Contemporary Worship Considered Harmful
Recently the topic of contemporary worship has come up in real-life conversation a few times, so I thought I’d compile these posts I wrote a year and a half ago into one, easy-to-find place. After, why talk to friends when you can just give them a URL? Wait, don’t answer that.
Upon re-reading the posts I find some of the prose to be a bit overwrought at times, but then I have a tendency to do that when I’m excited. Apologies in advance.
People Seem To Like It: a facetious suggestion to use an online auction system to decide what kind of music to play in church. But hey, if we’re just trying to find out what people want, why not do it right?
Music Doesn’t Matter Much: except it does. This is a brief response to people who would defuse the music discussion debate by calling it unimportant.
Defining Some Terms: the terms “contemporary” and “traditional” are problematic, but we might as well stick with them for now.
Form, Not Content: a foundational argument in the music debate. If the kind of music matters as much as the words being sung, then contemporary worship music starts to look like a pretty bad idea.
The Defense of Contemporary Music: a critical look at a few arguments typically advanced in defense of contemporary worship music.
P.S. If the title of this post seems inflammatory, it’s not mean to be. It’s a play on a tradition in computer science literature.
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- Posted by Tim on Friday, February 23, 2007 at 8:55:08 am PST
- Category: Theology, Religion, Culture
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One Response to “Contemporary Worship Considered Harmful”
No comments yet on the music thing?
Comment Permalink | Posted on May 3rd, 2007 at 10:32 pm |Just an amusing thought about “contemporary” and “traditional”: I was reading Williamson’s study book on The Westminster Confession of Faith a few days ago, on the subject of worship. I need to read it again, but I believe he said that contemporary worship music is not something we should have in church. Instead, we should use only songs that come directly from the Bible. I take this to mean that hymns whose words are not lifted from the Bible verbatim (or close to it) are not to be allowed, and I haven’t decided if I agree with this. Interestingly, this would allow most songs by Maranatha! (usually considered “contemporary”) and would disallow many traditional hymns, unfortunately including many of my favorites.
Anyway, the funny part was that Williamson is commenting on a 17th century document, so “contemporary” songwriters are people like Isaac Watts, right? I laughed so hard I woke the kids up.