I have spent at least the last three years avoiding the subject of music used during corporate worship. I pulled this off by going to a church that considered anything played on a piano rather than an organ to be "praise and worship". How quaint! Three years of this and the overall effect was to come as close as one can to hitting the neurological reset button when it came to Sunday morning music. My attendance and participation had nothing to do with music but instead had everything to do with the congregation.
This now means that whenever I hear church staff discuss the quality of their church's "worship" (as in "Man, we just aren't worshipping like we used to.") , my eyes narrow and my ears try to discern what is meant by "worship". It would be too easy and so three-years-ago for me to pontificate about how shallow and superficial such talk is (and my friend
Clint can tell you more about that than me). I pray that I have matured since I left the guitar-strumming worship scene of my alma mater. I grew to despise it then, but now I know that music does play a role in the worship of the church. But when it is done poorly, it is really really awful.
So here is my attempt to understand why we do what we do: a modest list of the possible reasons the church should use music in its corporate worship.
1) To elicit the proper feeling and sentiment among the congregation.
This is
perhaps the most popular, or at least I would accuse most praise & worship bands of holding this mindset. Here the musicians attempt to create a "mood" or "atmosphere" conducive to worship. The problems here are perhaps myriad. First, why use music for this when anything else would do just as well? I am sure LSD can create a mood that promotes a receptivity before the divine. Second, one needs to establish what that mood is that makes worship possble. Here, most praise & worship types are terribly uncreative. Fast happy song, love ballad song, awe-inspiring march filled with power chords, repeat. But what if we need to be angry one Sunday in order to properly worship? Somebody needs to put Lamentations to music.
2) To promote the understanding of and repetition of basic doctrinal, biblical, theological statements
We sing Scripture, repeat lines of the ancient creeds, wax theological in hymnal verses. Why? Because we can never say these things enough, eh? Repetition is the key to understanding according to the ancients and your third-grade teacher. I like this one because memorizing a song is effortless compared to memorizing a chapter of Hebrews. But it takes theologically astute musicians or else the basic thought is just repeated over and over ad nauseum. Here I must confess I favor the old hymns, because they are just so much more interesting and stimulating that singing "Better is one day in your courts..." until the words stop making sense. You don't repeat it until you feel it: you repeat it until you understand it.
3) To join the congregation in a common task, that of declaring and proclaiming allegiance and praise to God
Even while singing the most dreadful songs, I must say I enjoy the fact that I am singing with other people. Part of what turned me off in the rock band style of worship was that whole "draw a circle around yourself. It's just you and God. Now sing to Him" stuff. I can do that in my car (which is probably why praise and worship CDs are so hot). I came to church to be part of a congregation. People who have been part of a choir or a band can speak more to this than I, but to come together with a roomfull of people to produce a sound of beauty is a bonding experience. Congregational singing can strengthen one's faith and help forge a Christian community.
There are 3 basic reasons, my own "good, better, best" for church music. But I am no expert. If I left anything out, or if I need correction or rebuke, I am depending on you to set me straight.
