RE: How About Music
Yea, I think Mike’s right about eldership. Pray for the Lord to raise up elders of all kinds of ethnicities, but don’t make a man an elder because he’s of a certain ethnicity. And certainly don't make him an elder because of his ethnicity if he's not qualified. Make a man an elder because God's raised him up as a qualified elder, and then rejoice if he happens to increase the diversity of your leadership.
The music question’s harder. Music is deeply ingrained into people’s ethnicity, whether that’s hip-hop, cowboy, yuppie, or whatever (we gotta come up with some more examples of ethnicities—what ethnicity do Jonathan and I fit in?). Anyway, it’s hard for me to believe that the answer is to follow up a hip-hop free-style with a steel-guitar accompanied rendition of “I’ll Fly Away,” and then bring it all to a smooth suburban end with “Here I Am To Worship.” I’m not sure a “mix” is the way to go.
I think I’d say the best solution is just simplicity: Try hard not to lean into any ethnicity at all. But even then, simplicity isn’t simple, is it?
I mean, what on earth is simplicity? How would you even begin to define that? Isn’t what I think of as “simple” not “simple” at all to someone from another ethnicity, but rather highly tilted toward my own preferences and comforts? And besides, given people’s hang-ups about music, would a church going for simplicity in music even be able to survive? Don’t you have to have music that really appeals to somebody? And if it appeals to one somebody, won’t it repel somebody else? That’s why I was very serious when I asked if building such a church is a hopeless dream this side of eternity.
If there is a solution, it seems to me that it probably
doesn’t rest with the guy who plans the worship service anyway, but rather in
Christians’ own hearts. Having a truly multi-ethnic
church would require a group of Christians to decide that worshiping together
with Christians of many different ethnicities is more important to them than
singing music they really, really like. Right?
It seems to me that any church that finally manages to transcend ethnic lines is inevitably going to be one where just about everybody says, “Yea, I’m not crazy about the music. It’s not what I’d play in my iPOD. But I’ll tell you what I do like: I like seeing all these different people worshiping Jesus Christ together. And that’s more than worth it.”
Jonathan is emo.
Posted by: Mike McKinley | Apr 25, 2008 12:24:11 PM
Growing up alongside Greg, I would classify him as Neo Texas Redneck. As toned down as his accent has become, there was a day when his thick draw could bring in the cows!!
Posted by: Trey | Apr 26, 2008 6:12:04 PM
When we are told to "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God," we are given more guidance on musical style than we often give Paul credit for. Here's why:
In order for us to "let the word of Christ dwell in us richly", that word must be present. In order for music of any kind to allow that to happen, there must be "room" in that music to allow the text to express something about Christ. By "room" I mean both physical space, and an appropriate emotional support.
The problem with limiting your self to any one style is that every style has its emotional limitations (traditional C&W is often great for some kinds of mourning, but terrible at giving expressive support to concepts like majesty). Some styles of music just don't sound right when texts of any substance are added (the mindlessly repetitive praise choruses have in their musical design severe limitations to how much of the "word of Christ" can be served by any one of them, and worship limitations in that the musical "needs" of the songs often demand several repetitions before the song "feels" complete. It's a terrible, worship-defeating combination.
Conversely, "genres" like traditional hymnody (not so much the gospel hymns) and folk-traditions have far more room for the full range of texts and ideas that deserve to be enfleshed in music as we worship each week.
Luther said, "music is the handmaiden of theology;" yet too often, we treat the theology as a necessary but uninteresting side-product of the music.
What I would encourage every church to do is to build up their repertoire on the basis of the texts that they see as necessary to give a full-orbed picture of Godly, Biblical, Christ-centred, Spirit-indwelled worship, and then move on to musical considerations (including which tune to use with which text - remember, there is no law against changing the music to any worthy text from the way it may have been sung in the past) afterwards. Amazingly, in the hands of good musical leadership, an amazing yet unforced stylistic array is often the by-product of thinking Biblically about worship music.
We must get past the idea that the purpose of music in worship is marketing, rather than the Biblical warrant articulated in Colossians 3:16 (and demonstrated by example in other places). If we don't, then there is a significant Willow Creek/Saddleback diversion remaing in our thinking about what constitutes a "healthy church."
Blessings on all of you who stop to think about this!
Posted by: Roger Bergs | Apr 27, 2008 9:20:43 AM