Peter’s Opinions on the Matters of Music, Song and Worship

04 Aug 2006 11 Comments

by Di in General Chatter, Recent Comments

Here’s a great article by Peter Downes (National Director of Vineyard Churches, Australia)

He writes…”Let me come clean right from the outset…. I am not a musician.  In fact, I must confess, I am a pastor…and therefore have an opinion!

Regarding music I have it on good authority that the music I like listening to is by “100 Portraits”, “Jack Johnson”, and “Norah Jones”. 

I say it is on good authority because I don’t actually know who is who (although I suspect Norah has the slightly more high-pitched voice) and they just happen to be the CD’s my female-dominated household and cars are littered with.

Before you feel too sorry for me let me hasten to add that I do have one point of refuge.  It is my 1992 Mazda Bravo four-wheel drive ute (“ute” = “pickup” for you North Americans).  This is my vehicle, it is a man’s vehicle.  Boy + ute = man.   Man + ute = mighty warrior.  All that sort of stuff.  In my ute Norah doesn’t get a guernsey…no sir-ee.  Its me and The Cat…Cat  Stevens. 

So now that I have established my credibility on matters of music I want to do my pastor’s thing and express a few opinions.  That’s all they are…opinions… so please just take them that way.  I’ll let you know when I have decreed that they have become law.

Some Opinions on Matters of Music, Song, and Worship 

Opinion 1   We all have music and song “in” us

 

Who do you know that doesn’t at some time hum, tap, whistle, jig, or in some other way betray the fact that something musical or rhythmic is happening inside of them?  I suspect no-one.  I think we all are guilty of music. I think we always have been.  In fact I suggest the whole of creation has a song in her.  The Chronicler writes :

    “Sing to the LORD, all the earth; proclaim his salvation day after day. 31  Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad; let them say among the nations, “The LORD reigns!”  32  Let the sea resound, and all that is in it; let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them!  33  Then the trees of the forest will sing, they will sing for joy before the LORD, for he comes to judge the earth. ” (1 Chron 16) [1]

I believe the Chronicler has tapped into a pre-Fall condition of mankind and creation that had song alive and well in her soul.  That doesn’t mean that the song has gone since the Fall, but like everything else it has been greatly marred.  That good old Fall doctrine known as “The Doctrine of the Total Depravity of Man”  (at least that is what my wife says it is called) tells us that since the Fall every part of our being has been corrupted.  Every part of our life is lived at a level less than what God intended for us.  The song is still there, but it has become a whisper.  What the Cross does for us is restore the song, and its ally – joy. 

Opinion 2  Music and Song Are Gifts Given By God

God invented music and song.  He did it for a purpose, and he did it for our enjoyment.  I wish I could give you a bible verse to back that statement up, but just run with me anyway. 

I’ll say more about the purpose of music and song in a minute.  For now let me just say that music is a tool.  It is something God has given us to help us in the activity of expression.  Music can convey how we feel, our gratitude, our joy, and lots of other “uppies” in the area of feelings that words so often fail us in.  Anyway, often no-one is listening so why use words?!  Music can be a more efficient carrier of expression.  A hum or a whistle or clapping can by-pass our brain and therefore be unadulterated in what it communicates. 

Song is a subset of music in this same task of expression, and is a great tool also.  The use of words, our’s or other people’s, can often bring clarification to us of how we feel and what it is that erupting out of us.  Song also brings an added dimension of the ability to give expression to the more “down” side of our feelings.  Yet biblically it is clear that it’s closest partner is joy.[2]

Opinion 3   Music And Song Are Designed For Worship

I raise this point because it is a good excuse for me to talk about my Mazda Bravo Four-Wheel Drive again.  I drive my ute to work each day.  Three kilometres  of bitumen, no hills, no deep rocky ravines, not even a speed bump.  Hardly a good use for a four wheel drive.  My Mazda Bravo, like me, is built for action…we are both best used where we can be wild.

We hear music on our radios every day, and often allows ourselves to cruise along in song or some other response.  But music and song were designed for so much more.  Don’t get me wrong, secular music is okay.  But music is at its best when it can plummet the depths, when it can scale the highest peaks, when it can take us to a place far removed from earthly routine…when it takes us to God. 

I know worship is more than singing and making music, that it is indeed an all-of-life activity.  But music and song open a door that take us in deeper to the throne room where the One we worship sits.  And that’s what God made as its core purpose.  A means of expression, of dialogue, of touching without hands the One we love, from the very depths of our being.

Opinion 4       There Are Other Tools As Well As Music And Song

We have a creative creator God who made us in His image.  We too are called to be creative.  I love the freedom that postmodern culture is bringing to the church, and the quest to reclaim creativity in Christian living.  I love the fact that there is a new sense of adventure in exploring the way we bring ourselves before God to worship Him. 

My simple advice is “go for it guys!”  And to the pastors, “Let them go for it guys!”  It doesn’t matter that you get a few candle burns in your church carpet (yep…we did), or that the poetry has a few words you didn’t know existed and now that you do you wish you didn’t, or that they used textas instead of coloured pencils and it has gone through to the walls.  Small price to pay to connect with the Holy.

But hear this…these things will never replace music and song.  They are our staple, our base.  In my opinion they are the tools God designed, and has given to us, to best cross the human – divine divide.

Opinion 5   The Emerging Church Is In Danger of Missing Out

Depending on what country and culture you are in you will use a different term than the “emerging” church.  Other terms such as “missional” church, or “postmodern” church are used.  However you want to express the changing nature of church it is here to stay…or to change (it means the same thing).  Change is here to stay, so get used to it. 

In the western world postmodern culture is having great impact on the local church and the way in which we offer our worship to God.  This culture is more eclectic, in touch with their feelings, creative, expressive, educated, and consumer-based.  All these factors contribute to what will happen in a corporate or individual’s worship context.

In our local scene music and song are a very high priority in worship expression.  We lean heavily on the contemporary Christian music scene, especially Vineyard and Soul Survivor material.  I think that is natural as music is such a key language in postmodern culture.  What amazes me is that many emerging churches, in rejecting the previous norms of doing church, are rejecting the important role of music and song in worship.

The missional thrust of the postmodern church is exciting.  Who wouldn’t want to meet in a pub, or a coffee shop, or on a non-christian’s territory.  But in accommodating the needs of unbelievers we must not let go of what many of us would consider the most critical corporate activity of the church…worship (best expressed in music and song).  The church “sent” still needs to be the church “gathered”, and in that gathering we must bend our knee and offer the praise of our lips to a great and awesome God.  And blow me down if when we do that, music and song won’t rise up.

Well, I’ve run out of opinions…funny how that happens around dinner time.  To sum it all up let me just say that music and song are God’s special gifts to us so that we may express what is deep in our being.  The result of that is that we come to a new depth before God, beyond rationality, beyond mere words.  I encourage you to keep this core activity central in our worship of God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

               1]  See also   Ps.96:11-13  ;  Ps. 98:8-9  2]  Ps. 28:7  ; 98:4  ;  Is. 55:12