issue. I don’t think that the instruments keep God from hearing and seeing our voices and hearts in worship and I certainly don’t think that the use (or lack of use) of instruments in worship is what’s going to determine whether a person goes to Heaven. That being said, my personal preference is a capella singing ONLY because I prefer to hear the different parts which you typically don’t hear in an instrumental service because the vast majority of people sing the melody which is totally fine - God doesn’t care! We could be singing a totally different tune and if our hearts are in it, that’s what matters.

But my friend brought up another point though that I had never thought about. She said that she thinks that it would be wrong to deny those people playing the instruments the opportunity to use their talent. I really hadn’t ever thought about it that way but she’s right. Many people have wonderful gifts of being able to play various musical instruments and want to use that gift (that God gave them!) to worship their Heavenly Father. Is that really so wrong???

So, there are your deep thoughts for the day. I’d be interested to know what anyone else thinks on these subjects.