"Why do people choose the substitute over God himself? Probably the most important reason is that it obviates accountability to God. We can meet idols on our own terms because they are our own creations. They are safe, predictable, and controllable; they are, in Jeremiah's colorful language, the 'scarecrows in a cornfield' (10:5). They are portable and completely under the user's control. They offer nothing like the threat of a God who thunders from Sinai and whose providence in this world so often appears to us to be incomprehensible and dangerous . . . [People] need face only themselves. That is the appeal of idolatry."
- David F. Wells
Friday, December 23, 2011
The quote below is a great follow-up to this earlier post. I lifted this entirely from Jared's blog.
Self-denying humility ought to show up in the way we worship together. Thankfully, we don't hear as much these days about worship wars in Christian churches as we did just a few years ago, but they are still there. For years I thought this phenomenon was the bane of the "make it up as you go along" whirl of low-church evangelical Protestantism, and mostly it is. But even with a set traditional liturgy, Roman Catholics and other groups often experience the same kinds of tensions.Yes.
Maybe you're like me, reared to have the worship music tastes of a seventy-five-year-old woman. That's because, I think, a seventy-five-year-old woman was picking out the hymns and gospel songs in the church where I grew up. I tear up when I sing "Just As I Am" or "To God Be the Glory." And I'm left cold by what some people call the "majestic old hymns." They sound like what watercress-sandwich-eating Episcopalians from Connecticut would listen to (not that there's anything wrong with that). And so many of the contemporary songs sound as if they were written by commercial jingle writers, trying desperately to find words to rhyme with "Jesus" ("Sees us?" "Never leave us?" "Diseases?"). I'm not saying aesthetics don't matter in worship. Worship is, after all, commanded to be offered with "reverence and awe" (Heb. 12:28). I am saying our varying critiques of musical forms are often just simple narcissism disguised as concern about theological and liturgical downgrade.
We need more worship wars, not fewer. What if the war looked like this in your congregation—the young singles petitioning the church to play more of the old classics for the sake of the elderly people, and the elderly people calling on the leadership to contemporize for the sake of the young new believers? This would signal a counting of others as more important than ourselves (Phil. 2:3), which comes from the Spirit of the humiliated, exalted King, Christ (Phil. 2:5-11).
When I insist that the rest of the congregation serve as backup singers in my own little nostalgic hit parade of back-home Mississippi hymns, I am worshiping in the spirit all right, but not the Holy Spirit. I am worshiping myself, in the spirit of self-exaltation. The church negates the power of the third temptation when we remind ourselves that we all have this devilish tendency and cast it aside whether in worship planning or missions or budget decisions.
-- Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried (Crossway, 2011), 149-150.
Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. (Romans 12:10 ESV)
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Comments on "We Need More Worship Wars":
3. Weekend Fisher
- 12/24/2011 5:11 pm CST
This afternoon, my 90+ year old neighbor treated me to a Christmas concert. Did I mention she absolutely *rocks* and is am amazing pianist / organist? She's been playing for 80+ years, and is really something special. She could hold her own with anybody I know, including the teens and twenty-somethings, on a keyboard.
I really don't mind if a 75 year old - or 90+ year old - picks the songs. I just care if they love music and love God ...
Take care & God bless
Anne / WF
4. Karl
- 12/28/2011 2:44 pm CST
I read this post after reading the post on "It's a Wonderful Life." I wonder. Are some songs the musical equivalent of "Potterville" and some the musical equivalent of "Bedford Falls"? Or is it all just a matter of subjective personal taste when it comes to music?
Or is the very question of which fictional town we prefer, "Potterville" or "Bedford Falls", itsself simply a matter of subjective personal taste, with neither actually being an objectively healthier or better place to make one's home?
Seems to me like there ought to be room to discuss matters of musical worship, without it becoming a war. In the end I like the CSL quote about the humility he learned worshiping alongside people whose musical tastes he found to be deficient. I agree that especially in places where it's clearly a matter of personal taste we should be quick to defer in love to our brothers and sisters who like a different style than we do. But I'm not convinced that it's *only* a subjective matter of taste, nor that it's always value-neutral, any more than the difference between Bedford Falls and Potterville is value neutral. I tend to think Ken Myers is right when he suggests that:
"popular culture is not neutral with regard to the sorts of sensibilities it encourages. Because of the centrality of commercial concerns, popular culture maintains a preferential option for the upbeat, the informal, the new and interesting, not because these are the sorts of virtues that make a better person (let alone a better Christian), but because these are the attributes that make for the best consumers."
If that's at all the case, then isn't there room for appropriate raising of those concerns and how a steady diet of that kind of music might shape people's faith without it being seen as a war, or as simply "I don't like it." I've linked Myers' article here before, but never gotten any feedback on the issues he raises:
http://www.mtio.com/articles/aissar42.htm
5. Bill
- 12/28/2011 4:40 pm CST
Hi Karl,
Yes, I do think that there is room for gracious disagreement and even the moving of churches toward music that is (to at least a degree where people of good faith can agree) better music.
I think the article I linked here is more dealing with the worship wars that are based on just subjective preference.
So I agree with you (I think :-) - although I think we need to set the net for what's acceptable wider than we often do, provided the theology is not off.
But I'm not convinced that it's *only* a subjective matter of taste, nor that it's always value-neutral, any more than the difference between Bedford Falls and Potterville is value neutral
I agree. I believe that church leaders should enthusiastically embrace the challenge of propelling their churches forward toward more God-honoring worship (however that manifests in their church) with grace and gospel the overriding parameters of the effort (and with a deep value toward patience. It can take a long time).
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Yeah, okay ... That's a pretty awesome way to look at it.
Thanks for sharing.