Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Nothing New Under the Sun

It seems that most every church has had a battle at some point over music. Some have waged wars of tremendous magnitude. While others have disagreed, implemented a plan, and moved on. Mark Celoria , a good friend of mine, has recently posted this on his blog about music in the church:


Several months back, my pastor preached a series on worship. There was an illustration he used that I'll never forget. He was talking about how many folks are opposed to what Christian songwriters are producing these days when he read this quote taken from a preacher's sermon:

“There are several reasons for opposing it. One, it’s too new. Two, it’s often worldly, even blasphemous. The New Christian Music is not as pleasant as the more established style. Because there are so many new songs, you can’t learn them all. It puts too much emphasis on instrumental music rather than godly lyrics. This new music creates disturbances making people act indecently and disorderly. The preceding generation got along without it. It’s a money making scheme and some of these new music upstarts are lewd and loose.”

To whom was this pastor referring?

He was referring to The Father of English Hymnody, Isaac Watts in 1723.

Yes, the same Isaac Watts that wrote, "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross", "Joy to the World" and hundreds of other well-loved hymns of our faith. Guess it goes to show that there really is nothing "new" under the sun!

4 comments:

Cat said...

That is absolutely priceless. Thanks for letting us know once again that there really is "nothing new"! People will object to change no matter what, but know that I am behind you all the way. I think you're doing an awesome job and we're blessed to have you. (TELL ANYONE I SAID THAT AND I'LL SING OFF KEY, AGAIN!)

Anonymous said...

For the record, "Joy To The World" is a pretty bad song. :>)

The real problem with the preacher's observation, in my opinion, is not that it's incorrect or close-minded, but that it's simply applied too broadly.

Obviously, not all new worship music is lewd and blasphemous, nor is all hymnody beautiful and virtuous simply because it's old. Every generation will produce its classics, and its stinkers. (Hello, Isaac Watts; hello, Matt Redman)

The huge responsibility we have as worship programmers and worship leaders, though, is to be wise about the music we *do* select for our worshippers to sing because we're the rainmakers -- we're the DJ's who, in large measure, decide which songs will become the new classics because we just keep on singin' 'em.

Look at how many of the "worst worship songs" (http://personman.com/top_5_worst_worship_songs) are on CCLI's "Top 25" list: http://www.ccli.com/usa/LicenseHolder/Top25Lists.aspx

One of the biggest mistakes I made as a rookie worship leader (and I'm no veteran now) was just always using songs everybody "knew and liked" -- it's *my fault* that bad songs are still sung by good singers! :>)

I'm so thankful for godly leaders who've insisted I become more intentional, more discerning, more *aware* of the music I select for worship.

Jeff Bumgardner said...

Wow. While your comment has some truth in it, I think you missed the point.

Anonymous said...

Doh! I *hate* it when I do that...