WORSHIP WARS

A long time ago in a culture far far removed...

...Christians worshiped God in chanting and singing the Psalms to one another. A small band of protestors, led by Martin Luther, took bar tunes and put God exalting words to them. These were known as hymns, and often had great godly content.

Years later, on the continent of America, a new band of protestors emerged. By this time the original protestors had taken over much of the religious music scene, and had become in the eyes of many, an overpowering, outmoded empire.

The new protestors began to put religious content to popular music, such as rock, country, etc., and were quickly confronted as they tried to incorporate this music into the mainline church...


People have often discussed this topic with me. What style of music is to be incorporated in the church? So many churches today are "stuck in the mud," so to speak, and are becoming quickly "irrelevant" as they refuse to change from hymns to praise music. On the other side, many churches are seeking to be "holy rock concerts," giving Gen-Xers what they want--music with which they are familiar. How are we to sort all of this out?

I have read articles on this, but most recently I was reading a book that gave three pages to the subject. Like most books, articles, and people, the real issue is entirely missed. Points on the issue that were brought up in this book were:

1) Praise songs are 'to' God, whereas hymns are often 'about' God. Now he notes (and does not make the false dichotomy that others have), that many hymns are sung 'to' God. The author notes that people today want to sing 'to' God rather than 'about' Him. But even if this is true, is this necessarily the right thing to do? Consider with me Colossians 3:1-17:

Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
5 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality , impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, put them all aside: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and abusive speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him— 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian , Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience ; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. 14 Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. (Col 3:1-17 NASB)

Notice what Paul exhorts the believers to do. They are to be one: a unified body. How are they to sing? They are to teach and admonish "one another" with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. This is to sing 'about' God--to admonish one another in the faith. They are to do this (I think the ESV gets it better) "with thankfulness in your hearts to God." We are to share out thankfulness with others of God's goodness. Does this mean we are to only sing about God--to one another? Most certainly not. Consider many of the Psalms. But we must obey Scripture on every point.

2) Modern praise songs are directly quoting Scripture whereas hymns are not. Is this true? Perhaps. But if this is our reasoning, let us do away with sermons and let our entire service be dedicated to reading Scripture aloud. Hymns are often expounding great Scriptural truths--exactly what our sermons ought to be doing. Let us not make the mistake of so many church heretics of the past. Where would we be if Nicea had merely used Scripture rather than calling people to submit to the meaning of the text? Where would we be if the Protestants had not sought to bring out the meaning of passages? If this thinking continues, say goodbye to the Trinity, Justification by grace alone through faith alone, and many other essential Christian doctrines.

3) This is the music of the people. I'm going to be honest, this is the best argument. However, I think it is only the tip of the iceberg of the what is actually the problem. [1] I will consider the main problem below.

When we consider the modern "worship wars" (quite a contradiction in terms, when it comes to this subject), usually John 4:19-24 comes up. This is a great text to consider.

The woman said* to Him, "Sir , I perceive that You are a prophet. 20 "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain, and you people say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." 21 Jesus said* to her, "Woman, believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. 24 "God is spirit , and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:19-24 NASB)

The usual truth that is gleaned from this text, in short, is: God is not concerned by what style of music we choose, but rather that we worship Him "in spirit and in truth," that is, with all of our heart. People can worship God in Gerazim or Jerusalem--the physical doesn't matter, but the heart. Worship God with your heart and as He really is.

This is a good truth, and can quite possibly be taken from this text. But is this the main point? Let's look at two more verses. The woman said* to Him, "I know that Messiah is coming (He who is called Christ); when that One comes, He will declare all things to us." 26 Jesus said* to her, "I who speak to you am He." (John 4:25-26 NASB)

Jesus point isn't that God isn't concerned how or where we worship Him, but rather that He is not concerned with who worships Him, as long as they do it in spirit and in truth. Jesus came and destroyed the barriers between Jews and Samaritans, and the barriers between Jews and Gentiles (Eph. 2:11-22). Jesus wasn't concerned about the issue of whether God was worshiped with organs, guitars, a cappella, contemporary, traditional, hymn, praise chorus, etc. His concern was that all could now approach God.

There are actually two major issues, that I will note, with the current worship wars.

1) We have the exact opposite mentality that we ought. We ought to love one another and submit ourselves to one another. That is when truly biblical worship and revival will occur. As Rick Warren so famously said on the first page of his The Purpose Driven Life, "It's not about you." We must approach our style of worship from this mentality.

Both sides of the debate have failed on this front. Rather than lovingly submitting and worshiping together by hymns or praise songs (or African music, or country, etc), we demand it our way or we'll pout. Some will stick around and crab about the music. Many people will leave and look for another church that plays the style they desire. This brings me to my next point.

2) We are far too commonly submitting ourselves to the culture. We feel that we must be relevent rather than reverent. We are not concerned with whether God wants praise choruses or hymns. Our concern becomes giving people what they want--we submit to Westernism, and continue to feed people's insatiable consumeristic mentality. Do we wonder why people cannot perform point #1 above? It's because they in no way are being taught to or forced to--WalMart won't do it, this must be learned in the church. This isn't just a problem with worship music--this is a major problem with marriages, people's lack of submission to Christ as Lord, why Christians live just like the world, etc.

So, I guess perhaps Lenny is just being a prude again. Surely I hate change. Surely I'm opposed to Rock music. If you really think that, you don't know the first thing about me. I do like hymns more than praise songs (overall), because hymns are usually far deeper. I think we ought to educate people so that they are able to sing deep songs--we have failed here. I actually love Rock music (look at my cds, listen to the radio with me, consider that I'm a Rock drummer). Am I a prude, or do I see a culture where Christianity has become nothing more than a one time prayer and a T-shirt?

1. John Bisagno, Letters to Timothy. This is actually a book that has many helpful, practical insights. Please don't dismiss this book just because I disagree with his thinking on this matter.