As I famously said in my last post, evangelicals like to fight about what we loosely call “ecclesiastical music.” Every so often an earnest soul attempts to rise above the fray, pointing out that all of this acrimony is really unbecoming of Christ followers. Sometimes this is a legitimate exhortation, and the concerned party is right to remind us that we ought to be willing in humility to consider others better than ourselves. Other times, it is a dismissive canard intoned with no small amount of sanctimony, and is often closely coupled to an agenda of its own. In either case, the core of the assertion is that we shouldn’t get so upset about this stuff; after all, if our hearts are in the right place, will we be so concerned if “our music” is played or not? Does it really matter so much, as I have been asked, as long as God is worshipped?

This argument is, of course, self-defeating. If music doesn’t matter, then stop arguing with me and let me do what I want. I mean, you said it’s not important, right?

No one is likely to agree to these terms. Let us try to find others.

Pretend for a moment that musical genre is totally insignificant, and (following the concerns of ecclesiastical music) God is equally pleased will all forms of music used in worship, period. What kind of potential does this leave music as a means of communication? Very little. And what room does this leave for the musician qua artist? None. Musicians are reduced to mere instrument technicians, leaning how to breathe and move their fingers in such a way as to produce the right sounds. They cannot “play from the heart,” for the conduit into which they would pour their hearts cannot accommodate its passions. Ecclesiastical musicians cannot claim to be doing anything very different in church on Sunday morning than they might do in a bar on a Friday night (one which serves light beer and reeks of cheap cigars). The Gospel simply cannot fit in their music in any sense whatever. Music, in this dubious scheme, can’t hold content like that. Containers have shape and volume, and the music we would seek has neither.

Now, maybe no one is arguing that all musical genres are on equal footing. Maybe there are some outliers, like rap music and that weird atonal stuff your one friend did in grad school, that are beyond the pale. Maybe those are bad, but adult contemporary pop is all good, all the time. But if you grant me that, then the argument has already moved onto my turf. Now we are arguing what kinds of music are appropriate for what purposes, which is precisely what I want to argue—and precisely where I think contemporary Christian music will fall flat as a liturgical device. But there are more posts to go, and I am getting ahead of myself.

Apparently music matters. We want it to matter. We should be glad as God’s image-bearers that it matters to us. It is good that we are willing to expend significant amounts of energy commending, implementing, and re-implementing our views on the topic. Contrary to what some outsiders might conclude, we don’t enjoy bickering for the sake of bickering. We are a people deeply concerned about things like piety, truth, and mission. If music is at all wrapped up in these things, then it is, to put it bluntly, most certainly worth fighting over. So let us examine how it is we are prosecuting these Wars that we read so much about.

Hopefully you have someone in your life who believes very different things about ecclesiastical music than you do. If you can have a civil discussion with this person, and you’ve never had just this discussion before, ask that person why it matters to them that music is so darned Cool or so darned Old. Rather than attempt to respond to everything your friend says point-by-point, pay attention to the categories he is invoking. Let me guess some things you might hear:

“Contemporary music is so much more celebrative than traditional music.”

“I feel more worshipful when I’m singing hymns/choruses.” (pick one)

“Traditional music is stifling! I feel like I’m attending a Mass.”

“We should sing traditional church music, like Fanny Crosby and the Gaithers.”

“Young people will leave the church after they graduate high school if we don’t play their music for them.”

“God can be honored with an electric guitar and a fuzz box just as well as with Bach and a pipe organ. Musical style doesn’t matter.”

“Adult contemporary pop is my heart language.”

Any of this sound familiar? It does to me, because I’ve heard it all in one form or another. In the coming weeks, I hope to provide a means to inform the discussion of the songs we sing when we are gathered. This stuff is worth fighting about. Let’s fight well.

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• Posted by Tim on Sunday, July 31, 2005 at 10:35:30 pm PDT
• Category: Theology, Religion
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