Church Music VI - "How do those words taste?"

Excuse me while I eat and type, I find the Veranda font somewhat bitter compared to Tahoma, but meatier...harder to swallow.

Part of the fun of writing a blog is going back and reading what you wrote before. I started this blog as a way to chronicle my journey and it's..interesting (excuse me while I wipe my mouth, the words can sometimes be messy) to look at the journey and be reminded of where it started, where it took me and where I am now.

I wonder where I will be 3 months from now or next year? God is my "tour guide" so the answer is ANYWHERE!

So, I was reading my blog Church Music V - "Corrective Lenses" and the other 4 parts to that "series" and I have to start eating. Eating my words. (excuse me again, while I take a drink of Mt. Dew to wash some more down)

Looking back at what I said then is like looking at myself through a telescope. It's not so much that I disagree with what I said, it's more about the way I said it. However, there is that phrase (gulp) "I believe in ACapella music for corporate worship." (gulp) that came from my fingers and my mind. Since I now weekly participate in corporate worship with every conceivable instrument in them was I wrong then, wrong now, have I had an epiphany, or does it really matter?

I don't have all the answers yet, but I know this. I am truly enjoying where God has led me and I am doing all I can to hang on to his hand as he leads me through the crowded path ahead. My other hand is stuffing my mouth with words and wiping the mess on my sleeve...

OK, maybe I am slow...

...but something just occurred to me.

Most of my life, I have been a Christian and I have attended a Church of Christ. An unwritten guideline in the mainstream Church of Christ has been something like this...

One of the main purposes for bible study with those outside of the
Church of Christ is to ultimately "convert" them to be a part of the Church of Christ.

As a "Church of Christ-lifer", this made sense. We had it right, so this was right and good. Even though this was an unspoken guideline, there was a logical conclusion that most members made from this.

A bible study with someone outside the Church of Christ that did not have as a goal to "convert" the subject(s) or one where you knew the subject(s) were not open to the idea was a waste of time and even dangerous.

I bought into this! Probably one reason is that it was easy to do so. To open my mind and subject my own faith to scrutiny was dangerous and "...who knows what might happen?". My whole life, I have been afraid to open the Bible with others that are searching for the truth just like I am, all the while being "spoon-fed" my faith from the pulpit.

Maybe I am slow, and I just got this, but atleast I got it.

I pray that I will act on it.

Lightbulb! (or "Church of Christ Glasses")

In cartoons, when someone has an idea they get a lightbulb over their head shining with inspiration or revelation. That happened to me Sunday morning during Bible class...I just wish I could say that it was inspiration that prompted the light.

In this case, it was revelation...

The teacher (which happens to be one of our evangelists) was leading us in a study of 1 Timothy 2:9-15.

"I also want women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God.

A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. And Adam was not the one deceived; it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner. But women will be saved through childbearing–if they continue in faith, love and holiness with propriety.

He read the scripture and then asked for comments. A man behind me said something to the effect of; women were new at this. They had not been able to participate in worship and Paul was instructing them on how to conduct themselves as they did it. I added that Paul, throughout his ministry, was a major advocate of freeing women of spirtual bondage. I also added that women of that time could be married or sell themselves, those were their options. They were not allowed to even speak to men in public. Women, unlike men, did not have experience in public worship, Paul was telling women the same thing that men of that time already knew.

The teacher quickly, (and politely) told me he did not agree with me. He re-read the scripture and just stated that women were supposed to be silent in public worship. He even agreed that the Bible tells us that women prayed and prophesied in the name of the Lord, but that this passage tells them to be quiet in worship.

At this point, if I were a cartoon character, the lightbulb would have appeared over my head.

All of my life, I have used the Bible to prove what I have been taught at Church. Whenever I opened it up I corrupted God's message by reading it through "Church of Christ Glasses". If I could read a passage and prove something that someone had told me in Bible Class or at Church then it must be true! The teacher was just doing the same thing. I shouldn't be upset (even though I was a little) or mad, but try to help him by influencing him over time. I was were he was for a long time.

It comes from years of practice and has been honed to a perfectly tuned machine.

Stigmatism

My wife asked this question the other night during a long discussion with some friends. "Have we outgrown the name 'Church of Christ'?" She went on to explain that she wasn't suggesting becoming something else (going to a denominational Church or some other established Church), but that she was pointing out that the "Church of Christ" has "baggage" that cannot easily be cast aside.

As we started to talk more about what she said, we all agreed that the name "Church of Christ" seems to bring negative connotations to those we talk to in our daily lives. For one thing, we have never completely shaken that generalization that "we are the only ones that are saved". That is not as common as in the 50's and 60's, but it's still there, brewing... However, today, more of what we get are those that know we harp on things that just don't matter to many "believing" people. Things like. "aren't you the ones that don't believe in instrumental music?" or "what does non-denominational mean?". During our discussion, I came to a conclusion that ALL faiths have some sort of stagmatism associated with them and that they have to deal with.

In the end, we should "... become all things to all men so that by all possible means...[we]...might save some." (I Cor. 9:22). I believe that the name "Church of Christ" is a good name for a Church and that is one that Christ, it's maker, accepts as worthy (see Romans 16:16). I can think of no other name (Christ's name) that I would want. However, what is inside is much more important than what is on the sign in front of the building (read 2 Cor. 4)

So, "Have we outgrown the name 'Church of Christ'?" . That is yet to be determined, however, I have stopped worrying about what other Churches of Christ think about what I am doing and I am looking to the one and only yardstick that matters, God's word.

"Church Music" - Part V - "Corrective Lenses"

OK, it's time to finish this (at least for now). Let me just say this so I can make myself clear and so that there can be no misunderstandings.

I believe in ACapella music for corporate worship. I base this on MY PERSONAL HISTORY, I like it's simplicity, it is harder (certainly not impossible) to let material things get in the way when we are praising God this way. As of today, I have no intention of making a practice of worshipping God by singing songs of praise with instrumental accompaniment. However, I don't think that non-ACapella worship is unscriptual, unacceptable praise to God and worth our gargantuan efforts to stamp out. If a friend of mine invites me to worship with him (or her)and they use instruments as part of their heart-felt praise to God, I will join them. I will no longer cringe or concern myself that I am doing something terrible (trust me, I've done MUCH WORSE things), in fact I will try very hard to worship HIM in spirit and in truth.

The real issue here is not about the music issue it's about our LACK OF FOCUS ON THINGS THAT MATTER. To quote Paul Woodhouse from "Grace Centered Magazine", "Let's drop the instrumental music issue. It is irrelevant to the poor single mother, the aborted infant, the divorcee, and the prison inmate...It's time to get real and move on." There are so many other things that NEED our FOCUSED ATTENTION, immorality, the declining importance of family, abortion, depression, divorce, suicide and the list goes on. We should be lights...BEACONS for the rest of the world to find Christ, not enforcers of religious practices (does that sound like a....Pharisee?) If we took just 50% of the time and effort that is spent everyday defending ACapella singing in the Church of Christ IMAGINE WHAT WE COULD DO?!?!

We have lost our focus, it's time to get corrective lenses and get to work.

OK, I'm done (for now).

"Church Music" - Part IV... our kids

I grew up, primarily, in the 70's and I really don't remember this being a big deal then. Yes, it was discussed, and yes, even then the Churches of Christ were distinguished by (among other things) that fact that we didn't have any instruments in our worship service (or our buildings). The difference between then and now is that, then we looked at the whole Instrumental Music in worship "thing" as insignificant. The kids of my day were not talking about it and our worship services (practically ALL of them throughout the mainstream Churches of Christ) were the same. It wasn't an issue because we all understood what was "right and good".

One BIG change between now and then (from my view in the cheap seats) is that our kids talk with other kids about Church, God, Religion and the Bible MUCH MORE than we did. They invite their friends to devotionals and teen outings like crazy. When I was a kid is was all well and good for US to invite THEM to OUR outings, but forget about going to THEIRS (why would we do that?). So, over the years, the youth of our faith have become more and more...accepting of other faiths.

Why? It's simple, their FRIENDS are from other faiths. We used to have our "Church friends" (those kids from OUR Church) and our "Other friends", which we did not mix together (at least not very often). Youth (and what you call "youth" can very GREATLY) look at all of their friends as one big unit and they cherish their friends that go to other Churches and regard them very highly. Why? Because they can be very good people!

So now, they are exposed to different views of their faith from a very early age and those differences are not keeping them up at night. Their discussions about spiritual things often take them down the same paths...they don't get caught up in the details.

Their friend (Chris, we will call him) is a Christian too! Even though they play guitars in their worship service and might have women preachers. Even though Chris doesn't go to the "Church of Christ" he is still a Christian. Why? "How can't he be? He believes the same things that I do, he just does a few things different. He has the same moral values that I do (sometimes higher). He is just as active in his Church as I am, and I enjoy worshipping with him (the few times I have gone) and he enjoys worshipping with me."

The youth of our faith are more accepting than we are or were when we were their age. That could be a big factor in why they are pushing our Church to update and try new things because they are being exposed those things and their positive impact on personal spirituality. Simply put, their world is bigger and the bounds of their Christianity are too. Singing with musical accompaniment isn't a big deal, they hear the arguments against it and they may even nod their head with understanding, but they also see the positive impact that their friends (their Christian friends that don't go to a Church of Christ) have on them. Furthermore, they can't believe that their friends are going to hell, they are strong Christians, so what if they sing with instruments!

Then we are surprised when they pull back from our faith and become "rebellious" when they are given a very rigid view of Christianity, one that excludes these people they look up to.

More later...

"Church Music" - Part III ... anyway....

Like I said, music has defined us. There are Instrumental and Non-Instrumental Churches of Christ (CofC). My guess is that (in general) those that worship at an Instrumental CofC would have little problem worshipping with those at a Non-Instrumental CofC, but that the opposite would not be true. It has become what we talk about, what we worry about, what we pray about and what we fight about.

Why does something discussed so little in the Bible take up so much or our time? Whole books, sermons and bible classes are devoted to it. Articles in Christian magazines put their "two cents" in. Over what?

Meanwhile, our kids listen, our members listen...our vistors listen. What many of them hear is "WE HAVE IT RIGHT AND THEY DON'T - THEY ARE GOING TO HELL". Yep, you just told the daughter that her mother who goes to the Church down the street is going to hell, the teenager that his friends as school are going to hell, that if someone brought a musical instrument into this building they would...well you get the picture. It's not very pretty, is it?

Meanwhile, we forget that we are bombarded everyday by images, words, lyrics and other forms of stimulus that have much more impact on our lives than whether or not there is a piano in our Church building or that someone clapped during a song. We are concerning ourselves with the splinter in our finger while the whole tree is falling on us!

Let's stop being so paranoid about instrumental music in our worship and start ministering to each other. We all hurt and we all just want to be closer to our God.

I think part of this is a generational thing, more on that in the next chapter...(did you think I was done?)

"Church Music" - Part II

One of the issues with music in the Churches of Christ has become a DEFINING one, and that's at the root of the problem. In other words, since when did we start defining who we are and what we do by telling others what we DON'T do?!

You wouldn't go to the dictionary and see something like this:

DUCK - An animal that does not look like an elephant, does not have fur and does not hang from trees.

Reading that definition of a duck would tell us NOTHING about what a duck is, nor after reading it would you be able to identify one EVEN IF YOU SAW IT.

I am tired of describing my Church by identifying the differences in it from other Churches. We should have only one identifying mark, that of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. We have to start from there, BEFORE we worry about the other stuff. The other stuff is important (some, much more than others, like baptism by immersion for the forgiveness of sins), but what good does it do to start off by telling someone about all the things that his or her Church DOES NOT do?

There will be a part III...

"Church Music" - Part I

I want to talk about a topic that brings fear and cringing to most Christians that attend Churches of Christ. Music.

Specifically ACappella vs. Instrumental. ACappella, is simply translated as "Church music", but has come to mean music without instrumental accompaniment. But, even that definition is not enough for some. For some, even a human voice (or hand or other body part) that mimics an instrument is no longer ACappella music. For such people, mimicking a bass or creating a beat (for example) defies the spirit of the idea of "Church Music".

On the other side we have something as simple as a Church that might use an organ or a piano along with congregational singing, then there are Choruses, all the way to full bands with electric guitars and drums. There is an organization here in our town that proclaims that they are "The Church That Rocks".

Speaking as someone that has spent his whole life singing ACappella music in worship to God, and in choruses in High School and College, at devotionals and even in a somewhat short-lived group, I feel uncomfortable with the idea of using an instrument (other than that which God gave me) to worship him in an assembly. For me, it's distracting and unnecessary, the human voice is beautiful and simple enough for our corporate praise to God.

The Church of Christ's stance (at least traditionally and generally) on this issue is that instrumental music is not commanded in the Bible, nor is there a New Testament example of any Church using instruments in their corporate worship. It's really that simple, the Bible doesn't mention it, so we don't do it. Actually, the idea of instrumental accompaniment is rather new, only for the last few centuries have Churches used instruments in corporate worship to God, so those that would try to use the Bible to explicitly show that we should use an instrument in corporate worship would be foolish, it's not there. It is truly a man-contrived addition to what God established....

However, so are song books...and, Nurseries....and, Bible Classes...and, V.B.S...and, "pew Bibles".

(I originally called this "Let's Get This Over With...", but I decided to change the name to reflect what it was actually talking about)