The concerns this article points
to reminds me of conversations that I have with worship team and church members
and its divided almost right down a generational line (and/or church background
history). Some of my worship team members over 50,that grew up in the church,
have made similar comments while most of members under 40 (church and worship
team) and the older ones over 40 who DID NOT GROW UP IN THE CHUCH WORLD would
think this article is full of “rubbish” itself.
Music is a language of culture
and the church at one time might have had a more understood universal culture, however that
is just not true anymore. One great lesson learned from the Jesus Movement that
brought about a revival in the church world in regards to worship music and the
songs that came out of it was that the songs had significance because they
belonged to new separate culture of the church and their songs spoke their
language allowed them to worship, where as the "traditional" church
culture was so far off from their language and culture it was foreign to them.
As I read this article I feel it is written from a rulebook that has changed
but the author either doesn't like the change or thinks the change is wrong. He
speaks to some good practical realities for some churches but he sates them as
if they are rules. However, they simply are not rules, even for small churches.
My 55 year old senior pastor with
Baptist roots recently challenged me with a rule change. He asked me to
introduce a new song every week. I am a younger worship guy but that went
against the rules I grew up with in the church from the 90s. My pastor said, “Listen,
if they are listening to Christian radio and Pandora etc then they are already
hearing these new songs and they won't really be new to the church.” Well, he was right. We are now 6 months into doing a new song almost every week and most
of the time you would never guess it’s a new song and the church can sing them
(Bethel Church, Hillsong and all). Why because its not foreign to them. Its the music
they listen to and also sing to, even with weird melodies or weird key. It is
not hard for them because they sing along with them all the time in the car,
even in those keys the author of this article thinks will make people stop
singing.
The article speaks to a culture
that still exists in some places but Is NOT the normal church world anymore, or
at least it is shrinking more each year. I am in an Evangelical Free Church in
the middle of Midwestern culture (Small Town WI) who is always seems10 years
behind however I don’t hear the comments the article talked about except from the
long term church goers who have been told “that
is the rule” apparently it only hinders them, not the regular believer coming
without a man made rule book who is just ready to worship!
Its time to put away our rule
books and always be open to what is changing and happening in our churches. If
its not a rule in the Bible its time to chill out and end the attacks on others
that do it differently.
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