Is contemporary music appropriate for public worship?
This is not an attack on the CCM genre, but I'm rather more questioning the time and place for it.
Traditional worship, obviously, has not disappeared completely. Many churches have not yet switched to the "modern" music that we hear so much today. But as you know, many "places of worship" have switched over. If you go to the big churches you might find "praise bands" and "worship teams." In some cases these "teams" are dressed immodestly, and the bands are not much more than a rock group. Nothing about them resembles Godliness or indicates that they're there to worship. The music is loud and obnoxious, and does not bring glory to God, but is rather appealing to the audience and the performers. Speaking of the performers, they're not even dressed in appropriate church attire, but rather, look like they're going to a street fight.
There are several problems with the picture I have just described. For starters, 1st Corinthians 11:14 tells us that it is a shame for a man to have long hair, and that long hair on a women is a glory. Sadly people don't follow this much anymore, even in the Church. 1st Timothy 2:9 speaks against immodesty, costly clothing, and the wearing of jewels. (The performers are decked out in jewelry, even some of the men!) Also 1st Corinthians 14:40 tells us that all things are to be done decently and in order. Can you truthfully say that the type of service I described is decent and orderly? People screaming into the microphone, working the crowd into a frenzy, the praise team dancing for all they're worth, and the musicians "playing" their instruments at a nearly deafening level?
Rock and Roll was a type of music that was started in rebellion. It was never meant to bring glory to God. Think about the '60s. Rebellion, drugs, alcohol, sex, the whole nine yards. Anti-authority, and anti-God. These things were promoted openly in rock songs. Some performances included spitting, vomiting, nudity, and profanity. Some groups were epitomized by the men wearing makeup and singing witchcraft and devil-worshipping songs. The lyrics were sensual and even well-known artists like Michael Jackson and Madonna began to sing songs that openly mentioned sex. How is that kind of music, even with Christian words, acceptable in a church service?
Church leaders have welcomed rock music into their services, partly to try to get new people to come in. Maybe they reasoned that sacred music wasn't appealing to sinners, so they had to get more "modern." But that's a rather ridiculous argument. God's word doesn't appeal to sinners, so should we stop reading the Bible in service? Should we stop taking an offering, because sinners certainly don't understand the concept of tithing 10% to God. Well, perhaps we should stop praying. I mean, it might not appeal to some people. They could get offended and never come back. In fact let's not even mention God, because some people get upset. We'll just have coffee and donuts and sit there listening to rock music, hoping that new people will get saved even though they can't know about God's plan of salvation because we're too busy trying not to offend them by not talking about their creator. ;)
I'm not totally adverse to rockier songs, such as we hear sometimes in Southern Gospel. "I'm a Brand New Man" by the Kingdom Heirs is a good example. That type of song is different than what rock actually sounds like. I don't think that type of music should be played during a church service (at least not during worship), but I'm not against listening to it for fun. An example of a song I might be more against is "Praying Man" by Brian Free and Assurance. It's not simply fun and up-beat Southern Gospel, but comes pretty close to getting into the CCM genre. That's not to say that I fault somebody else for listening to it, as long as they don't have a personal conviction against it.
I believe that there is a time and a place to listen to fun music, and there's a time to worship God. We don't go to church to have fun. That's not the point. We're there to learn about God, and to worship our creator. I don't think it will hurt us to give up our preferred type of music for an hour or so during a few services each week. (To clarify, I don't listen to CCM, but I know a lot of people who do. That's up to you and God, and I don't think you're a wicked sinner or whatever for listening to music that's rockier than what mine is.) :)
NOTE: Some of the ideas and information presented in this article I got from the book "Church Music Matters" by Garen L. Wolfe.
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