Using Music For Worship
Music is an important aspect in worship that often stirs emotions, both good and bad. Some persons think that hymns are the way to worship. Some think praise songs are the way to worship. Others, rap. I could go on. The best thing I have learned about worship music was by going to an urban church where they were doing contemporary music before it was cool. Why were they doing this so long. I heard them singing and encouraging us to sing and worship God using Gospel music, Praise and Worship, and Contemporary. Why did they choose this mix? Did people in their congregation say no to hymns? What caused this? Really, what caused this, was that this is what the people listened to and how they naturally expressed themselves in song. They showed up simply being themselves before God, and when God changed their lives, they wanted to express it in the music they knew. Just like prayer, I fear we are teaching people more about religion than relationship in our worship style and words. My heart’s desire is to become and help others become more authentic worshipers of Jesus Christ in Spirit and in Truth, whether it be how I pray, or how I sing. This quote is most helpful:
“God is not Western; God is not Eastern; God is not exclusively the God of classical culture or of primitive culture; God is the Lord of the plethora, the God of the diverse, the redeemer of the plural…Pentecost tells us that one artistic tongue is only a start and a thousand will never suffice. There is no single chosen language or artistic or musical style that, better than all others, can capture and repeat back the fullness of the glory of God.”
(Harold Best, as quoted by Bob Kauflin in Worldliness, a book edited by C.J. Mahaney, p. 70)
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