Great questions Greg. I found some of those quite challenging as I asked them of myself. Just a quick question of clarification... do you think there is a place for music playing during prayer or scripture reading? What do you see as the pros and cons?

I'm finding these posts very interesting. In the interest of full disclosure before commenting I'm a member of the a cappella churches of Christ. I was once at a wedding and a prayer was said. As I was bowing I remember hearing something that was growing in intensity. When I realized it was the organ I almost burst out laughing. I thought at the time that it must have been something done for the wedding, something out of the ordinary. Now I see the question above, "Does a prayer seem too 'plain' or 'stark' to you if it doesn’t have music playing behind it?" Also, the commenter above me asked, "Do you think there is a place for music playing during prayer or scripture reading?" So it seems this is a fairly common practice?

Now, here is my one thought on that. I have a hard time focusing on the words of the songs I am singing and this is even more difficult when the music is good. How, if the music is good, can that help us focus on the words of the prayer? And if the music is bad during the prayer, then is that any better?

(Note: I do admit, by the way, that I don't know much about praying with music playing in the background since I've only had that one experience.)

I've only prayed in public with the "accompaniment" once and I found it distracting, but I don't know much about it as a listener. That's just not how we roll.

I liked your questions and I think they get to the heart of the issue ... the heart.

Admittedly, I have on occasion found my mind wandering during a long Scripture reading, but that helps to remind me of just what a spare I am that I can't keep my dumb mind focused on the Word being read to me.

We do "Bible Marathons" at our church where we read through a whole book of the Bible together (e.g., Luke last month).

We take a few breaks, but have NO MUSIC at all. I get the impression some folks would REALLY hate attending an event like that!

;-)

Thanks,
Gunny Hartman, pastor (SBC)
www.ProvidenceChurch.info
Garland, Texas

There are so many personal experiences related to church music and much of the commenting on this series of posts makes me think the commenters (including me) are saying more about their own observations than about what was said in the initial post--the post simply became a springboard for something that is heavy on their hearts.

For my part, I am appalled by the lack of desire for excellence in our music (and in preaching, and in scripture reading). I am reminded of Franky Schaeffer's "Addicted to Mediocrity," although things are much worse than they were when he wrote that book.

Yes, I have found my mind wandering when the person reading the passage reads in a monotone, passionless voice. I begin to fidget when the worship leader launches into pointless commentary. I am not opposed to worship leaders discussing the songs, or directing our attention to scripture passages, but they must be suited for such duties. Some people just don't do it well and, therefore, should not do it at all.

Greg,

I greatly appreciated the original post, and this follow up post is just as excellent. Wonderful thoughts on the purpose and place of music in the Christian's life, and in the corporate worship of the local church.

Thanks again!

This is great stuff Greg. I have linked to it from my blog. One quick question. You said,

"Please don’t treat these like a Seventeen magazine “profile” or something."

Greg, do you read Seventeen magazine? If so, you do know it is for little girls don't you?

:-) Thanks for your good work on this series.

Russ,

Yea, yea. I knew that had to be coming. No, I don't read it---at least not where anybody can see me.....

Dan, yes, I think there can be a place for music behind the reading of scripture or prayer. Personally, I wouldn't want music EVERY time scripture is read or prayers are prayed, but I don't have a principial objection to it. Jonathan Leeman calls it "noodling." Ask him about that. :)

G

Dear Greg,
You're post on music last week has been very encouraging! It rocks! ;) Thank you so much. Man, those are great questions too, brother. Personal opinion: put these blog posts in a small pamphlet and sell it for a buck or two. I'd buy a hundred and distribute it to any Christian I come in contact with.
jim

last year i was told matt redman's pastor instructed him to lead worship for several weeks without instruments. this was because the pastor felt people were worshiping the music and not god...especially given the musical talent at that church.

it was something to think about.

Why do we call the pastor who leads music our worship pastor?

Marc, that's a great question. I don't think we should. Nor do I think we should talk about worship leaders, or even "lead worshipers," as some have suggested. All those get stuck in the same problem: making the musical part of the service the part where the worship takes place. Probably we should just call them "music leaders" or "music directors," like they did years ago. Maybe that would help people realize that worship is bigger than music. In fact, the more important worshipping takes place when we hear and heed the preaching of the Word.

Having many years ago attended a church that had a "grand and glorious" music program, I shudder to think how the emotionalism of it all actually PREVENTED me from growing spiritually. And I attribute it to exactly what you said about not "feeling" close to God when I wasn't around it. What a joy to realize that, as Rom. 12:1 says, true worship is offering myself to God for His service. (You know, taking the stuff I learn Sunday morning and actually living it out.) Thanks for your thoughts ... they're right on the mark.

Dear Greg,
I am glad I came across your blog article on music. There is no other topic of bible study I know of that can make "expositional" bible preachers stop 'exposing' the original texts and switch to "bible study lite" mode. In writing this response I am not trying to be mean. I know how important the enjoyment of music can be to people. This affection for music is nearly universal among mankind and is one reason we do not subject music in the scriptures to more serious scrutiny. But there IS a huge amount of negative testimony in the bible on the topic of music, and for several reasons this information never gets much attention. For one thing, God does not speak with thunder on the topic. He gives us the option to ignore a host of subtle hints in His word if we want to. This may be why much of the bible's testimony about music is "lost in translation". The negative connotations of the original Hebrew and Greek words do not come through in a word for word English translation. I could give 20-30 examples, but this is not the right format for a long post.
Another more subtle reason for people not wanting to hear anything negative about music are the well documented effects that music has on our conciousness. Most people assume that the feeling they get from music and especially "worship" music,is spiritual. It is not. It is the result of a physical compression of air waves that hit our eardrums resulting in a widespread stimulation of nerve networks all over the body (the auditory nerves have more widespread connections to other parts of the body than any other nerve network). At the same time the body is being stimulated by these sounds, the part of our brain that processes sound is relatively small and easily overloaded, even by 'simple' music. But to our brains there is no such thing as simple music. When the sound processing part of our brain is overloaded our bodies begin the release of endorphins, which are an INTERNALLY PRODUCED form of morphine. These substances are normally only released when the body has been injured. Scientists still do not know why we release them in response to music. Maybe when our auditory "server" is overloaded by music, it 'crashes' and assumes that physical harm will follow since it can't make sense out of the surrounding environment. This is just my guess as to why this occurs, but if you want to look up some of the scientific data that shows how music affects us, type 'music -endorphines'in a search engine. The enjoyment of this natural morphine is one reason people refuse to look at negative references to music in scripture. It is also why they feel so threatened when people bring up the topic.
There are many other reasons to look at the bible's musical references in a more critical light to see if maybe what God has in mind when He speaks of musical worship is different from what we do. (if you look closely at the bible's musical worship references you will find that nearly all of them have things in the surrounding text that are symbolic of events which will only be realized in the millenium or beyond)
One final thought - God does not have eardrums that pick up sound waves that travel through the air. So who is this external sound that is called 'worship music' really for? In Acts 7 Stephen pointed out the sin of holding on to the shadow when God calls us to the reality.

I do attend Crossroads. I don't think background music is at all necessary during prayer, I want to be focusing on the words, not the tunes, my heart for the prayer/worship not is it music I like.

I do attend Crossroads. I don't think background music is at all necessary during prayer, I want to be focusing on the words, not the tunes, my heart for the prayer/worship not is it music I like.

I find this discussion fascinating as I have only recently become part of a non-liturgical church. Many of us have no idea that for over a thousand years, music in the worship service only occurred in certain places in the service, and only to enhance the TOTAL worship experience, which included group prayers and creeds, as well as an order to the worship. Believe it or not,the idea of singing for 20 minutes, having 10 minutes for announcements and a 45 minute sermon/lesson is a format common to only a part (maybe half?)of Christian worship services. Most of these churches don't even use guitars! Gasp!

As a music teacher and choir director, I remember being asked once if I was a "worship leader" at my church. I replied "No, I'm not an ordained pastor." I had no idea what my friend meant! At my church, after a scripture reading or the Lord's Prayer, the pastor would say, "Let's stand and sing hymn number 224, 'How Great Thou Art'." Maybe. Often, the organist would simply begin playing the first and last line of the hymn as an intro, and everyone knew to quickly glance at their bulletin to see which hymn to turn to! Many of these people are -well, not quite shocked, but let's say "taken aback" by singing song after song with JUST THE WORDS (and no notation!) on a projector screen... I actually encountered a worship leader recently who didn't think his congregation could sing Christmas carols with just the organ - that unless someone up front was "leading", the congregation just wouldn't sing. Well, many Christians will, and do!

It takes awhile to adjust to a different style of worship music, but it can be done. Usually, people make that change only if there is some other reason that they want to be in that particular church. (Fellowship, teaching, more singles, etc.) But music does play a critical role in most Christians' worship experience, and it's hard to adjust one's endorphins, as Chris mentioned above. While I love a Black Gospel service, with the Hammond B3 providing canvas upon which the entire service is painted, my Dad says "There's too much uncontrolled emotion. Just seems silly to me."

My most powerful experience of worship happened at an Episcopalian High Mass in New York City, where a double choir of men and boys sang a 15th century Mass - in Latin -as part of the liturgy. I found myself weeping 5 minutes into the service. My #2 was probably the first time I attended a "praise service" in a defunct Woolworth store in Red Bluff, CA. It was FUN.

So now, I'm at a church that is non-liturgical, though lately the pastors and worship leaders have been choosing contemporary versions of hymns for at least half of the music we sing. "Joyful Joyful We Adore Thee" with guitars and drum set makes me shudder (doesn't stir the endorphins for me!) but many in the congregation eat it up. It fits the style of music they listen to on the radio. Many are shocked to learn it's Beethoven. But remember the power of the "Backbeat" - central to the blues/rock & roll style- it makes you MOVE. And we like that. The pre-Rock & Roll generation does NOT like that. (Remember that rock was the music of Satan, because it gave you "carnal feelings".)

So we've got our work cut out for us: How to use music to enhance worship, without it BECOMING the worship, and to do it while reaching out to modern congregations without disposing of so much great music of the past 500 years.

Gunny-
A college group I was involved in about five years ago did a Bible-reading marathon. That was something I had never done before, or since.

The pastor of a church I visited this past Sunday gave the congregation the passage that was to be studied, then each verse was read aloud by a different volunteer.

His Word read in community. Honestly, I could skip the singing (and the sermon) for more of that.

I probably should specify--by marathon I meant whole books (and multiple books) per reading. The passage we read Sunday was a little over a dozen verses long--but there was still a sense of community, and priority placed on the Word.

Thank you so much for your thoughts on Worship music. Our church is going through a hard time right now with this very issue. It does make you realize that when differences get this nit-picky who are you really worshiping?? I was challanged and convicted by your statements and plan on asking for God's help and revelation as to the condition of my own heart. I played an instrument for a Worship Band some years ago for about 5 years and quit because the sence of "experiencing God" was a stumbling block for me... thanks so much for the reminder to keep our hearts and minds on what is important and thats Worshiping Him from our hearts the One and only true God!

I googled you Greg and what I found was that you didn't like music or whatever things you posted at the top of your article. Ironic how I googled you and found what you did not want to be found. Nice article nonetheless. God bless and keep glorifying God

My husband and I are moving from church to church these days because so many churches have these "contemporary services" that we do not like. Our church of 20 years calls the music in their service "blended", but it is moving quickly to the contemporary service. There is no printed order of worship and no song book. Everything is put up on screens and the music is very loud. Yes we are 60 years old but our children are in their early 30s and they do not like these services either. Our 5 year old granddaughter has asked to be taken out of the service because of the loud music. Why does the church have to go in this direction to attract younger members. The younger people just need to learn how to act, dress, and respect a church service. The contemporary music is fun for youth events and programs but not for the Sunday morning worship service.

Just my two cents.