“Shout for the joy to the LORD, all the earth. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name”. (Psalm 100: 1-2 & 4) As I think on the challenges of our Christian faith, one challenge most churches face is worship style preferences; particularly the style of worship and music. It would be fitting for me as a music teacher, to provide a historical background and discuss worship-music briefly.
Music plays an important role in our modern day worship services. Music in the Church continues to evolve with each new generation of believers. Anytime there is change, there is resistance to the change by a certain percentage of people experiencing that change. So music in the Church and music style in worship continues to be a source of concern for the Church into the 21st century.
Historically, songs and music has been an important way to praise our God. Many people today look to the Psalms, particularly Psalm 100 and 150, as their guideline for what is appropriate when it comes to praising God through song and music. Another scripture passage that is used quite often comes from II Samue1 6:14, particularly when liberal boundaries for worship are prescribed. All through history, music has been an important way to connect with the Spirit of our living God.
It can evoke an emotional response to our worship that translates to feelings of exuberance, gratitude, as well as remorsefulness, condemnation, repentance, and of course, love for our Saviour. Music can be used to set the mood, to assist us in focusing and to block extraneous thoughts and noises.
In the Western Christian Church, music battle lines have a long illustrious history. In modern times, from the Reformation forward, each century has provided a new wave of what is considered “Holy in the sight of the Lord,” by those responsible for leading worship. Looking back through select denominational histories, the Baptists for one went through a period when music in worship was considered heretical in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
Even though many of the songs were Psalms put to music, it was labelled “promiscuous singing.” They were considered “human made” and labelled not to be used for worshiping God. The great explosion of “modern hymns” came shortly after this period, when hymn writers like Charles and John Wesley began their prolific additions to the modern day Methodist Hymnal in the mid to late 1700’s. The Wesley brothers were responsible for literally thousands of hymns during their careers as pastors and songwriters.
This song writing era lasted well into the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. Next phase was when “Praise Choruses” were being sung and played in a growing number of churches. Instead of the traditional hymns played on organ or piano, these praise choruses were being played with guitars, drums, and electronic keyboards. Lines of affiliation were quickly drawn and labelled “Traditional” versus “Contemporary” styles in worship.
From a personal standpoint, it was this new contemporary style of worship that helped to draw me back to a relationship with Jesus Christ, after many years of being away. I was able to emotionally connect with the Holy Spirit in a way I had never before experienced in a traditional liturgical setting. Music style in worship became a very emotional topic in many churches and sometimes resulted in the church body dividing over the worship style. After 30 years, churches have finally come to grips with the fact that worship style is a personal preference and one style is not particularly better or worse than the other.
It is, and always will be about how individuals connect in spirit to our Living God. Christian music is now morphing into many different styles. It has almost become impossible to distinguish it from other modern genres of music such as rap, hip-hop, heavy-metal, folk or good old rock and roll. Worship music for the 21st century is changing. I often wonder what it will be like in another 30 years. Will I like it? Will it help in praising our God? I pray I will be tolerant of the next generation and their style of worship, whatever it may be. The bottom line to all of it remains that the praise and glory belongs to the one who created us, who loves us more than we can imagine, so much that He sent His only Son to die for our sins; the sins – which we commit against God on a daily basis.
Author: Mr. Joshua Jullian runs a music academy ‘Key-n-Strings’ at Bangalore
