Church Music

     I have a question for you.  If we were actually in a group of people, this question would cause a very intense discussion, with differing opinions being thrown around to counter each other.  As this is just you and me at the moment, that is unlikely to happen (I suppose it could in the comments, but it will be wound down by then).  Here it is:  What is the best type of church music?  What music should churches be using during their worship service?

   

A Traditional Church Choir

A Worship Team

A Large-Church, ultra contemporary worship team, with haze and lights

     There are a lot of different types of music that different churches prefer.  I have shown some basic ideas in the pictures above.  In the first, we have a very traditional choir.  The the second picture is of a worship team.  The third picture is also of a worship team, but probably a much larger church with smoke and lights on the stage.  Please note I have not made any commentary so far.  The first comment I will make is simply that my church experience throughout my life, as well as my overall preference, would probably be with the middle picture, the smaller praise team.  I like choirs and the tradition of it.  I did grow up with our worship team singing hymns along with the praise songs, so I often know the hymns choirs sing when I visit these churches.  I like how I feel when I'm in a church that has a choir.  It just hasn't been my main experience.  As for the final picture, it is probably outside of my preference and comfort zone.  Please note again that I have not made any sort of value statement about any of these.  I've simply said where my preferences are.  Yours might be very different.  I also know that these three pictures are far from a complete listing of the types of music churches might be doing.  I have been visited churches that sang A Capella.  I've visited churches in the heart of Africa that had no instruments, but people used their hands on tables and chairs to set the beat (and those people have rhythm!).  There are likely many other types as well.  

     There are a lot of controversies about church music.  The stereotype is that the elderly only like the hymns and the younger crowd can't stand them and only want to hear the brand new stuff.  The stereotype goes on to imply that the young and old are in a cutthroat battle over it.  These statements are largely untrue.  I know people of all ages who appreciate all kinds of music.  When I was in high school (90's), I was in a youth group choir that only did the hymns, and it was beautiful. I also know godly people of all ages who happily compromise their preferences.  It certainly doesn't have to be a battle.  

     The Bible is full of praises to God.  The whole book of Psalms, for example.  First Chronicles 16 gives us some guidelines: "Sing to the Lord, all the earth; proclaim His salvation day after day.  Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples.  For great is the Lord, and most worthy of all praise...ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name." (verses 23-25a, 29a).  Our singing to God should honor Him.  We should be recognizing how great He really is.  He is worthy of our praise.  Glory is due His name!  We should be proclaiming His greatness and deeds in our worship.  I know I often lose sight of that when I'm signing a song in church.  There are examples of this type of worship all through the Old Testament.  One of my favorites is found in Exodus 15.  The Israelites had just crossed the Red Sea, and the Egyptians pursuing them had been drowned.  God had done a miracle for His people in parting the seas, then closing it on their enemies.  Can you imagine how they felt?  I'm not sure I can fully appreciate how they'd feel, seeing that miracle before their eyes, but I can get an idea.  I'm sure they had a strong sense that God was with them.  They were probably overwhelmed by His presence.  The first 21 verses of this chapter are a song they sang right then and there.  This song praises God, and also tells the story of what had just happened.  This song was a reminder of what God had done for them.  I think that's a good guideline for church music.  

     The New Testament has much less emphasis on songs of praise to God.  There are a lot of references to how the church was supposed to be run throughout the epistles, although not a lot of attention is given to music.  There are a few verses, though, that continue the ideas put forth in the Old Testament.  Ephesians 5:18b-20 tells us, "...be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit.  Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."  This tells us that we are to be controlled by the Holy Spirit as we sing these songs.  We're to use them to encourage one another as well as sing to the Lord from our hearts.  I don't know about you, but I'm often guilty of just singing the song with my mouth while my mind is elsewhere.  That isn't worship.  Our hearts must be engaged.  Also, I notice that there are three types of songs mentioned.  Psalms, hymns, and songs of the Spirit (or spiritual songs in other versions).  If you read the Psalms, they're full of praise to God.  This leads me to believe that we're to sing praise songs.  Hymns are mentioned, and they are often songs fraught with deep theological truths about God.  We should be singing them.  Spiritual songs are what they sound like, songs that are about the Lord and His word.  

     A lot of songs I grew up singing in the 80's and 90's were praises taken directly out of the Bible.  I really miss those songs.  Some notable ones were "Beloved (First John 4:7-8)," "Thy Word is a Lamp Unto My Feet..."  "Behold what manner of Love the Father has Given unto Us..."  There were dozens of others (maybe hundreds).  I honestly miss those songs a lot.  It has been many years since I've heard them sung in church.  Times change and new songs are written.  What I find interesting is that people really want to preserve the hymns from the 1700's (and I agree with this), but they make no effort to preserve the praise songs from the 1980's and 90's.  I get saddened to think that they may be lost to history.  I hope not!  My main issue has nothing to do with actual songs, but with the mindset.  Churches either use very old hymns, or very new songs (often from Christian radio favorites), or even a mix of these two things, but never anything from between 1890 and 2010!  In this way, the hymns are the only things actually being preserved, because these new songs will fall by the wayside in a few years, much like the songs I love from my growing up years.  It's sad.  

     I think there's a mindset that either very old or very new are the best.  Sometimes they are.  I love the theology in the hymns.  I loved being in a hymn choir in high school.  I love the stories behind many of the hymns (such as "It is Well With My Soul" or "All the Way My Savior Leads Me.")  One of my favorite hymn writers was Fanny Crosby, who was blind, but wrote thousands of hymns that are still beloved today, 100 years after she passed (she died in 1915, so as of this writing 104 years).  She often said that she put as much of the gospel as she could into her songs (think: "Rescue the Perishing," "Blessed Assurance," or "To God be the Glory").  These hymns often have something newer songs don't.  They touch me in a very special way.  They are tried and true, a part of our history and heritage as believers.  On the other hand, many people writing the newer music are just as godly and spiritually-minded as the hymn writers were.  They were simply born later.  There are often stories behind these songs as well.  One of my favorite newer songs is "In Christ Alone," by Keith Getty.  This song, while newer (written in 2001, popularized in the later 2000's), has all the components of a hymn.  It has a very clear melody (it would be easy to hum), clear cut verses and a chorus (no bridge) and has deep theological truth.  Another, much newer one I really like is "Good Good Father," by Chris Tomlin in 2015. That one really isn't like a hymn.  The melody would be much harder to hum and have people know what you're humming.  It is somewhat repetitive.  It has a bridge.  The verses sort of lead into the chorus.  It declares a simple truth rather than deep theology, but it is far from "fluff".  It fits all categories of a "Psalm".  It is a praise to God, and a reminder to all who sing it that He is our Good, Good Father.  It contains truths we need to be reminded of.  Having said all of this about some old and new songs, being older doesn't make it more spiritual.  Being newer doesn't make it more relevant to our lives.  Both of these things are often misconceptions people seem to have about songs.

     I believe the reason many people do see hymns as more godly or spiritual (false as this may be) is because they truly have stood the test of time. I believe newer songs are just as capable, but churches shelve them after a few years and they don't get that chance.  I see that as a bigger problem than anything.

We used this praise book when I was a teenager.  In fact, I own a copy of it.  Most of the songs are no longer being widely sung, but they should be!

     Another problem I see is that newer songs are often very strongly affiliated with a certain movement or artist or radio station.  This often colors the way we see these songs.  Oftentimes, the songs themselves have glorious, godly lyrics and music, but the movement behind them is something we might not agree with.  I believe we need to disconnect them from that, and just focus on the message and how it glorifies God.  I'm going to tell a personal issue I have.  I have a very hard time with Christian radio nowadays. When I was a kid, Christian stations called themselves Christian.  Today, many of them call themselves "The Positive Alternative" or "Family Friendly."  To me, it seems like they're ashamed to bear Christ's name.  There are a lot of "positive" and "family friendly" things in this world.  Disney usually fits that.  If a station is actually playing Christian music, they should admit to being Christian, not water that down.  Who do they think they're fooling?  Do they think unsaved people looking for something "positive" will be tricked into listening to Christian music that way?  That's not a good ministry approach in any event.  People aren't stupid.  No one is really "seeking" until the Holy Spirit calls them, and when He does, they won't be looking for "positive".  They'll be looking for Christ in all His glory.  And if the Holy Spirit isn't in it, they won't be interested in anything Christian, no matter how it is packaged to sound more generic.  I gave up Christian radio about a decade ago for this reason, and perhaps it has changed, but when I gave it up, these stations, while playing Christian music, were having very immature, bumbling DJ's.  One time, a station was giving away the Bible on CD.  The DJ announcing it said, "Who has time to read the Bible?  Not me!  I have to get my kids to soccer practice, make dinner, etc.  So now, I pop in a CD of the Bible, and I can have God's word going while I get more important things done at the same time.  You can get your Bible CD by..."  Whoa!  God's word is background noise to her.  That's scary to me that taking kids to soccer and making dinner are the "more important" things that take precedent over God's word.  Another person on the same station said, "I try to have a list of all my prayer requests written out when I pray, so I don't get side-tracked and confuse God."  If her God can be confused, she doesn't know the God of the Bible!  A different station (the "positive" one), was having a fundraiser.  They had someone speak, who had been "touched" by their station.  This person sounded like an empty-headed surfer, and his statement went like this: "My life was, like, totally negative, and after I heard this station, it's, like, positive!"  The DJ came back on and said, "To keep having testimonies like this, please give a donation to keep us on the air."  That wasn't a testimony!  Jesus wasn't mentioned.  God wasn't mentioned.  It was a testimonial for their station, not a testimony of a changed life in the Lord.  The music on these stations are often very godly, but I can't stand the air-headed DJ's.  I had to give it up, because I could feel my IQ dropping.  If it has changed and has gotten better in this regard, please let me know.  That was a little bit off topic, but it explains another reason why some people falsely say hymns are more spiritual, due to association.

     My husband and I had a very odd experience visiting a church once. This was a very large church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  My husband had met the pastor when he was in Bible college many years earlier.  We visited, to experience things we never had before in church.  It was totally overwhelming in every sense of the word.  It offended my senses.  The music was very loud (volume wise).  I'm not criticizing the actual songs or style, although they weren't my preference.  I'm criticizing the volume as being dangerous. I felt as if my heart had an irregular rhythm or murmur or something.  I felt that music pounding and vibrating in my body in a way that made me physically ill.  I actually thought I would vomit.  Much worse, they started releasing smoke into the air and having multicolored lights shine all over the place, like a used car lot at night.  I became very dizzy, adding to the nausea.  The lights shined right into my eyes, really hurting me.  I closed my eyes, and it changed nothing, because the lights were so bright that I could see them just as clearly through my eyelids.  I sat down, covered my face with my hands, and doubled over.  My husband was worried, and he went to ask someone if they could turn down the lights a little.  He went to the guy running the sound system and told him, "My wife is really sick.  Can you turn the lights off of the audience?"  This guy got indignant and told my husband he was disturbing people's worship (which was impossible, because it was so loud and overwhelming there was no way anybody in the audience could possible hear them, or see them..  My husband politely persisted, and this man called security on him!  They told him they were going to throw him out if he didn't drop it.  When he reiterated that his wife was sick, they said, "Oh, we have doctors on hand in case someone has another seizure from the lights."  What?  This has caused medical problems and they keep doing it?  Needless to say we never returned.  It was a very disappointing experience.  If there is someone in this world who can be brought closer to Jesus from this type of experience, more power to them, but in my mind, this doesn't fit the guidelines of worship we examined earlier.  Harming someone's health with so much stimuli has nothing to do with Jesus.  We need to be keeping the main thing the main thing, and I don't believe they were.  I don't know the hearts of everyone involved, and I don't claim to, but there was a real problem there.

     I want to close with a sweet encouragement.  A gentleman recently put a video on YouTube that is the Evolution of Christian music.  It is 8 minutes long, and is very artfully done.  This video shows how all of it glorifies God through the ages, and much of it has stuck and is still being used.  Please view it here.  You will be blessed, I guarantee!