It’s an article of faith these days that contemporary worship is the way to go if you want your church to grow. Thousands of churches will be planted this year ”“ and every one will offer contemporary worship. Hymns are out ”“ love songs to Jesus are in.
Traditional churches have seen young believers flocking to megachurches, so naturally they want to get in on the growth. But this is foolish. Traditional churches lack the musical depth, computer controlled lighting and sound equipment that are needed to generate the “praise-gasm” that young believers associate with God. Rock music seems out of place in a brightly lit chapel with a communion table and stained glass.
People come to church to encounter God. A good worship service is transcendent; it helps people detach from this present world to connect with the divine. But when traditional churches try to be contemporary it usually comes across as forced, stilted or artificial. This dissonance jerks people back into the mundane world. Worshippers focus on the distraction instead of the Lord.
Here we have the crux of the matter: [blockquote]”Worshippers focus on the distraction instead of the Lord.”[/blockquote] To which I can only respond: “Amen, Amen, Ah-ah-Ah-men.” Which may help explain why, when I departed TEC for the Catholic Church, I knew I had found my home when I first attended Mass at Seattle’s Dominican Parish where the Mass was celebrated not primarily with the now-U.S.-Catholic-standard “four hymn sandwich,” but with the music that are (rightly) called the “Propers” of the Mass, namely, [i]Introit[/i], [i]Gradual[/i], [i]Alleluia[/i], [i]Offertory[/i] and [i]Communio[/i], preferably Gregorian chant.
[i]Pax et bonum[/i],
Keith Töpfer
In all too many instances, when older parishioners who are used to traditional services, contemporary worship focused on the younger generation drives them away from attending church. I’ve seen and experienced this on many occasions. When my wife and I come to church, we expect quiet reverence in the house of God, and as a musician, I appreciate the majestic hymns and beauty of the services and surroundings. I do admit that contemporary music has its place, to be sure, but it often is jarring to the peaceful and reverent atmosphere that we’re used to. Would Jesus encourage praising Himself? I don’t think so, because He isn’t self-centered.
And Keith, you have something there.
Note that has was NOT pining against contemporary worship …. just dont have it be forced.
It should be also noted that so-called traditional hymns were once contemporary.
When I walk into a worship space and see chairs facing the congregation, with microphones and music stands, I look for the black boxes near the ceiling facing into the room; if that is what I see, I turn and flee! My ears will not tolerate the noise level and I do not believe that God requires me to suffer pain until the middle of the after noon. My other problem with “praise” songs is their repetative nature; I don’t need to sing the same phrases over and over and over agian to get my heart attuned to worship. I much prefer hymns with the thought of each stanza leading into the thought of the next…and if the hymn is 7 or 8 verses long, I want to sing them all to complete the thought. Generally, I think of “praise” music as being appropriate for gathering around a campfire or for a small, in-home prayer meeting. For public worship, I think that “praise” songs leave much to be desired. Let the Psalms instruct us on how to worship God; let us remember in song His faithfulness through the ages and praise Him for that.
Stevejax has a point. Gregorian chant was once hot, hip, trendy, and cutting edge.
God spare and preserve me from the nails on the chalkboard sound of the at best theologically vacuous, and sometimes heretical, “praise songs.”
Something that I have not yet seen addressed on this thread is that quite a bit of “praise” music is not written to praise God but is written as performance music. This changes the focus from the worship of God to a focus on the performer/performance. I can think of several songs which are patently about performance, although I don’t recall their names. However, they are readily distinguishable by the following. They are (or at least were) almost universally sung while the lyrics were projected on a projection screen and, while the words of the refrain were repeated a number of times, at some point towards the last repetition of the body of the piece, the wording and/or rhythm was changed (at every occasion when the song was sung), as though the lead vocalist were improvising. However, it was not an improvisation, nor was the variatinon displayed on the projection screen. Finally, the nature of the changed wording/rhythm was such that only a reasonably capable vocalist would sound good performing the variation. If one is projecting the words to aid the congregation in joining in, why would an habitual last verse variation not be noted obvious in the projected text? It was patently obvious that this was not about the congregation singing praises to God, but about the vocalist getting to “show off.” Hymns intended for congregational singing do not generally exhibit such undocumented variations.
Despite the decline of music in much of the Latin Rite Church, she does still recognize ([i]pace[/i] certain tone deaf clerics and church musicians) that there exists music proper to the Holy Mass, and that recognition is very well documented.
[i]Pax et bonum[/i],
Keith Töpfer
A couple of things: First of all, go to the bottom of the article and click on the link that will take you to an article with a video entitled ‘Amazing Grace: A Church for Men’. It’s a fascinating video about a church that is bucking the mainline trends (ie they are growing, they are younger on average and they have as many men as women) without sacrificing their traditions. It shows it can be done and with a female pastor no less.
Secondly, I’m noticing a trend among so-called ‘contemporary churches’ where traditional hymns are being revived and even set to new more contemporary style tunes because the content is appreciated valued. Along with this, you also have composers like Stuart Townend and Keith Getty writing new hymns of real depth in a traditional format. They are anything but vacuous.
#8, I strongly agree with you. Too many music ministers think that any song can be sung by a congregation.
Chris Tomlin is one of the few composers who writes contemporary “praise” music with a concern for addressing exactly the issues you raise. No fake improv, no “top secret” skipped beat at the end of a line, simple but pleasant melodies that even people like me can sing.
Graham Kendrick is still producing good music too. I know, ‘Shine, Jesus, Shine’ was and is overdone but people forget that it was written during the March for Jesus days. He has written some other good pieces. ‘Knowing You’ is one that we sing a few times a year (maybe because it’s based on the passage of scripture I’ve taken for my own). And have a listen to his reworking of ‘Oh The Deep Deep Love of Jesus’ at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRR1VocMz6Q It has a lovely ‘Celtic’ feel to it. And be sure to have a listen to his interview where he talks about the song and his reason for writing it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GssVYJJCzhA
Again, we are all talking about preferences here.
and #5 I do not believe that God wants me to be bored out of my mind, for even 45 minutes, watching a beautiful choir and a grand organ organ belt out someone elses “tradition”; or heaven forbid #6 fall asleep to some chanting in a dead language.
The problem with much music in church is that it is not prayerfully selected as an integral part of the whole service. A priest whom I highly respect laid out the following guidelines for music selection: [blockquote]We always begin by gathering folks (opening set.)
Then we approach God’s throne – processing into a more holy sense of worship – but we are not yet at that intimate place (processional).
As we draw near the throne we acclaim God’s greatness (song of praise) or some other attribute of God.
Then God instructs us through the reading of his word (gospel song).
Then we have the offertory song – which helps set the stage for us offering ourselves to God more and more fully as the service continues.
Then the Sanctus is to acclaim God’s holiness.
The communion song is the most intimate part of the service.
Then we are turned outward in the recessional.. sent out to share Jesus with others. [/blockquote]
I’m not quite certain that it’s “traditional churches” that should solely stick with “traditional worship.”
I think it’s more about what a church community is *gifted* at.
I expect I’ll always be a person who prefers traditional worship, myself, and I think that’s a real divide in Christian worship. Those like me won’t generally become members of contemporary worship style churches [although I’ve always been comfortable with visiting], and vice versa. It is what it is, I suppose.
But I think one big problem that occurs is when churches that are more skilled at producing traditional worship then attempt to produce contemporary worship — with ill-fated results. Sadly, many of those churches don’t *recognize* that they’re not skilled, and so they produce stuff that attempts to be “contemporary” but mostly is 70s-style elevator music or faux-energetic, really really bad songs.
If you aren’t able to name the top ten alternative bands, you probably shouldn’t be “leading” your “contemporary” worship service.
No offense, but … this conversation demonstrates why mainline denominations are in a death spiral in the US. All here are assuming unchurched GenY (the 94% of them who are) care one way or the other about what kind of music we’re playing. At this point they aren’t showing up no matter what we’re doing in our churches. I’ll give credit to the Contemporary crowd as at least they have some members of that generation and are asking what needs to be done to reach those Lost.
I think reverence is key but there is a place for both traditional and contemporary worship. I do not see this as a moral matter. Traditional worship can trend to stuffiness and elitism; contemporary worship can trend to casualness and flippancy. Personally I think each one can inform the other. Religious art has never been static.
RE: “All here are assuming unchurched GenY (the 94% of them who are) care one way or the other about what kind of music we’re playing.”
That’s an interesting assertion but I don’t find that to be the case with my friends who are millennials and GenY.
Sarah is on to something as usual. Anglican musicians make poor worship leaders. I learned to play the guitar in a traditional church and struggled to work with them for years. They would stop worship and instruct worshipers how to pronounce hosanna or behold. Contemporary music had to be done the Anglican way. I once went to a music conference and the speaker pointed out the guitars do better in certain keys. An organist angrily asked how he was supposed to know that. She told him to ask the guitar players. I do not think it would have ever occurred to him. I agree with the performance criticism. We were interested what we heard from the worshipers and not what sound we were making. It was all about congregational worship.
Church musicians are there to help lead in and enhance worship, and not to perform. It is possible for guitarists and organists to work together, but guitars need to be tuned to the organ in order to create sound which isn’t dissonant. I am a guitarist, and we use both together by picking music which is simple enough and easy to harmonize……and we have been complimented by the congregation.
This discussion has made me grateful for something that until now I don’t think I have ever given more than 30 seconds thought to. I belong to a church that generally bans musical instruments of any kind from all liturgy.
Deo gratias!
Ad Orientem, in the light of Psalm 150 that is just so sad.
“Making a joyful noise unto the Lord” is part and parcel of Christian worship, and that’s why Christianity is often referred to as “the singing religion.” There is so much beauty in traditional music written by the classical composers, and I also love to sing the beautiful, soulful, and often powerful old Welsh hymns by John Humphries and others. Contemporary music just doesn’t seem to “do it” for many people, and I suspect that this may include a few of the younger generation, who are serious about their Christian beliefs. I believe there is a time and place for contemporary Christian music, however, and the question of where and when still needs to be addressed.
Re 21 & 22
I think you missed my point. Musical instruments are banned, not singing. Almost every liturgical act is sung or chanted. With the possible exception of the miniscule number of Roman parishes attempting to reclaim their liturgical heritage, I think you would be hard pressed to find more traditional sung worship anywhere.
[url=http://youtu.be/IGm5Llw3wPc]See example.[/url]
[blockquote]I think you missed my point.[/blockquote]
Not really. I admit that Orthodox worship has a beauty of its own. The same can be said for some Mennonite congregations at the opposite end of the liturgical spectrum where there is only singing. It is hard to beat the harmonies of good Mennonite congregational singing. I just find worship without musical instruments to be lacking somewhat. It represents a failure to utilize the gifts some people in the congregation may have. Psalm 150 would seem to say that musical instruments are not to be regarded as optional extras in praising the Lord. The ideal situation for me would be for everyone with some competence on an instrument playing together in leading worship. In our congregation (ASA 106 in 2012) if everyone is there we have organ, piano, a flute player, a guitarist (of sorts, that’s me), a violin player, a viola player and a drummer. I would dearly love to have a bass player but we make do.
23. Banning such instruments as pipe organs and the playing of the great hymns by someone such as Dianne Bish, for instance, during worship services is unfortunate, but if that’s the custom in your Church, then so be it. Making a joyful noise unto the Lord should not be limited to singing hymns and chanting.
Sarah,
Assertions based on personal observation are not the same as numbers based on percentage of who is actually in a church on a given Sunday. For GenY that number is around 4% on a given weekend. The majority of those are in non-denominational congregations. It is what it is. That means the majority of the generation simply doesn’t care one way or the other as they aren’t around.
Hi Brian — I wasn’t responding to the assertion about what percentage of GenY were actually in a church or not.
And no, just because an entire generation isn’t in a church does not necessarily mean that all of that number don’t care one way or the other about what kind of music we play.
That makes no sense, as a portion of that 94% are 1) engaging in conversations amongst themselves about what type of church they *would* attend if they did and 2) wandering around looking for a church. I should know as I’ve had those very conversations.
I find conversations with the young unchurched about what they’d like to see some of the most interesting I’ve had. And yes, that portion of the 94% who are “thinking about it” do care about what kind of music is played. They care about a number of other things too, regarding churches. As a whole, I’ve found them quite opinionated. ; > )