for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. II Timothy 1:7
I hope you have been as excited about our worship services of late as I. The integration of additional instrumentation, in my opinion, has brought a new energy and spirit to the services. This has not come about as simply a whim or a passing notion. For quite some time now pastoral leadership, the session, and other concerned individuals have been discussing, debating, researching, and praying about worship music. At the same time we have been hesitant to take any actions for fear of alienating any segment of our church family. I suppose we were fearful of collateral damage from a worship war.
All of us are familiar with the worship wars. We have witnessed with horror the degeneration of worship music in many congregations. Fearful that traditional worship practices were becoming irrelevant in the modern world they have moved from the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs into stage band performances. Not long ago I read an article complete with an accompanying photo of what appeared to be a very modern and upbeat worship "stage" with the theatrical lights and the praise band in casual attire. But a closer look at the photo and the caption underneath revealed it was actually a photo from a popular night club. Assured that the slippery slope of contemporary worship will lead to such compromise others would like to see worship music remain familiar and unchanged. Yet congregations who choose that route continue to shrink in number and in their effectiveness to minister in the community. Obviously, neither of these options are desirable for our congregation.
As a remedy, there are churches in our area who have chosen to hold two different styles of service: one, a traditional service, and the other a contemporary. I hope it works for them, and I wish no ill will on any churches or their leadership who have chosen that route, but I strongly question a program or a plan that by definition of itself divides a church rather than unifies it. Should not a family of Christ come together in some form of unity? Life and its struggles bring with it a plethora opportunities for division and divisiveness within the church. We have no need to make division part of the logistics of our worship. I do not believe this is a desirable option for our congregation.
As I have stated before in other articles, I believe it is possible to worship God in a style and manner that is not limited by the words,"contemporary," or, "traditional." I believe we can worship without fear using the full heritage of our reformed faith, and embrace the modern world of song at the same time. I don't care if someone is compelled to label that as blended, eclectic, or schizophrenic. I call it real people worshiping their Savior with all that is available to them. In fact, I once heard of a group of radicals who saw so great a need to update their worship practices with a brand new set of contemporary Christian hymns and songs that they resorted to writing them themselves. Today we refer to those fearless worshipers as the reformers.
The integration of the flute, guitar, violin, and cello with piano is something very new for us. Quite honestly, we are still finding our way with it. I have never had the opportunity to work with this combination of instruments. I believe this will give us a unique sound, a desired flexibility, and the essential confidence so that whether we are singing an original composition, the latest product from Gettymusic, or a Bach chorale, we will do so with joy, energy, and daring. My prayer is that we will come to be absolutely fearless when we approach any psalm, hymn or spiritual song.
