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What is written below is largely in response to Patrick's excellent post; my hope is that those who preach and lead worship will take some time to reflectively talk about these things together (not just my musings, but Patrick's & Mr. Trueman's as well), and hopefully lead in positive directions as a result (whether along their same course or with resulting corrections).
(I typed this quickly on the iPad after following Patrick's Twitter link, so I've tried to correct all typos, but some may have slipped through...)
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So much on which to reflect and respond -- good article that church leaders need to digest and discuss as to what they are teaching, not only in their song choices but also in their preaching choices.
Here are some of the things I want to discuss based on the diary post:
- contemporary worship
- contemporary preaching
- creation and propagation of dualism
#1, contemporary worship:
The ongoing "worship wars" may be a result of the dualism that I'll get into later, but will inevitably be a part of congregation issues for years to come. A lot of the trouble stems from attempting to reach younger people that the church is losing and missing within their worship services. Of course, the youth are missing in these congregations for more than just song style and choices; and though it may be too simplistic to say changing the music will bring back the "young people," it is an important statement that old and young are need to hear--that the congregation is willing to make changes.*
(*But, I don't think that all churches should make worship changes just for the sake of change. Keli's Uncle Jim posted this excellent article on his Facebook last week, "Why traditional churches should stick with traditional worship.")
Unfortunately, those that know the "contemporary" music and how to play it are often the youth or at least the college students in the congregation. Therefore, they are selected to "lead worship" because they know how to play guitar and have a decent singing voice. Few of these youth have the depth of understanding, theological background, and/or life experience to be good worship leaders for a congregation facing the deeper issues and experiences of life. Though this can be something that is mentored and shaped by good lead pastor, this mentoring work with young worship leaders will not overcome the second problem: the congregation has not been taught/trained to accept younger leaders. So, when a young person gets up in the most important service in a prominent role, the rejection issues are larger than just a rejection of the song choices.
But the song choices are an issue, too. It is not just that a lot of "contemporary worship songs" are simplistic -- often described as "love songs directed to God"--there are other issues, too. The style of the music's rhythm and melodies are different, less predictive and often difficult for an older adult to sing--particularly if they are seeing the words on powerpoint without the music to help guide their singing. However, the larger complaint is often that these newer songs "lack theology", to which a young person responds, "our songs are taken right out of the Scriptures". The themes and even lyrics of the new songs are often right out of the Scriptures, but being Biblical doesn't mean that they are communicating theological truths about the Scriptures. However, many hymns have the same problem--especially several American Revival era hymns are very simplistic and proclaim the themes of love, forgiveness, and victory without any other great depth and insight. Again, song selection by youth and young adults will be based upon their simplistic understanding of Scripture, theology and life -- but this isn't because there are not newer songs with deeper theology available. We have found several newer songs by Matt Redman, David Crowder, Phil Wickham, Nick Gainey, Jars of Clay, and Tim Hughes--each of these have the "popular" songs selected by young leaders, but also songs of depth that explore larger theological ideas.
#2, contemporary preaching:
Often, particularly within our little tribe of the "Church of God", we hear someone complain or proclaim "our theology is in our hymns". I'm not sure if this is praise for our hymn-writers or criticism against our preachers. It seems that particularly today, our church services (perhaps a result of the "entertainment" factor) seek to be so practical to life that we boil every problem down to 3-4 points of application based upon select scripture verses. Very rarely do we hear extended preaching through Biblical passages that examine the messy aspects of life that are prominently recorded throughout the Scriptures. As a result, we get congregations that are full of believers who only know the highlights, but have never wrestled with the lows in the lives of Biblical "heroes" of faith; such as, Noah getting drunk, David the elder King selecting and sleeping with the young beauty "to keep warm", Gideon essentially creating a new idol within Israel, etc. The Bible isn't full of people who figured it out, repented, and lived happily ever after with God -- no, they were in need of several acts of grace in their lives (more than just the first and second acts of salvation and sanctification). When contemporary preaching focuses only on the highlights and the practical applications, we shortchange the Word of God to speak into the messy, unresolved, deeper questions of life in an imperfect world lived by less than perfect people.
One of the reasons that this "practical preaching" is done is because we're not comfortable with questions, and we're really uncomfortable with questions that don't have clear cut answers. Preaching all of the Scriptures including the dark sides of these individuals and problematic passages leads to questions. Contemporary preaching and teaching has to make room for these questions, encourage dialogue, and help people apply greater truth in the midst of their own shortcomings and messy life issues. I have tried to not just arrive at preaching points, but also preaching questions; I think it's healthy for a pastor to be able to hear parishioners' questions and not have a quick answer, but instead have to say, "I don't know, let's talk about it together." I think that worship that leads to dialogue together so that appropriate action can result is the most appropriate ending of a worship service.
Finally, on the issue of "theology in our hymns", the reason this is problematic for young people today is that they are not looking for theology in music--they want to see theology alive in people. Young adults are tired of hearing one thing and seeing another--and so they are looking for a theology that is not only applicable, but actually applied in the life of others. This is a theology that they can not only believe in, but they can also seek to apply it themselves.
#3, creation and propagation of dualism
wow, this is such a good point that Patrick makes in his article. I don't have much to add here except to say that when our worship is simplistic, and our preaching is only practical, we encourage dualism to be the message of the contemporary church. But this dualism is not just a product of the modern worship environment; I do agree with Patrick that the American Revival period (the time in which the Church of God was started) began this dualistic thought and action. But without a serious reflection on the depth we are providing weekly, we will never break out of this simplistic dualism and fail to be the real answer for the world--we may still add to our numbers from time to time under some charismatic leadership, but in a world in which the population is growing exponentially, that is a strategy of decline for the long term.
Great post Patrick -- I hope it leads to greater discussion and application in many churches...
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