Confessions of a Contemporary Christian Musician

My recent contribution to our church's monthly newsletter.  

I must admit I have spent a large part of my adult life as an advocate for contemporary or blended worship and music.  However, even before I left my former denomination in 2004, I had begun to be concerned about the direction in which contemporary worship was going.  Having submerged myself for nearly seven years in traditional worship here at Main Street, and having completed my third Christmas season as choir director, I now cringe when I think about some of the things I took part in as a worship leader in days gone by.  My experiences at Main Street, the leadership of our Pastor, reading materials provided for me by the Session, and my own personal research, have led me to better understand the allure of contemporary worship music, and the deterioration of true worship that I had observed during my own time in the ministry.

In my former denomination, most of the pastors I met and worked with tended to view the worship service as an evangelistic tool for reaching the lost, a revivalist strategy going back to the second and third Great Awakenings of the 19^th and early 20^th century. Pastors were taught to design worship services, in part, to appeal to the lost, un-churched, and/or unsuspecting neighbor who might happen to attend a service. Songs from southern gospel, folk music, and even the occasional country song were quite common.  These song choices leaned toward sentimentality and building an emotional experience to “enhance” the worship experience of the participants.  Even the hymns were often theologically anemic, as most of the accepted hymn repertoire was the product of the same revivalist movements cited above. 

[This revivalist mindset can be illustrated by my own experiences. Toward the end of my time in full-time ministry, I began to make attempts to re-introduce some of the older, theologically rich songs of faith which I had discovered in my studies. I was shocked at the resistance I encountered from congregations and fellow ministerial staff.  I specifically remember being called on the carpet by a senior pastor for singing, “Fairest Lord Jesus,” a hymn that exalts the beauty and glory of Christ’s nature, in a morning service.  I was told I was going too “high church” and that I needed to put in more quartet numbers and more Bill Gaither songs so the congregation could “feel something.”]

With the emphasis on emotion and building a worship service that was more acceptable to the religious novice, the inclusion of contemporary music during the late 1970s was a natural development.  Many of the early contemporary Christian songs had the advantage of being based on scripture passages.  For me, these were actually a refreshing change from emotional descriptions of early morning strolls with Jesus in secret gardens, mansions and streets of gold, and post-mortem family reunions held around a family supper table in the clouds.  Unfortunately, as time went by, I have seen the contemporary Christian music I once enthusiastically embraced degenerate into sentimental love ballads about Jesus, which could just as easily be about a human loved one.  For that matter, some of them might be about your puppy.

For me, the allure of contemporary music was that it seemed to bring vitality and a greater emphasis on scripture back into the worship service, without alienating the evangelistic targets whom had been invited to the service.  This is the chief error I and so many others accepted. We were designing worship services to appeal to people who still did not know God or even why He should be worshipped!

It is not my intention to “demonize” any style of Christian music. The issue we must consider is, what is appropriate for corporate worship?  Corporate worship should not be a concert to captivate the parishioner. “But the acceptable way of worshipping the true God is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will ….” The Westminster Confession, Chapter 21.1.  An individual may be encouraged or uplifted by various music styles. But are all of those styles appropriate for a time of worship?

As I said earlier, my seven years here at Main Street have caused me to reconsider my beliefs about appropriate worship. Pastor Strain has reminded us over and over, corporate worship is a time for God to be worshipped by His people.  If an un-churched, unregenerate person finds our worship service alienating, then we must be doing something right!  When this person visits, we should do all we can to make them feel welcome and their visit appreciated, but they should leave the service knowing we experienced something they did not, and in fact, could not experience.  Wouldn’t it be great for such a person to be touched by God in such a way that they sought a deeper understanding of what they were missing out on?

I am a student of worship, not an expert.  After all the years I have spent in leading worship, I find in reality I am but a novice.  All I once knew I have had to forget.  All I thought I knew, I am now learning again for the first time. I am truly hopeful that the old saying is wrong and it actually is possible to teach an old dog a new trick.  It is my hope in the coming months to share with you what I am learning as a student of worship and to share with you ways in which we can experience a greater enjoyment in singing praises to God.  Until next time, sing loud His praises.

Ron Simpson