| IIIM Magazine Online, Volume 4, Number 1, January 7 to January 13, 2002 |
| Originally aired Monday at 5:50 P.M. on WTLN 950 AM in Orlando, Florida, Music Matters is a weekly radio show that explores the nature of and antidote for the worship wars that exist in the church. |
This is Music Matters, and I'm Robert Barnes. As well as handling the vast hosting duties of this show, I'm director of worship at Covenant Presbyterian Church, Winter Park. You can find us on the web at www.cpconline.net.
We've been talking about worship that is Biblical, Relevant, and God-Centered. Leave it to sinners like us to find ways to ruin a good thing. But taken together, they can make good music with the Good News still intact.
Last week I said that when you loose the God-centered and Biblical core of our congregational worship songs, they become irrelevant, no matter how good your pipe organ or worship team is. They are irrelevant because they are useless in their role as a guide to the God of the Bible.
But let's say you have good lyrics. Are there any kinds of music that are forbidden to use in context of Christian worship?
No matter what culture you are in, the music can be divided into three basic categories, Classical, Folk, and Popular.
Classical is an idealized form usually enjoyed by the highest levels of a given society. It may or may not be indigenous or native to the culture it is in. But it is characterized by harmonic and rhythmic complexity, both in the hearing and in the playing. It is extremely stable, almost static, compared to the changes that take place in other music forms.
Folk is a simpler form of music that is enjoyed by a broad range of society. It is indigenous to the culture. Simple harmony and rhythm characterize it, but some forms are technically very difficult to play. Bluegrass is an example of simple, yet musically demanding, folk music. As time goes by, you see a major change in folk music with each passing generation. Once every 20-25 years, folk music goes in a different direction.
Popular or Pop music is a very simple form of music that is enjoyed by a broader range than folk or classical. It has simple harmony, often-complicated rhythms, and is commercially oriented — it is marketing-driven with the goal of making money. It changes very quickly, with styles and artists discarded as soon as the public grows tired of it.
How can we use classical, folk, and pop music in our worship services? Does God tell us in His Word which style he likes best?
All you folks who are fighting in your churches over music preferences need to listen up! I'm going to give you the truths you need to put down your instruments of war and pick up your instruments of music next week on Music Matters.