Gospel and Worship Wars

The ugliest years of my ministry were darkened by what has become known as the "worship wars."  Sunday after Sunday I observed lifeless and joyless singing -- a manifest unpresence of the Spirit.  God was not active among us.  I met so many who were walking in the same darkness. 

On one hand was the tenured generation, sadly bound in conscience by manmade rules -- it is evil to play drums, the saxaphone is of the devil, God is not pleased with loud music, and repetition of words is stupid and ungodly.  Some pastor or other in their history had instructed them in such additions to Scripture.  They could not find a text to support their positions but they "knew" it was correct.  Some were convinced that they must dress up for church or they would dishonor God.

On the other hand, there was the next generation who had been taught these rules but could not find any support for them in the Scriptures.  They wanted fresh worship -- in their own genres.  Some of them said they could not worship God with piano and organ -- one even told me that revival took place in his life when he first worshipped in mellowed rock style. 

Two sides -- polar opposites -- equally focused on all the wrongs things.  And they warred -- they boycotted, they criticized, they protested, they threatened, they wrote nasty anonymous letters.  People of power sought to flex their muscle and fight the other. People without power walked away.  There was a friendly church split because of music.  I agonized and was sucked into the war.

One glorious good came from it -- as I labored and prayed and agonized.  I came to cherish the Gospel.  Here is what I mean.

1. There is a freedom in the Gospel.  Richard Lovelace said it so well -- the Gospel is a simple message and it can be applied in any culture.  It is not time bound nor culture bound. Two centuries ago it showed up in hymnology.  Today it is seen in the contemporary style of music. 

The problem I faced was that one group had baptized their cultural expression of the Gospel.  In doing so they sucked the life out of it's transforming power. They were convinced that there was one legitimate musical expression of worship.  The Gospel is so much greater.  We dishonor the Gospel when we add to it rules of our own making.  We become Judaizers. The Gospel must always be free to bear fruit in new cultural forms.  The Holy Spirit is active in fresh ways in each generation.

2. There is content in the Gospel.  Most of the wars about worship were about style.  Sadly, no one really cared for the words being sung.  Granted, much of the contemporary music being advocated was "songs that express how I feel about Jesus" -- and much of the hynology had far more substance.  But that was rarely the battle as the stalwarts condemned the best of newer songs.  And the new generation rarely advocated solid content. Let us sing the triumph of the cross.

3. There is a humility of the Gospel.  If we really understand the Gospel we should be more amazed that God would receive praise from the lips of a vile sinner than that it be done to our liking.  Humility is cross centered -- not "me and my culture" centered.  The error of the Emerging Church is often making generational identity the core issue.  The error of the established church (which the new generation will become in time) is to baptize their starting culture. I believe there is cultural flexibility in the Gospel, but culture must be on the margin and the Gospel must be in the center.

4. There is a sufficiency in the Gospel.  I felt the tension in my soul and saw the absence of the manifest presence of Christ.  It seemed the debate over style was rooted in pride and self-assertion.  My prayers kept coming back to a simple theme -- if we were broken in heart at the foot of the cross, so much of this would be resolved.  Since then, a good friend put it this way -- if we pursue humility, we will come out well on the other end.  The Gospel was enough because the issue was in our hearts, not in our cultures.  James 4 became very meaningful -- the issue was the lusts of our hearts.

And unbelievers are not impressed with our style.  What captures their hearts is not our great musical productions or coolness of music -- they are captured by the love of God's people, by their sincere and passionate joy in whatever they sing.  They sense the active presence of the Spirit.

Where do we fight worship wars?  In the presence of a bleeding, suffering Savior upon a cross -- bearing in his body the full measure of wrath we justly deserve for our wars and fightings about music styles -- purchasing by his infinite sacrifice the church, so that when we gather before him we may sing his praise in whatever style so long as it is sung with joyous gratitude for mercy to sinners like you and me.

Comments

[J. Morice]

Excellent! I have always loved contemporary worship songs, and I love singing the powerful old hymns at our church. But I didn't think that I would ever like rap, until I listened to Curtis Allen's new rap CD. It is wonderful and some of the songs bring me to tears. I decided that it is not necessarily the style, but the words that I like. If I can't hear or understand the words of a song, it might just be noise if the style is not pleasing to my ear. Or if the words are offensive, the style really doesn't matter. Curtis's CD has very powerful gospel centered lyrics that are quite clear. I never thought I would ever admit to enjoying rap music.

Now if you would please address the worship volume wars....

[AWHall]

Mark - thanks for this gospel-saturated post, especially #3. Very relevant in light of the ongoing struggles our church has with music. Oh, how quickly we forget the incredible and humbling privilege we redeemed sinners have in giving praise to God. Blessings to you & your family this Christmas season.

[Mark Barnes]

Mark, that is so true. Thanks for reminding us that the gospel must be central.