On Church Music

What is the best way to "do music" in church? I don't propose to answer that in one blog post. But we have made music such a big part of church that it is worth noting. Every Sunday at church, a good fifteen minutes of the hour long service (a rude estimate, I know) are devoted to worship. People get angry if that changes, but other people get angry if it stays the same. Music becomes a point of divisiveness. Some of the biggest splits are over "contemporary versus traditional" music and simple amount of music.

Now, I'll admit that I don't care much for Christian music, and therefore probably one of the less suited commentators on the "issue." I'll also admit I don't listen to much contemporary music at all, so have a natural bias against it. Modern music seems to grow shallower, especially as the chorus is repeated some fifty odd times over the course of a two verse song (pardon the mini-rant.) The fact that the chorus is so often repeated tends to lessen the impact, causing it to become simply words if one doesn't concentrate. Hymns traditionally don't repeat so much (Note especially "Come Thou Fount" and "O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing") and so convey more material in the same amount of time. And I would personally love to see modern hymns, but that's another point entirely. Either way, worship is worship, and everyone ought to stay in community, regardless of the type of music.

Now, the amount of sheer face melting noise that us old people can take is rather low. Especially for those of us who are naturally introverted. Worship that is prolonged can seem to be simply excessive. Cut it too short though, and others complain of the lack of music. All I can say is, we get used to our situation. The thing about music is that church members take the music personally. We ought to evaluate theology, not mode of delivery. There is no community if everyone is out for his own tastes. Then we just have the consumer culture spilling over to the church. I would like to see a depth in my own music, but accomplishing theological depth at a church should seem simple. I should care not for the package, but the message.