Fearless Worship

 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.

What isThat in Your Hand?

God asked Moses an interesting question in Exodus chapter four, "What is that in your hand?"  In and of itself the question is actually quite reasonable.  I can remember several incidents as a child when one of my parents would ask, "What is that in your hand?"  Usually it was because whatever was in my hand probably should not have been.  While my parents may not have always known what was in my hand when they asked, we can say for sure the Lord knew what Moses held.  The point of the question was to get Moses to see what he held.  God then demonstrated to him what could be done with that old walking stick when it and its owner were in the hand of God.

Moses was equipped with a shepherd's staff, a unique experience with God, and the portion of God's Word given to him in his day.  While we may not have the same sort of burning bush experience Moses had, we have the completed cannon of scripture available to us in multiple translations, paraphrases and media.  We have over two thousand years of writings of Godly men who have studied those scriptures through the ages and recorded their thoughts, insights, prayers, laments and conclusions.  On top of all that we live in an age in which through technology we can access any of that information at any time at no great expense. Truly we do hold much in our hands, and no doubt should be held accountable for these blessings we take for granted.  

There is something else you hold in your hand.  Every week you pick it up on cue, confidently turn in its pages and are exposed to some of the content already mentioned in this article.  There you see words of scripture, the thoughts and prayers of Godly men, and tears of great theologians on the pages of your hymnal.  As the words of our creeds, catechisms, and confessions link reformed believers past, present, and yes, future; so the songs of our hymnal link us through the years.  

You probably seldom think about the hymnal, other than to be exasperated when there is not one in your pew slot.  Many churches have made the decision to do away with hymnals.  It is so much cheaper now to simply project the words of songs on a wall or screen rather than waste resources on dusty books used only once a week.  Although I have always considered myself one who idolizes innovations and promotes progress, I mourn for a new world so brave it does not need the comfort and consolation provided by the companionship of a good hymnal.

Sadly, we don't make use of our hymnals.  Perhaps that is because few know of the tools, resources, and structure of hymnals.  Maybe that is because our church members have never been properly introduced to their hymnals.  Our hymnal, the Trinity Hymnal, is more than an anthology of old music.  It is a rich resource for personal and public worship.  Have you ever looked at the Table of Contents?  You may have assumed there was no rhyme or reason to the order in which hymns are listed.  Did you ever notice ours are arranged based on their general content or use. For instance, the first 99 are about different attributes of God.  Other sections are devoted to the Trinity, God's Word, The Church, etc.  In other words, if you were depressed because of the struggles you have had against Satan and temptations, you might want to look at hymns 570 through 582 that deal with spiritual warfare.  Could singing or reading the words of #570 Faith of Our Fathers, #571 Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus or #582 Yield Not to Temptation, be a source of encouragement to you at such a time?

At the back of the Trinity Hymnal there are a number of different cross referencing tools allow one to look up a hymn by author, (of the text) composer (of the tune), Biblical reference, name of tune, poetic meter, first line of the hymn or hymn topic.  Personally I find it exciting that  we have hymn text going back to Ambrose of Milan (340 A.D.) and as current as Michael Card's El Shaddai #42.  We have hymn tunes composed by Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bach, and Handel, as well as folk tunes from various continents.  Creative combinations and switching around of hymn texts is made possible by using the poetic meter index.  For instance, both O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing (#164) and Amazing Grace #460 have the same meter.  That means either set of words can be sung to the tune of the other.  From the scripture reference index we can see that the largest set of hymns find their source in the book of Psalms.  I count somewhere around 260 hymns having their references there.

There is a big emphasis these days on singing new and modern songs.  Have you ever noticed that the Trinity Hymnal has 742 hymns in it?  Did you know there are 576 different tunes or melodies used for those 742 hymns?  As best I can figure, of those 576 tunes we utilize only 263, and we are probably only comfortable with about 200 of those.  Now I will be the first one to say that a lot of the hymn tunes are just not very singable.  I will also admit to you there are a lot of hymn tunes I really don't like and dread when I see we are going to sing them.  But, just because you or I don't like a certain hymn does not mean it can't minister to someone else and touch their heart.  Through the years there are hymns I absolutely could not stand when I first heard them, but now they are some of my favorite.  Maybe we should try and learn the hymns in our hymnal that have stood the test of time while we also explore the new and modern.

Beyond the anthology of hymns, the Trinity Hymnal also contains printed creeds, the Westminster Confession, and the shorter catechism.  These have little to do with music, but much to do with worship. These resources are available to the individual for personal devotion, or for use in corporate worship.

I am looking forward to the coming months as we attempt to make greater use of our hymnal.  As always, I would like to point out that if you are interested in learning more about music, singing, our hymnal and want a deeper worship experience, then perhaps the choir is where you belong.  We begin rehearsal at 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings.  We have some who go to their Sunday School class at 9:30 and rejoin us at 10:15 for a final run through.  Others stay and we work the whole hour and a half preparing for the coming weeks. You are welcome to come give it a try.  I do warn you though.  Praising God is addictive and once you start it is hard to quit.  Now I ask you that simple question, "What is that in your hand?"

Observations and Conclusions

For the last several years I have been making some very disturbing observations from which I have drawn some very uncomfortable conclusions. I have shared with you before that I have concerns regarding trends in worship music.  It seems to me that there is an almost fanatical move to eradicate traditional worship and replace it with the modern contemporary model that is patterned after the youth rally concept of the 80's.  I really don't have anything against contemporary worship music, and have utilized it throughout my career.  Likewise, I see no problem in utilizing multiple styles of music in worship.  The style and forms of music in worship will quite naturally reflect the culture of the participants.  Depending upon the congregations's education level, overall music background, and local cultural influences, I have utilized, features from folk, components from country, rudiments of rock,  sounds of soul, and the cornerstone of classical upon the occasion.

I have no fear of music styles and I do not believe the utilization of any style is a threat to the Gospel.  I do, however, find the tendency toward polarization extremely disturbing.  The active trend, fueled by popular culture is to go contemporary.  Therefore, the reactive archetype is to embrace more ancient styles and forms.  Are our only two options the scream of the electric guitar or the wail of the Gregorian chant? With the polarization comes new labels.  Now we must stipulate. Are we going to the traditional worship, the contemporary worship, or the blended worship service? Can we no longer simply go to worship?

Another trend that disturbs me involves the absence of music education.  Many of you remember the music teacher who would come to the class room and teach songs and music basics in elementary school.  That is no longer a common sight.  Fewer and fewer families are educating their children musically.  Don't worry though.  The various talent competition shows on TV are training our children about music.  They are learning through watching those shows what "real" music sounds like and what "real" musicians look, act, and dress like.  (In case that wasn't obvious enough for you, that was sarcasm.) In other words, popular culture is leading again.

With music education at an all time low, and popular culture running at an all time high, I fear that worship, as we know it is severely threatened.  As congregations embrace text only song sheets, and lyrics projected on the wall, our heritage of four part sung music is being eroded.  Choirs are being replaced by praise teams because of the lack of interest in singing.  The tunes and forms of more ancient hymns are being lost because they are not familiar to us in structure.  We are moving toward simpler and more infantile melodies in place of the majestic, the artful, the beautiful.

A silly but fun movie I enjoy watching on occasion is Sylvester Stallone's Demolition Man.  In the story, a 20th century cop is wrongfully accused of a crime and sentenced to suspended animation in a cryogenic prison.  Following a Buck Rogers type story line, he is awakened in a very changed 21st century.  While the story is very campy and light, the writers seemed to make some interesting commentaries on society.  One of the more comedic elements in the story revolves around what passes for popular music in this supposed Utopian future. Advertisement jingles from our day have become the popular music culture of the post nuclear world.  "The Oscar Mayer Wiener song is considered top 40 material.  Interestingly enough, with the devolving of music I see taking place in our world today I fear that future may not be as fictional a possibility as it sounds. 

I believe it is possible to maintain scriptural integrity, utilize a foundation of traditional music, and employ elements of various music styles in a balanced manner that would simply be characterized as worship, and need no other label.  I also believe the key to the church's music future is participation in the church choir.  (Oh, come on, you knew that was where I was headed.)  We need to see more people involved in choir and we specifically need to see more young people involved.  You young married need to find a place in the choir so you can learn more about singing and pass it on to your children.  You teenagers and young singles need to pour your energy and your enthusiasm into learning more about our musical heritage through participation in the choir.  The more people we have involved, the more we can explore that heritage and the more we can learn together.

Choir rehearsal begins at 9:00 AM on Sunday mornings.  We would love to see you there.  You enjoy hearing the choir.  You won't believe how great it sounds when your sitting in the middle of it.  Come join us and give it a try.

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