Church Music

There are few things that will garner a heartfelt (and adamant, most often) opinion from everyone in a church. Music appears to be one of them. I know I've mentioned before that it's a dichotomy even with Tim and me - he preferring the more modern, up-tempo, "praise and worship" flavored approach, me finding great peace and solace in old hymns of the faith. Though we can often reach a middle ground (I'm not adamantly opposed to praise and worship if it's delivered with heart and musicality and makes no bones about the fact that the object is, in fact, praise and worship (of God) and not simply "putting on a good show." Tim has been known to agree that there are profound depths to be found within the hymns, and that when not sung as if they are all ancient dirges, they can provide just as much depth and heartfelt worship as anything else.), it's still a challenge for us when looking for a church. (Sorry about that convoluted parenthetical - I hope you were able to keep up!)

When we found our current church, we knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that we'd found home because I actually liked the "contemporary" service and yet it wasn't so stodgy that Tim felt it did a disservice to the label "contemporary." There was a blend. And even though there were upwards of 10 musicians nearly each week, it never seemed like a show. In fact, it was a rare Sunday when the muscial section of the worship service didn't lead your heart and mind to exactly where they needed to be to hear the sermon with open ears. And this was all volunteer.

So when we, as a church, came to the conclusion that we should hire an actual music minister, I was optimistic. Surely under good leadership the meaning and depth of the music would only increase. Ha! Not so. I've discussed our new lounge singer worship leader, previously. I had high hopes that it might get better. Sadly, the contemporary service got to the point (rather rapidly) that between the Stevie Wonder imitations, requirements for applause, and repetition of choruses "One more time!" about sixteen times before we were finally finished with a song, I switched to the late, "traditional" service. Tim, being a sweet and understanding man, switched with me. I don't think the wackiness in the early service bothers him, honestly, but he understands that when I leave church all worked up, it's probably defeating the purpose of going in the first place.

The traditional service at our church used to be a little dusty and dry, I'll admit it. It was very much a "sing three hymns and be done" service as far as music went (with the choir anthem during the offertory.) So the changes that Larry has instituted started out as good things. Gradually we moved from "traditional" to "blended" - meaning that we start the service with a chorus. Still usually a slightly older (and therefore less "Jesus is my girlfriend") chorus, and maybe we have special music that is a little more upbeat than would otherwise have been ok. Gradually, however, two things have started happening.

First, we've moved away from the "three hymns and be done" idea. In and of itself, this is not bad. However, we still only have three opportunities for corporate worship, it's just that we've added at least two, usually three "showcases". And that's truly what they are. They're songs wherein Larry (and sometimes someone else, just so it can look like he actually cares about the incredible musical talent that exists in this church) does his thing on the keyboard. (Not even, usually, the piano. But the keyboard, complete with Stevie Wonder impressions.) Not only has this extended the service by a good 25 minutes each week, but it's become clear that each one of these showcases must be applauded. So we've brought that little gem into the service too - so even if you do manage to get into a place of worship, you're jarred out of it by canned clapping.

Secondly, these little showcase pieces are getting increasingly secular. It started simply enough. The pastor used an illustration in one of his sermons on marriage from Fiddler on the Roof. He was going to use some of the words from "Do You Love Me" - I won't get into how I don't necessarily think this song is useful in a sermon on marriage, but he was giving it a go. So Larry, for the offertory, played and sang "Do You Love Me." Now, this was before the sermon, so it didn't make sense at the time, but it did get clear and while it still caused my eyes to roll, I could kinda see the justificiation.

The next couple weeks were back to the new normal (i.e. mostly tolerable) and then, the week before last, as one of the showcases, Larry started off with For the Beauty of the Earth. Such a lovely hymn, and so meaningful and just...gorgeous. And I was elated because no matter what kind of arranging he did to it, we were surely in for a treat. He made it through the first verse and a chorus at mach speed (and boy was it at mach speed) and then transitioned into "What a Wonderful World". Now, I've got nothing against Louis Armstrong. I even like that song. And at first I thought it would be an interesting combination...except that he never got back to the hymn. Then after he was done, he had to go on about how that song was the only one that adequately expressed the glory of the earth. Um...have you read the lyrics to the hymn you started with Larry? But ok, fine, it wasn't bad. It just wasn't great. And it certainly wasn't what I consider something that should be done in the primary church service...might be ok for a prayer meeting on Wednesday night. But how do you worship to secular music when there's perfectly good music - centuries of it - that we could use instead?

Last week. Last week may have been the straw that broke this camel's back. Last week the main showcase was "Bless the Broken Road." Now, I suppose that if you really, really, really stretch you can try and make this song about God, but I doubt very much this was the writer's intent. It's about past relationships that went south and then finding new love in someone's arms. At best you're left hoping that it's at least chaste love, but given that it's a secular song, that's very doubtful. And it irritates me. Because people, we have hundreds of years of church music. Beautiful church music. Even if you want to take it and contemporize it! Do we really have to fall back to radio music?

And if the answer is yes, we do. Then I'm hoping this week we'll just cut to the chase and go with it.

Personal Jesus, anyone?