worshipclass4810
So in the reading I agree with Capps when he says on p (42) that the biggest challenge facing liturgical music is the juggernaut of mass culture. The economy and the influence of the mass media play an important part in styles of liturgies. Now these days I have seen a little bit of heavy metal music being incorporated in a worship service before. T.S. Eliot says that “We are liable to confuse religion with culture believing that we are being true to a holy faith when in fact we are defending a set of customs” (p39 line 35). I’m just not sure what to make of this, because when I look around styles of worship are changing with the culture. It’s almost as if they both go hand in hand.” Worship is changing with the generations, “Regardless it’s hard to name a secular style of music in any era that hasn’t been pressed into service by some branch of the church or other” (p39 line 4). So I guess my question is couldn’t religion and culture merge together in liturgical music making it effective, and couldn’t that bridge the gap between secular and sacred music?
I agree that there should be a mix of religion and culture when it comes to liturgical music but I think that it shouldn’t ONLY reflect off of the present day culture. I think that we should use a lot of music from the past as well when we are doing liturgical music.
First, because hymns especially have wonderful lyrics! Secondly (and most important), the entire congregation isn’t going to necessarily be of this culture. I think that we are always trying to get the newer generation into church because it is true what the say about how the newer generation will be our future. But, we need not to forget about the older generations that might not be as acceptable to this new ‘culture of music’ that we may be playing to get the newer generation in. This is the hardest part about worship; trying to please a huge amount of people with different ages, cultural backgrounds (international) and styles of worship.
True worship can and should be reflected culturally. One of the things to watch out for when working cross-culturally is to let the music come out of that culture, so the same thought would apply in our local churches. The issue is not style, it is substance. I don’t think it is surprising that people are “rediscovering” songs like Be Thou My Vision, or Satisified, or other old hymns – good music and good lyrics will be fresh again to new eyes. I wonder if there was a lot of “bad, simplified, naive” music being produced in days gone by to appeal to the masses that just hasn’t stood the test of time, and so we forget that it was always thus?
response to Jesusdork on the first ‘as we begin’ page (cuz I still am not sure what I’m doing)
A balanced worship service is about more than just the music. I believe a worship service works along the line of the Lord’s Prayer:
a) Our Father – we recognize and acknowledge and praise the Lord for Who and What He is.
b)Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done – we pray for His plan, His work to be done in the world and in our church body and in ourselves.
c) Give us this day – we receive what He has for us today, in the Word and in Communion
d) Forgive us – we confess our sins to God and to each other and humbly receive His forgiveness
e) lead us not into temptation – we pray for strength for the week to come
f)for Thine is the Kingdom – acknowledge and praise Him for being our Lord.
g) Amen – Let it be.
Music, prayers, teaching all can be incorporated within a framework of corporate worship that honors God. Worship is not for us – it’s for Him.
Yes! Music in the church can certainly follow trends in secular music. After all, if we are attracted to something in secular music, it is almost definitely because it has some aesthetic value. Why not take that aesthetic value and incorporate it into our fellowship and music? On the other hand, it would be a tragedy for the relationship between secular and Christian music to be one-way. When we write music we should try to find that unique “inner voice” that seems to come from nowhere that no one else would ever have thought of. Our music will hopefully include elements that we have absorbed from our musical environment. That cannot be helped. One of the beautiful thing about musical culture is that it is so dynamic, and musical ideas flow back and forth.
things*
You have asked a fascinating question. “Couldn’t religion and culture merge together in liturgical music making it effective, and couldn’t that bridge the gap between secular and sacred music?” I can imagine a reply to this sounding like something Dr. Jones has said in chapel – our involvement in the world should result in our positively affecting culture, not the culture negatively affecting us (paraphrase). I can imagine much good from the church employing contemporary trends in music to increase its effectiveness as a contemporary expression. I can also imagine much harm coming from adopting more of the world than is useful to the edification of the church. However, it would be exciting to see the culture not only contributing to the church’s music, but also learning from its excellence.