The Divisiveness of Musical Style

Why is the issue of music style so divisive?  I believe that there are six reasons that answer this question.

First, we all have preferences, which is not the problem. The problem is that we all too often think of our own preferences first.  Regarding this, Barry Liesch writes: “This reveals several truths about us: (1) we are entertainment oriented; (2) we are not mature; (3) we are not willing to die to self; (4) we don’t ask the primary questions: Is the mission of the church being well served by this music?  Does it advance the Kingdom?”  Liesch does not mince words and unfortunately they are all too true.

Second, we listen to sermons, but we perform hymns and choruses.  Since we are personally involved in the performance of music, through movement (hands raised or clapping, moving feet, eyes closed, etc.) and through self-identity with the subject of the song—we tend to be much  more sensitive about style.  In fact, we want the music during worship to suit our temperament, our self-image.

Third, music is a language.  We understand some music languages better than others.  Through repeated exposures, we learn the nuances of certain styles and in turn experience a kind of exquisite pleasure when that style is performed.  We want those pleasures; they enhance our worship experience! Again, Liesch points out: “When we are young, our lack of perspective frequently makes us intolerant of anything not contemporary.  As we become older, we grow less open to acquiring new musical languages.”

Fourth, music triggers associations.  Music has the ability to heighten our emotions, to stir memories, and to awaken guilty conscience. “A saxophone may evoke a dance floor or New Age music.  Rap music may suggest mind-numbing ghetto blaster.  A hymn may trigger a longing for a departed loved one, or—boredom!”

Fifth, we are conditioned to have our favorite music whenever we want it.  At home or in our car, we tune in to our favorite musician or album and begin to tap our feet as we listen to “our kind of music.”  But the attitude that says we should be able to have our kind of music whenever we want can be (and almost always is) a disastrous one when applied to the church.  In the church we have both the young and the old, and people with different cultural backgrounds—churches are meant to be intergenerational and inclusive. 

Sixth, and more deeply, music carries forward traditions.  To tamper with these traditions is to stir up values close to the heart. 

The Salvation Army Songbook carries this quote of Booth’s:  “Sing so as to make the world hear.  The highest value of our singing after all has not been the mere gladness we have felt because of our salvation, but the joy of pouring out the praises of God to those who have not known Him, or of rousing them by our singing to new thoughts and a new life. And sing till your whole soul is lifted up to God, and then sing till you lift the eyes of those who know not God to him who is the fountain of all our joy.”

Music As a Form of Pastoral Care

In the next few posts I would like to talk about the roll of music in worship.  It is an important aspect and I would like to take some time with this topic.

I'd like to begin with an article by Thomas H. Troeger who is the J. Edward and Ruth Cox Lantz Professor of Christian Communication at Yale University. 

He writes:

The other day on National Public Radio I heard a program about a group of Ethiopian women using music to heal a pregnant friend who was ill. There was a strong rhythmic pulse and a haunting rising and falling of sound, repeated again and again. The commentator noted that the use of music in healing is common in nearly all cultures except our own. With the exception of some wise souls who work in musical therapy, we do not generally consider music a means of healing. Yet as Martin Luther knew, evidence of such care is found in the Bible.

From a thesis by the Rev. Richard Gudgeon I recall a story about a woman who was in a state of depression. Luther suggested that members of the church sing with the woman particular psalm tones and chorales. They did this, and the woman's depression lifted.

The music of our worship services often provides pastoral care. A hymn that was sung at a funeral or a wedding or a confirmation will often, when it is repeated during a regular service, aid the work of grief or of renewing vows or reclaiming the zeal of one's first commitment to God. Music also may empower people to stand for justice and to show compassion.

Because music, especially in the context of worship, has such great power, it is vital that we think carefully about its pastoral function in the liturgy. Do we provide an adequate range of sonic variety as well as poetic expression to reach the wide range of need in the human soul? Just as pastors vary their preaching they also need to do the same in collaboration with their musical leaders as they consider the music for worship.

Part of the importance of new hymnody is that it represents opportunities for providing pastoral care of the peculiar needs of our own age. New hymns alone are not sufficient because one function of worship is to connect the present to the great cloud of witnesses from the past. But new hymns belong in any healing understanding of liturgy.

When we sing we perceive our intended wholeness with all that God has made. As I have written in a hymn for the dedication of a new pipe organ:

Articulate with measured sound
the song that fills all things
for even atoms dance around
and solid matter sings

Let healing harmonies release
the hurts the heart complies
that God through music may increase
the grace that reconciles.

Worship: A Constellation of the Senses

I love today’s blog title.  I only wish I had thought of it.  That honor goes to Thomas Troeger professor of Christian Communication at Yale Divinity. 

"I am trying to map the landscape of the heart that still rejoices in God yet lives in a world that is often oblivious to the spirit.  I believe to live gracefully with this tension is the mark of wisdom.  Such an understanding may baffle the dogmatic mind, but it does not lie beyond the capacity of the poetic imagination.  The imagination often holds together realities that are logically inconsistent yet dynamically coherent."  (Thomas Troeger)

Whether we admit it or not, our “poetic imagination” lies at the heart of how we understand worship.  And that imagination has been formed in great measure by the culture in which we have been raised and that in which we live as adults.

Cultures are dynamic social realities, that also have distinctive characteristics.  When we encounter another culture, we discover that actions that we assumed to be the “natural way of doing things” are in reality learned behavior, something taught us by our culture.  For the anthropologist, “culture is all learned behavior which is socially acquired, that is, the material and nonmaterial traits which are passed on from one generation to another.  They are both transmittable and accumulative, and they are cultural in the sense that they are transmitted by the society, not the genes.”

Our home culture has given us answers to questions that are implicit in the traditions and practices of all cultures:  

• How will we use our eyes?
• How will we use our ears?
• How will we use our bodies?
• How will we use language?
• What is the meaning of how we use eyes, ears, bodies, and language?

The answers to these questions vary so tremendously that it is useful to think of cultures in terms of how our sensory perceptions are organized.  As we cannot give attention to all of our sensory input at once so our culture helps us by teaching us what our priorities should be. Walter J. Ong calls this the sensorium.  (cf The Presence of the Word: Some Prolegomena for Cultural and Religious History)

“The sensorium of a church at worship is deeply rooted and difficult to change.  Consider, for example, a single sense: smell.  There are churches that use incense so heavily that its fragrance hangs in the air even when no service is in progress, and there are churches that have never considered engaging the sense of smell in worship....If a pastor were to eliminate incense from the one church or introduce it in the other, there would likely be a revolt in the congregation.  The people would feel that the sensorium of the church had been violated...Even a change that keeps within the boundaries of the sensorium may meet resistance because it violates the expectation that worship will provide a familiar path to the holy.”  (Thomas Troeger, Preaching and Worship. 6)

While we may joke about the comment “we never did it that way before” it needs to be understood that the resistance to change flows from the nature of ritual as an action that has been repeated in regular and predictable ways.  There is comfort and security in the familiarity of habitual actions in worship.  There is also understanding.  Understanding how what I am doing and what I am saying is bringing glory and honor to God.  Any changes, of necessity require time before the new pattern achieves the same level of “normality.”

The importance of understanding the ritualistic norms of our church (Army) cannot be understated.  The power of speech gives way to the greater power of our actions.  E.g. children learn much about how to behave (sacred or secular) by observation and imitation.  They see and hear that the use of the body and the voice varies as we move from family settings to public gatherings.  (to my children--no worries--your behaviors are safe with me--that is unless I need an illustration!)  

As the new generation has come along there has been a desire to make changes in worship so that it more closely resembles the sounds and sights that are the current norms of their culture.  These “wars” as they are sometimes dubbed are nothing new.  The problem goes all the way back to the church’s inception.  Paul had to deal with the clash of cultures (i.e. Jew vs. Gentile).  Should they eat food dedicated to idols or not?; was circumcision necessary? The Church still continues to wrestle with a clash of cultural norms.

• Is music so enticing that it draws the church away from prayer?
• Are ceremonial actions of bowing, making the sign of the cross, and liturgical dance contrary to the pure spirit of worship?
• Can women exercise authority and leadership equal to that of men?

It is incumbent upon us to keep the essentials of worship intact even as we recognize the need for those elements to avoid clashing with the culture(s) of the worshippers.  I suppose that nowhere does that dilemma challenge us more than in the area of music.  But that’s next week’s blog.

Liturgy and Praxis

What do you do when you plan your Sunday worship meeting? How much time goes into the planning?  What are the elements that must be included in worship?  Elements like prayer, singing, offering, Scripture, etc.

What are the options that we choose from when planning worship and where did they come from?  What are our traditions and are they still relevant and viable? I feel I need not only ask where did these traditions come from but where have they gone? Have we lost something? If so, should we reclaim them? Or should we have a party that they’re gone?

Another question to consider.  Where does ritual fit in worship? And what are our rituals?  What does it mean that people...

...dance in worship

...sit in silence in worship...kneel in worship

...shake hands or don’t shake hands in worship

And most important how or what do these things communicate about God?

When I began this blog I spoke about how difficult it can be to define worship.  Well, welcome to the intriguing world of praxis (praxis--simply defined: practical application or exercise of your belief system--habitual or established practices of faith).

Why we do what we do in worship is an important question to understand before one tries to determine what should or should not be a part of a corporate worship service.

For example, when we read Scripture in the Army, we do it simply and from wherever we choose within the chapel.  Some of our Christian brothers and sisters will process the  Bible into the congregation and read the gospels there as a sign that God is in the midst of them.  Others read it from a particular podium at the front of the chapel.

So back to my question, how do you determine what to include or what to change in worship? Perhaps the better question, how do we evaluate elements of worship? Permit me to give a helpful suggestion.

Let’s use the element of offering.  Begin by asking the question: “what does it mean to take the offering--why do we do it?”  How do we do it so that it honors God and communicates to Him what that meaning is?  Here is how we determine the answer:

Offering 

• where did it come from historically?
• what does it mean theologically?
• how is it embodied practically?

Having done this we should then understand “how” to do offering and can determine    how to make this better for people and to clear up any confusion; to help them understand offering better and more fully; to help them engage in it more deeply.  They can articulate what it means when we do what we do when it comes to offering.

It is no small thing to plan corporate worship and it should not be taken lightly.  Nor should one make personal preference the driving force in the planning of worship.

(As an aside: your understanding of the best/right way to worship is probably determined by where in history you believe that the church got worship right.  This becomes your point of reference.)

Not only are there elements of worship to consider (preaching, offering, prayer, etc.), there are some basic components into which these elements fall.  

Basics of Worship:

• space--shapes worship and determines what can be done (physically) in worship 
• time--how long should the service be--how much time is allocated for prayer..for God’s Word...for preaching...for singing, etc.
• sound -- we have spoken sounds--we have sung sounds--we have instrumental sounds--and we have silence all of which are resources for worship
• God’s Word--how do you read--do you read--how much time is given it--who reads it and when is it read
• Prayer--different kinds: lament, praise, thanksgiving, intercession, petition--how do they all fit?
• table--the Lord’s Supper (communion)--how is it celebrated?--in the Army we identify this component as holiness received and expressed without the physical elements being used

We have all of these various elements and components of worship.  With each the tendency is to start to think, ‘I like this better than that.’  (This is why words for worship can become so polarizing. For example, most notably, the words ‘contemporary’ and ‘traditional.’ When someone uses one or the other they almost always imply that one is better than the other.)

Lester Ruth, a historian of Christian worship, suggests three neutral categories for worship: 1^st category: What story is told?  Is it the story of the individual receiving the salvation of Christ and then becoming a christian? Or is it the story of God -- God who creates, redeems, and sustains throughout history of which the peoples stories are a small part. And which story takes precedent? Notice that no style is implied here.

2^nd category: Around what primary event is worship organized? There are 3 organizing principals:  1) is it reading and preaching of the Word? 2) is it organized around table (Communion)? 3) is it organized around music?

3^rd Category: Is it congregational or is it connectional. If congregational, most of the resources come from within the church and it does not see itself as part of a denominational body or even as part of the Christian denomination around the world. The connectional church is much more  intentional about using denomination resources, ecumenical resources.  For instance, if its ‘World Day of Prayer’, the connectional church is going to honor that and participate while the congregational church might not know that it is that day. How do you see your congregation’s worship related to another congregation’s worship? This does not imply a style it but helps to understand how worship is organized and structured.

Friends, I know that this has been a rather lengthy blog and if you’re still reading, YEAH!    Bless you!  As you see, we are starting to plumb the depths of worship in a pragmatic and thoughtful way for the purpose of increasing the depth of experience for our congregations and ourselves.  

So let me leave you with a thought from Frederick Buechner: “The sacred moments, the moments of miracle, are often the everyday moments, the moments which, if we do not look with more than our eyes or listen with more than our ears reveal only...a gardener, a stranger coming down the road behind us, a meal like any other meal. But if we look with our hearts, if we listen with all our being and imagination.. what we may see is Jesus himself.”