"Contemporary worship music" is questionably music—but unquestionably vacuous, shallow, and adrift…
Show over substance. Performance over piety.
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives.
~ Matthew 26:30
Speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make melody from your heart to the Lord.
~ Ephesians 5:19
~ * ~ * ~
Yeah, I know—Curmudgeon Alert. I’m “resistant to change.” You’re right. It’s divine, hymnal singing, the church choir spreads joy, and, therefore, its phase out, in my view, is negative, a bad development and spiritual bearing.
I prefer that old grace. Organs. Hymns. Harmonies - male-female - that honor God. Gospel “buy-in,” pulpit to pew, with tangible words (no screens), and members, wide of mouth, singing proud, together.
Today’s music lacks that, lacks structure and form. Today’s music (“contemporary”) is less harmonic than physical - making noise, lots of it - and more agitative than soothing.
I say this because, within this milieu - dark sanctuary; blasting guitars - I feel not grace, not reverence and joy, but, frankly, a desire (the burning kind) for it to end. It’s a concert not church. No tie-in, no buy-in, just noise, fog, and haze.
Yes, I’ve been there, tuned in but turned off… And, incredibly (incredulously), plug-protected, as well.
No joke. At Crosspoint Church (5 locations), they distribute them - EAR plugs - and if that’s necessary, if your “music” requires that—what are you DOING? What are you thinking? Who, of right mind - the staff and deacons of a church - thinks music so loud it deadens tissue pleases God? Something - a hunch - tells me that when we enter the Pearlies there won’t be ear pain.
Hello? What - about your music, your judgment - does that say?
Nothing good. Christians revere Christ through song. And choirs, consisting of church members, embody that. Commitment anneals faith, and choirs, which demand teamwork, witnessing through it, bind together the Christian Body.
“Performers” don’t. Droning on and on, lyrics - verse and chorus - abandoned, don’t either. Lines repeated ad nauseam (as long as 20 minutes) aren’t Gospel, and when ear foam becomes a blessing, the catalyst needs to change.
Yes, we suffer—I’m aware. I realize that Paul, in Romans, writes: We rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, but I doubt it was music-oriented. I’m sure you’ve your own tales, aural traumas, but, perusing the ‘net, I found the following:
Blessed be your name—you are my God. (Over and over; I lost count at 14.)
Your love never fails, your love never fails… It is grace, grace, greater than sin… You are all, you are ALL, you are my God. (No one singing; much enduring.)
Oh you’re faithful, oh you’re faithful… God is healer, He is strength, lord, lord, our lord, He is strength.
Holy, holy—you are holy… Holy, holy—you are holy… (Lost count.)
You are awesome, you are high, you are mighty… (Lots of power themes; telling God what He is.)
I worship You… I worship You… I worship You… (Is it just me or is this shallow?)
Nothing can come between us… Nothing can come between us… The debt is paid… And wait, hold, wait for it… YOU ARE MY GOD.
I’m reminded of Philippians, chapter 4, verse 12: I know how to be abased and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.
Oy-yoy-yoy… I suffer need. For grace, I long.
Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,
that saved a wretch like me…
I once was lost, but now am found,
was blind but now I see.
That was written in 1772. The author, John Newton, was a slave-trader, a cad, who, decrying his ways, became a pastor and man of God. He wrote from experience. The lines are deep. Can we say that now? Are today’s lines redemptive? What we call “progress” - change for its own sake - seems shallow and worldly, vacuous and adrift.
What, musically, today stands with Mendelssohn? Where are the painters, the Cezannes and Van Goghs? Have you looked at a modern building? It’s the equivalent of modern music.
Hymns are work, choirs demanding, and it seems that laziness, in their stead, is the driver. It seems as if progress and indolence meld.
Why, long ago, were hymns beloved? Why, sans technology, did they last through the years?
Maybe “progress,” how we see it, should be reworked. Perhaps to turn back is to move forward.
“Christian contemporary” will fall by the way—none will be remembered, no chants, no lines. But “Amazing Grace,” born of trial, will endure.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
and grace my fears relieved…
How precious did that grace appear,
the hour I first believed.
May grace revive. May hymns rebloom. And may Christians rejoice, sing again, when it happens… Ear plugs optional.
Sometimes loud is good.
~ Greg Halvorson
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