[rodgersorgan] Re: Christmas Music at Christmas


Hello, Amos Ho:
    
Maybe we should first say that your experience is not 
unique.  Many American churches have similar music 
varieties.  One of my sons likes "all contemporary."  
One of my daughters likes a "blended" worship experience 
where they sing hymns, gospel songs, and some of the 
contemporary choruses.  I am a classically trained 
church musician, and find that each worship situation 
and each church may require some of all music styles, 
only a few of the contemporary styles, or only 
traditional hymns and gospel songs.  Some like 
to hear the organ "roar;" some relegate the organ to 
a background sound with piano taking the instrumental 
lead.  I met with one church who wanted only quiet, 
reflective organ music in their worship.
    
What we are experiencing is not totally new.  We had 
a considerable effort 50 years ago to separate the 
Southern Gospel style from traditional church music.  
It was held generally by our established traditions 
that the Souther Gospel style robbed the church by 
assembling crowds on Saturday night for some 
"good ole toe-tapping music," but the people would 
not come to church on Sunday morning with the rest 
of the people in traditional worship.
   
I believe that the church in 2002 is faced with 
another dichotomy in worship styles, but the music 
of the contemporary style is supported with constant 
broadcast over "Christian" music stations that refuse 
to play "church" music, ...ever.  The Contemporary 
Christian Music style is fed by very large commerce 
in new recordings.  That much emphasis placed on 
music in the contemporary style will not go away.  
The business/commerce makes too much money with it.
    
So, the contemporary music style is proliferated 
almost "free of charge" that may or may not set 
well with those who come to church to refresh 
themselves in the Spirit of God, looking for some 
stability in their lives.  The singing of traditional 
hymns and gospel songs and the recitation of creeds 
and prayers in church offers much comfort for those 
whose lives are a battle from Sunday to Sunday.
   
However, there are those who look for a "good time" 
in church, ...much as those who went to the Saturday 
night "singings" with the Southern Gospel crowds.  
You can still find churches today that hold on strong 
to the Southern Gospel style.  I suspect that we will 
have churches hold onto the "good feel" of high-energy 
praise music in the contemporary style for generations 
to come.
   
I remember a flyer that was brought to my door from 
a contemporary-minded church in my town.  They said:
   "No more boring organ music!!!  We offer only the 
    best of high-energy praise music."
The pictures of persons playing electric bass, drums, 
electric guitar, banjo, and praise singers clapping 
their hands told their story.  They have three large 
crowds every week; one on Saturday night and two on 
Sunday morning.  Apparently, they are meeting some 
people's needs, for the church continues to grow.
   
However, I find that after working all week long 
and dealing with stressful situations, I do not 
find my "rest in the Lord" by strenuous praise 
music sessions.  Those wear me out.
   
I try to maintain an open mind to how others think 
and feel in their spiritual pilgrimage, but find 
that I am actually intollerant when the music styles 
in my worship experience are rendered in the same 
mood as the Saturday night rhythm and blues or 
frenzied orgies of acid metal that suggest rebellion 
of all that is decent and in order.
   
I am not a liturgist, but have no real quarrel with 
those who think that way.  I am in favor of thinking 
outside the box in worship music styles, but do not 
belive we should throw away 2000 years of heritage 
just because some people in the 1960s thought we 
should reject the authority of anyone over 25 years 
of age, and all that goes with them, including the 
Bible, God (who supposedly died, according to Nitschke)
 (did I spell his name right?).  
   
Every development in worship music from plainsong/chant 
to the very latest in contemporary style has had to 
weather the test of time and opinion.  My youthful 
studies in Church Music found that the opinion held 
by most people when the gospel hymns of the early 
19th Century were introduced that they were considered 
"trash" that should never be allowed inside a proper 
church.  Well, gospel hymns are still with us, and, 
now and then, we even find well written and musically 
composed new ones hymns and gospel songs that join 
that the larger heritage church music.
    
Let me pose a more fundamental question for your 
consideration.  
   
   "What speaks to your soul during worship?"
   
Another thing I learned in Church Music studies was 
attributed to Saint Augustine.  He said,  "I do 
not know which moves me more; the music or the 
Holy Spirit."  I brought that into the disucssion 
to show that our impressions of movement in our 
worship experiences is not a new question.
   
Among us are advocates of all that is good.  As we 
view new styles and expressions, let us be more 
like Gamaliel as he advised the Sanhedrin regarding 
the early works of the Apostles:  "If God is behind 
it, we cannot stop it.  If it is the works of men, 
it will die of its own accord."  Maybe that is the 
way we might view the contemporary music style and 
its impact on our worship experiences.
   
What do you think?
   
Appreciatively,
F. Richard Burt
   
   
.
-

May all your bloopers be grace notes this hoiliday season! From the Staff at FMP

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