Light of the World, a City on A Hill

…thinking out loud about living missionally in the city of Sydney so that the city will come to know Jesus…

Archive for singing

Music that Ticks all the boxes

March 2, 2008 at 8:45 pm · Filed under Doctrine, music, singing, worship

sg-vov-small.jpg

I am no doubt late to this party, but I am gaining appreciation for the music put out by the Sovereign Grace guys.I downloaded Valley of Vision last night (bargain price of US$6 for the whole album), which are songs based on some of the prayers of the Puritans.

I am very impressed. The music is well written, can be played without a full band (though would be better with one), is singable and is lyrically sound. In short it ticks all the boxes.

It seems music from Sovereign Grace is making an impact in a few places. Craig S comments on his blog that Annadale are using more and more SG stuff as well.

I would encourage anyone currently on a diet of Hillsong music to check out these guys. They are charismatic in style, yet reformed in doctrine and so show that lyrically good music does not have to sound like nails down a blackboard.

Comments (1)

The Church with No Singing

February 15, 2008 at 3:37 pm · Filed under churches, emerging, music, singing

…with the missional revolution & all that, we’ve discovered that many people are part of tribes/subcultures, many of which are not interested in church as we know it, and it may be that a Christian community needs to grow within the tribe - an indigenous church rather than inviting individuals from the tribe to a normal church. Such a tribe may be big into some style of music, in which case a church in that scene may feature that kind of music. Or remembering that most secular Aussies don’t sing much at all, maybe some of the churches to emerge next will not sing at all.

So commented Eric in a response to a recent post on music.

This is a really interesting thought. A church with no singing.

My church actually had no singing for four weeks in January as we went through the “Ideas that Changed the World” series. Honestly, I quite liked it (and just not because it gave me a break!).

My community group is looking at what it means to be the church, and the role of singing is one topic that’s already come up.

I’ll report back on the findings.

Comments (16)

Music, Music and More Music

February 12, 2008 at 1:46 pm · Filed under churches, music, singing

Seems lots of discussion ensued from the 9 Marks post on music that I mentioned here (and why not…everyone has an opinion on music!).

Greg Gilbert has posted a follow up here, and he asks some good questions (well he asks you to ask yourself).

I think the discussion is productive.

Comments

Follow up on Musical Idolatory

February 11, 2008 at 8:55 am · Filed under music, singing

Bob Kauflin, songwriter and head guy from Sovereign Grace Ministries, posted a follow up on the 9 Marks site (here). He agrees with many points from the orginal critique and goes on to add his own comments.

I like his comments about a lack of musical variety in the church. We use such a narrow range of music in church, usually constrained by the need to not offend anyone.

Bob also agrees with me when he says that music risks going from being a tool to being a god (the definition of idolatory).

Comments

The Idol of Church Music

February 8, 2008 at 11:06 am · Filed under churches, music, singing

This article on the 9 Marks site (h/t Craig S) is a worthwhile read, and in some ways sums up concerns that have been galvanising in my own mind recently.

The author is being deliberately provocative in suggesting we get rid of all instruments in corporate singing, instead scaling back to pure acapella. He doesn’t actually mean it, but uses the statement to make his point.

His main point is that many Christians have effectively made an idol out of music, though few would recognise or admit this. Statements like “I can’t worship there” (in reference to a particular church), when boiled down to it relate to the style and quality of music. Equally troubling is when we need a certain singing experience to “Feel close to God”. If we do feel this way we need to start asking ourselves some very honest questions about how we are relating to God.

In moving churches from the big to the small I have, myself, had to really think hard about the role of music in church. Honestly if the music at my previous church was the standard by which I judged churches, I would not have decided to go to my current one. But that’s not what it’s all about is it? There are much more important factors like, for example, does the particular church community have a missional orientation to their community.

Comments (9)

Reformed Missional Corporate Singing

December 11, 2007 at 1:30 pm · Filed under culture, missional, singing, worship

Do you like my very precise title?

I originally titled it “Missional Worship”, but of course this doesn’t square theologically with my topic today which is singing in church.

It’s fair to say that pretty much every one has an opinion when it comes to music, and consequently everyone also has an opinion when it comes to church singing.

I’ll give you mine.

I come to this topic as an insider. I have been involved in church music for some 15 years now so have seen much change in this area - some good, some bad. I can remember in the early 90’s when one of our guitar players, using an electric guitar (yes, amplified and all), started playing lead lines in congregational songs! Revolutionary! Mind-Blowing!

We of course think back to these times and shake our heads in amusement (well some of us do anyway…I’m sure others may trace the downward spiral of church music to such “innovations”), but it is worth reflecting on where we have come from and what have been the positive and negative influences of the past 15-20 years.

For the church in Australia, the shape and direction of congregational music has been hugely influenced by the large Pentecostal churches, two in particular - Hillsong and Paradise Community Church (through Planet Shakers).

I grew up in the same suburb that Hillsong has always had it’s main campus, and I have personally known a number of people who call the church home. Much criticism has been levelled at Hillsong over the years partly, I think, because they are big and Aussie’s like to cut down “Tall Poppies” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tall_poppy, and partly because of their theology and doctrine which have elements in common with American prosperity and reach-your-potential churches.

On the positive side, the music of Hillsong and Co awakened many to the use of culturally accessible music forms in church music. Prior to this if you had an acoustic guitar in your church service you were considered progressive.

On the negative side, some of their lyrics flowed (as you would expect) from their theological framework, and this resulted in songs which are more like a motivational talk than a “psalm, hymn or spiritual song”. To be fair, there are actually some wonderful songs that have come out of the Hillsong camp, particularly from the likes of Reuben Morgan.

The reaction by the evangelical quarter to this Pentecostal Tsunami has been somewhat mixed. Some have denounced it altogether and persist with songs and styles that had their heyday in the 70’s and 80’s. Others have embraced the large-scale use of Hills/Paradise music in their services, though eschewing the obvious “be-all-you-can-be-for-Jesus” songs. Others are seeking another way that seeks to tread the line between lyrical purity (for want of a better term) and stylistic accessibility. Emu music is one example of this.

So to some thoughts…

I think to be a missional church our Sunday gatherings must also be missional. Stetzer describes this in terms of being both Indigenous and Intentional. Indigenous means our church reflects, to some degree, the culture of our community. So a church in the urban Sydney CBD, will look different to a church in the family dominated North West, will look different to a church in the less affluent western suburbs. Intentionality means that, outside the norms prescribed in scripture (preaching, baptism, the Lord’s supper etc), we choose methods and styles that best fit our cultural context, not what we necessarily like. This means that if no-one in our culture likes organ music then we don’t use it. Similarly, if our community loves country and western, we use that style.

Lyrically, I agree that we must be discerning. D. A. Carson in his book “Worship by the book” observes that God’s Word is the unifying factor for all of the essential elements of our corporate gatherings. Preaching, prayer, confessional and singing all draw on the Word to encourage us, teach us and correct us. So fidelity to scriptural truth and (in my opinion) reformed theology in song lyrics is important. I, however, have three criticisms of how this is applied:
  1. Too often musicality and particularly singability are sacrificed in favour of the lyric. I think this stems from a false belief that for a song to be biblically faithful, it somehow must contain a whole systematic theology or some complex set of truths. The result is songs which are awkward and painful to sing…a stumbling block for congregant and visitor alike.

  2. As an extension of the above, whole Psalms are force fit to music in an attempt to be “biblically faithful”. The issue here is that music is necessarily made up of both rhythm and rhyme and much of this gets lost in the translation from Hebrew to English.

  3. There has been, I believe, and over-reaction against lyrics expressed from a personal prespective (so called “I” lyrics). While we are certainly “one body” in Christ, we are also individuals in relationship to God and expression of this is a natural practice (consider how many of the Psalms are written from this personal viewpoint).

Bottom line - let’s sing songs that express truth (in simple terms if need be), are singable and stylistically connect with OUR cultural context.

On mission,
Jeff

Comments (2)