Let’s Have More Worship Wars
— Monday, February 13th, 2012 —
I have the worship music tastes of a seventy-five year-old woman.
There I admitted it. That’s because a seventy-five year-old woman was picking out the hymns and gospel songs in the church where I grew up. My iPod playlist is really eclectic—ranging from George Jones to Andrew Peterson to Taio Cruz. But, when it comes to worship, nothing gets to me like Fanny Crosby. And, if “Just As I Am” is played, I’m going to want to cry, and probably walk the nearest aisle (even if it’s on an airplane).
I’m left cold by what people call the “majestic old hymns.” I tried to like them, to fit in with the theological tribe into which I was adopted, but I just can’t do it. They sound like what watercress-sandwich-eating Episcopalians from Connecticut might sing (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
And, though I like a lot of contemporary music, much of it sounds to me like many of these songs were written by underemployed commercial jingle writers, trying to find words to rhyme with “Jesus” (”Sees us?” “Never leave us?” “Diseases?”).
But the more I reflect on what I like, and why, the more I’m convinced that my preferences are almost entirely cultural and nostalgic.
I’m not saying aesthetics don’t matter in worship. The Spirit equips God’s people to sing and to play and to write music. So when music is not good this is often evidence of, at worst, disobedience, and at best, misappropriation of talents. And the Scripture commands us to worship in “reverence and awe” (Heb. 12:28).
Worship is directed toward God, yes, but worship arises out of a specific community. The psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are teaching ( Col. 3:16). They build up the rest of the Body. That’s why we’ve got to care about what, and how, others hear when we are “addressing one another” (Eph. 5:17) musically.
What I am saying is that most of our varying critiques of musical forms are often just narcissism disguised as concern about theological and liturgical downgrade. That’s why I think we need more, and better, worship wars.
Thankfully, we don’t hear as much about “worship wars” these days, but I wonder if that’s because of growing maturity or if it’s simply because we’ve so segregated ourselves into services and congregations that reflect generational and ethnic and class-oriented musical commonalities. Maybe we need to reignite the wars, but in a Christian sort of way.
What if the war looked like this in your congregation? What if the young singles complained that the drums are too loud, that they’re distracting the senior adults? What if the elderly people complained that the church wasn’t paying attention to the new movements in songwriting or musical style?
When we seek the well-being of others in worship, it’s not just that we cringe through music we hate. As an act of love, this often causes us to appreciate, empathize, and even start to resonate with worship through musical forms we previously never considered.
This would signal a counting of others as more significant than ourselves (Phil 2:3), which comes from the Spirit of the humiliated, exalted King Jesus (Phil 2:5-11). It would mean an outdoing of one another, in order to serve and show honor to the other parts of the Body of Christ. And, however it turned out musically, it would rock.
Okay, so I exaggerated a little about my old woman tastes. In the time I’ve been writing this article the background music has included both Conway Twitty and Christian Hip-Hop artist FLAME. But I know myself; you turn on “To God Be the Glory,” and I’ll get misty-eyed.
When I insist that the rest of the congregation serve as back-up singers in my own little nostalgic hit parade of back-home Mississippi hymns, I am worshipping in the spirit all right. It’s just not the Holy Spirit. I’m worshipping myself, in the spirit of self-exaltation. And it’s easy to be a Satanist when you can get your way in worship planning.
Let’s declare war on that, in ourselves and in our churches. Which reminds me: “Onward Christian Soldiers,” what a song…
42 Responses to “Let’s Have More Worship Wars”
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I am one of those 70 (plus four) women! I attend a church that has mostly “up beat” praise contemporary music. We have a wonderful orchestra and probably 350 voice choir, praise teams lead. My preference in music is not why I attend this church. The pastor’s enthusiastic preaching which almost disguises his Bible teaching and the quiet confirmation that the Lord wants us there is the why we are there.
Indeed I appreciate your article and the comments you share about ‘worship wars’ and primarily the ATTITUDE of the generations looking out for one another. I have sat in congregations and been abused with words and attitudes of “You old folks are out of tune, shouldn’t say anything about our music…fit in or move out!” Rejection hurts the spirit of the older just as it hurts the spirit of the younger. For “OLD” folks to sit and listen to the current music trends…remain faithful to attendance, financial support amidst the verbal and attitude rejection of the younger ones…well, I believe the war has been waged and won - but not by the older generation. It is difficult to follow your passion/calling today because of the “bumping off” of the older generation and yet we have more to share than ever…(Titus 2)!
Thanks for your openness and influence to encourage harmony in the Body of Christ. May the Lord bless you richly!
I say we bury the terms that denote preferences (contemporary, traditional, classic, etc.) and pursue Biblical worship. At every opportunity in my ministry, I steer the conversation about old vs. new towards scripture. If the Word of God becomes our preference, you will see more declaration of war on things that are not of God.
@Nick Wolfe, careful…you may be undermining scripture by implying that “contemporary, traditional, classic, etc.” are not biblical.
@Nick Wolfe, …an intresting issue that has crossed my mind many times. Be it contemporary, classic, Rock or d good old Hymn, I think what’s important is dat we re singing True worship n praise to God, laying down self centredness n ’showmanships’. Not forgettin things shuold b in moderation example is Rock.God bless us all! ;Hello mr Wolfe,been trying to contact u. pls contact me, you have influenced my life positively;
Very good. When we truly focus Christ what will burn in our hearts to to see others glorify Him. And that means I am thinking of Christ primarily and then everyone else secondarily and me…well I am just a means to glorify Christ more. Great article!
Thank you for reminding us who the enemy really is and I pray we unite to wage the right wars!
Great thoughts and I love how you bring up the need to look out for each other’s tastes and desires. I am always very encouraged when I see older believers in the body accepting the loud drums and upbeat music, but rarely stop to consider wether I should be more accepting of music that I might find more “boring” for their spiritual benefit. Thanks for the encouragement.
BOOM!
I love this godly man.
I love the old hymns because they are so familiar to me and I can sing my heart out in worship and praise to our Lord. I am also learning and becoming familiar with some of the newer contemporary tunes as a choir member of a large church. I think a healthy balance of the old and new would alleviate the need for any warring. It’s very disheartening to look out into the congregation and notice older folks not singing the “new” stuff and younger folks not singing the “old” stuff. I think to force a newer style of worship music onto the people who trained us to be at church in the first place is rather uncaring of their worshipping needs. That works the other way as well, young people need edification that the more contemporary music may give them.
I would like to encourage all of us to remember some very important truths. When we go to worship the Lord on His day, it’s not about what we like or what may or may not be familiar to us. We are there to worship the Lord in praise and songs, to study the written Word, to fellowship with our Christian family and to encourage and welcome our visitors. If we could humble ourselves long enough to get our eyes, ears, and attitudes off ourselves I think our hearts would be happier, our voices sweeter and our worship to Him more pleasing. It’s not about us. It’s all about Him!
A very refreshing read!
Thank you. I don’t know if I have much more that is valuable to say at the moment. I am going to continue to mull this over for the next few days. But I just wanted to say thanks.
Great article and spot on. Too much worship is “me”-centered. It’s okay to sing some songs about what God does for me and what I do for God to go along with utter “me”-less exultation of God. That reflects the character of the psalms. But we can’t worship corporately without the fullness of Christian fellowship in that we seek each other’s good above our own.
Hey Russell - good stuff here and thankful that you are provoking us to think about this. In this blog you wrote “I’m convinced that my preferences are almost entirely cultural…” Love the honesty.
Nine years ago, you wrote that “Baptist conservatives will stand where Baptist conservatives have always stood— against the stream. And, like their Baptist ancestors across the centuries, they will be hopeful —but uneasy—in a culture that is looking more and more like Babylon.” Source: Resurgence vs. McWorld? American Culture and the Future of Baptist Conservatism by Russell Moore (Spring 2003)
So practically speaking…how do you propose to separate the pop music styles coming out of “a culture looking more like Babylon” from that culture, and remove the inherent offensiveness of those styles, before you bring the music into a worship service to accompany our praise to God?
I raise the question because, based on my extensive research and conversations with thousands of churches since 2002, I can state that ‘cultural offensiveness’ is a root cause of the vast majority of worship wars. It’s good for us to continually examine our own motives, as you have done here. But should we ignore the present power of any contemporary music style and exempt that from all discussion?
I also urge everyone to be careful not to reflexively dismiss the ‘cringing’ reaction of a Spirit-filled Christian to ‘pop’ worship music as simply being narcissistic (or worse), as your blog might imply. Can we leave room for the possibility that contemporary idioms are not always ‘whatsoever things are pure and noble’?
I think you may in fact have that proposition backwards. We’re borrowing music styles created by the narcissists. There must always be an uneasy tension as we do this, since we stand ‘against the stream’. Suggesting that this tension is due to one’s selfish preference may be too simplistic a solution to the problem.
Keep us thinking on it! Peace in Christ. Colossians 3:16-17
Thank you for pointing out the problem of sentimentality and nostalgia. Each church worship ministry is obligated to lead in worship in the most excellent manner possible, given the gifts and talents of those available.
While I understand your point about the young people complaining about the drums, on behalf of the seniors, I take exception to your illustration. Ministers in music do (or should!) do the best that they can in a worshipful spirit, with the gifts that they are given, and the level of criticism that some endure is appalling. It would be great if complaining that the drums are too loud was just as unthinkable as complaining that the Sunday School teacher stands wrong, or that the pastor talks funny.
Many times, a church’s style of music is determined by who is available and what their specific gifts and talents are. If a church has the best dobro player in the country, then let’s have bluegrass. Either we really believe that God sets into office those that He desires, or we don’t.
I’m 33, and my worship tastes are as eclectic as my iPod playlist…everything from classical to gospel to rock to hip-hop to contemporary worship.
My parents raised me with a love for the classic hymns (particularly the 1950s version of the Baptist Hymnal) and I still play some of those songs in my worship sets (yeah, I rock ‘em out a bit, but it doesn’t change the great theological content of some of these songs).
Thank you for this important word. Though I believe “concern for theological and liturgical downgrade” is not only appropriate, but for some who seek to address it, even a calling, still, as you point out so well, it is not about musical forms. Let us lift up Christ and the Truth of the Gospel!
Isn’t it just barely possible that, on the whole, the songs that were popular a long time ago are artistically better than the songs that are popular now?
C.S. Lewis talked about varying worship styles in the Anglican church of his day, but it wasn’t about music. He said something to the effect that if they were doing it right then the High Church folks would strap their hands to their sides rather than cross themselves and the Low Churchers would be stumbling over themselves to get onto the kneelers when they pray in church.
Hey Russell!
Point me to some of those Connecticut Episcopalians who even know the great hymns and I’d be happy to eat watercress with them!
Undoubtedly, we can be very selfish in this area. However, I don’t see how the approach that you are advocating really changes anything when it comes to how we think about what kind of music should be used in worship. It still assumes that the determining factor when it comes to worship music is individual musical preference, with the exception that I need to take my own preference out of the equation. The problem, however, is that there are lots of other people who have the same preferences that I do, and there are even more who have entirely different preferences. Yes, I need to love all of these people, but does this mean that they all have good insight into what should be done in worship?
Instead —
What about thinking critically about the meaning that is inherent in particular musical forms and then asking which forms fit best in the context of worship?
What about asking whether a particular musical form is suitable for a context in which the overall tone is to be that of reverent joy (like the elders who fall down and worship in Rev. 5:14)?
What about asking whether a particular musical form encourages congregational singing, and whether it is good enough to have the longevity that will enable it to be a means by which the Word comes to indwell us richly (see Col. 3:16)?
What about asking whether a particular musical form is consistent with the biblical principle of seeking wisdom by listening to our elders and conforming our lives to their teachings (see Prov. 1:7-9), or whether it tends to confirm the mindset that is perpetuated by contemporary youth culture, a mindset that says that newer is always better and that young people know what is best?
What about asking whether a particular musical form will be helpful in the further renewing of our minds (see Rom. 12:2), or whether it exalts impulse and emotion and has little patience for careful reflection?
What about asking whether a particular musical form keeps in mind that the goal of Christian discipleship is Christian maturity (see Col. 1:28), or whether it will tend to encourage a perpetual state of impatience and adolescence?
#18 Examples?
The point is that what today we call “traditional” worship was, once upon a time, “the shock of the new”. Hard to believe, but the same sorts of things were once said about our hymnody that the Fundamentalists say today about anything with even a slight beat.
The other thing is context. I like U2, and there are a number of their songs which lend themselves to worship or other Christian reflection (”40″, “Yahweh”, and so on). It would focus *me* on reverent worship - and “40″ is well-suited to congregational worship, because its style is anthemic - but I appreciate that for others, U2 would not have the connotations to make that possible. Put another way, I have no context of the particular hymns that Russell mentioned in his blog, and lyrically, some of them strike me as hopelessly saccharine (sorry Russell).
The other point about going on about young people’s music; young people grow up and take their music with them. That’s why I’ve heard it joked that the biggest embarrassment an American teen can have today is going off to hear the Rolling Stones … with his parents.
@Ross Clark, thanks for the initial comment! That’s what I see is the missing link between the article and #18 and #11. Asking the questions about the appropriateness of the style (if the musical style is influenced by the culture at large) is not a bad question - its true that much of what music does is move us with content - lyrics and structure - and context - the musicality and musical structure. However, that was, in many instances (and we can show this), *as influenced by the musical culture at large* as many ‘modern’ songs might be - and so that question is, at some level, moot. One thing that has changed (and it happened far more than 50/60 years ago) is that Christian composers are not necessarily on the edge of creating music…but does that really speak to anything?
Nor does it really need to mean that because a muscial style is ‘popular’ that there is anything inappropriate about it. As a youth pastor, I have seen a surge in youth desiring to work for the benefit of others - seeing themselves as needing to influence society for the better (far more than when I was in high school). Although secular/humanistic in origin, it is actually in line with what we as the church should be doing. Do I refuse to maybe work alongside and confirm that reality but center it in Christ simply because it might be influenced / encouraged from the culture at large? If we are that worried, we should stop celebrating Christmas on Dec 25.
@Ross Clark, …..sorry, wanted to say one more thing. We SHOULD be representing the spectrum of music, however, inasmuch as it works in our context. We will use music from 200 years ago, 70 yrs ago and yesterday in the same set. It requires work to get it all to flow musically - but it celebrates the the continuity of the work of Christ and life of the body.
I agree with everything Dr. Moore said in the article. I have my own preferences in music, and I’m not one to tell other churches what style of worship they should or should not adopt. However, one of my pet peeves has to do with the music at the SBC and the Pastors’ Conference. Years ago, people complained that contemporary music was being shut out, and they had a point. Unfortunately, we’ve gone to the opposite extreme. Today the music at these meetings is almost exclusively contemporary. When we do sing any hymns, they almost always have a contemporary “spin” on them. I don’t think that’s very respectful of people who have more traditional tastes.
I’m not saying we should get rid of the contemporary music; on the contrary, I would be opposed to that. I’m just saying, show a little consideration to us traditionalists! Is that really asking too much?
Although my musical tastes lean toward the traditional in worship, I enjoy and as a musician have performed a variety of styles, including pop and jazz, both professionally and recreationally.
I care less about the style of the music in worship and far more about 1) its content and 2) whether it facilitates worship or merely an “experience.”
Regarding the former, there are hymns and songs both traditional and contemporary that are absolutely vacuous in their theological content. While they may generate a flood of sentiment, they do little to edify.
Regarding the latter, I use the word “experience” very deliberately, as I have friends who pastor a non-denominational church who proudly declare that they avoid the phrase “worship service” and instead call what they do on Sunday mornings “experiencing God.” To me, that is just a clever, post-modern redefining of worship as something it is not. Worship is an act of service. Liturgy is, literally, “the work of the people.” And the music used as part of this should invite participation. If we are encouraged to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, that has implications for worship — specifically, that in the presence of almighty God, we owe the engagement of our entire being in worship and not spectator-ship. Too much pop-flavored music in contemporary worship invites me to do nothing more than sway back and forth, clap my hands, and occasionally join in extolling how “awesome” God is.
Dr. Moore,
Thanks for the great article. Our church has been struggling with this issue for a couple of years. Unfortunately we just had a number of people leave who were not willing to consider the needs of others.
I recently read the book, “Renovation of the Church” by Kent Carlson and Mike Luken. They spend a great deal of time on how church has become a form of entertainment instead of worship.
Thanks again for the great word!