Being a Christian Fundamentalist and a musician, I pay close attention to the kind of worship music I hear in the different churches. By far, the best approach to worship music I've heard is taken by the church that the wife and I used to belong. I will say why later. In the meantime I will describe the factors that come into play when it comes to worship music.
There are two parts to consider when reviewing worship music: the words sung, the music played. In addition, there are the two different kinds of relationships that worship music must address. There is the vertical relationship and the horizontal relationship. The vertical relationship is each worshiper's relationship to God while the horizontal relationship is concerned with each worshiper's relationship to others.
By definition, worship music should revolve around that vertical relationship while sometimes, but all too often, it doesn't. Worship music can also address the horizontal relationship which can do so by mentioning the Church.
Worship music revolves around the vertical in two ways: in words sung and the music that accompanies it. The words sung should talk about God in ways that reflect how God has revealed Himself in the Scriptures. These word should be God-centered. That includes how God has created, saved and constantly protects us believers in Christ. Sometimes, the words should also describe the Church and its members in how they should relate to one another and how they should relate to the world. But the vast majority of the words sung should be God-centered.
When words of our worship music are God-centered, they should describe who God is and how He cares for us in language that worshipers can understand. So there is a certain relevance to the believers in the words to be sung during worship. However, there should also be a certain reverence in those words because of who we are as both having been created by God and by being sinners who undeservedly seek to be in the presence of a holy God. Showing reverence implies that the worshiper is inferior to God or there is something very deficient in the worshiper that disqualifies them from being in God's presence. Thus, showing reverence involves having and showing an awareness that we can be in God's presence only because of His mercy and grace.
What has been said about the words sung in worship also applies to the music played during worship whether the music played accompanies singing of worship songs or is played as an instrumental pieces. It must be be understandable and help communicate the message of the words that come with the music. In addition, the music itself must show reverence. What is often overlooked here is that the words of the worship songs we sing are not the only form of communication employed in worship. Music itself, even without words being sung, is a kind of communication. We can have worship songs where the words show reverence while the music does not. And so worship music itself must show reverence.
Now as far as the music I've heard in different churches, there are some other characteristics to strive for. In a couple of the churches I've attended, the music and the words were reverent and the words were understandable for the most part, but but the worship songs represented only one culture. And the problems with churches taking a monocultural approach to music include worshipers who come from other cultures can feel left out. Also, there can be an unintended conflating of the culture represented by the music with the Christian faith. That is as true in churches that only sing hymns and play classical music as well as in churches that employ only folk, rock, or any other kind of contemporary music in their worship services.
Other worship music I've heard fails to show reverence. This often occurs when some form of contemporary style is used in worship. Here we should note that because contemporary music almost always comes from secular music, it revolves around a peer-to-peer horizontal relationship. As stated in other ways, our relationship with God is not a peer-to-peer relationship. That contemporary music revolves around a peer-to-peer relationship is true regardless of the genre of contemporary music employed whether it be folk, soft rock, hip-hop, rap, country (please note that I consider country music to be an oxymoron), or jazz. That contemporary music revolves around our peer-to-peer horizontal relationship more than around our vertical relationship with God is especially true in faster paced, more rhythmic celebratory worship music where joy is easily expressed. However, reverence often goes MIA in such music.
I've made piano arrangements of worship music, mostly Christmas hymns, and I have the problem of making the faster paced, celebratory worship music express reverence as well. In my approach to arranging worship music, I use a kind of contemporary approach that employs odd and irregular meters that I have learned from Jazz and Eastern European folk music. If I am working on a hymn that is slow, it is easier to make the music show reverence. But making faster paced arrangements of hymns which are very rhythmic sound reverent is something I don't think I've accomplished yet. That can be compensated for by a church's selection of music where we sing or play far more slower worship songs than we sing or play the fasterr paced, rhythmic worship songs.
And all of that puts us in a dilemma. While we need a multicultural approach to worship, many forms of music that come from other cultures are very rhythmically based to be more relevant, such music often fails to communicate reverence. Certainly, the speed used to play that music can be altered so that reverence becomes more apparent in the music. But again, our selection of music can help create a more reverent atmosphere in the worship service.
There are other factors that can add or take away from the music used in a worship service. For example, on the one hand, worship music should be played cleanly, which is with as few mistakes as possible. On the other hand, the virtuosity required of the musicians and singers of worship music must be mitigated. The virtuosity that is either required by or employed in the playing of worship music can distract worshipers from their worship of God. That is because the greater the virtuosity with which music is played, the more attention that the performer(s) draws to themselves. In addition, the greater the virtuosity required in playing worship music, the fewer worshipers can participate in playing worship music. Playing music cleanly requires skill. But we can unnecessarily add to the skill required to play worship music by using music that only the musical elites of the congregation perform.
One other factor is pertinent here in discussing the playing of worship music: volume. When making worship songs contemporary, some of the instruments used in playing a contemporary style of music are amplified. In most cases, the voices of those leading the singing of worship songs are miked up. And so it is easy that the amplification of the voices and instruments used by those who lead the singing in worship services can be too loud. That in turn can lead to a significant drowning out of the singing of the congregation. And that often leads to a performance mentality, rather than a worship one, in those who lead the singing in churches.
In the beginning, I mentioned how the church that the wife and I use to belong to takes the best approach to worship music I've seen. That is because the music team there plays both hymns and more contemporary worship songs. And thus more than one culture is exhibited in the music. The words of the music are God-centered and almost always accessible in terms of understanding what is being sung. The music is played cleanly while the level of virtuosity required to play the music is reasonable with the exception of the playing of some Christmas music. The words sung in the worship songs and the music played almost always exhibits reverence. And finally, while one can hear those who are leading the singing of worship songs, the sound of the singing by the congregation is markedly louder than the singing and performance of those leading the worship singing.
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