Eric Wyse: A Theology of Music in Worship

Note from CM: In days to come, I will be introducing and interviewing Eric Wyse, the author of this post. Eric is my brother-in-law, an extremely gifted musician, and currently Director of Music at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Nashville, TN. More about his journey on the Canterbury Trail later; for today he has contributed a thoughtful foundational document that guides him and his congregation as they sing and play music to the Lord in worship. He has also kindly included some statements about worship from the Book of Common Prayer and a list of books for more study on the subject.

Eric blogs at HYMNWYSE, and you can find links to his other sites there as well.

Like the statement from the USCCB we looked at last week, I commend this to you as an example of the good theological and musicological thinking that the church is capable of doing and should be doing with regard to music.

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A THEOLOGY OF MUSIC IN WORSHIP

The vision for music in worship at St. Bartholomew’s is one of worship of the Triune God with all our beings, with all of our emotions, and with all of our intellect–hence we worship joyfully and exuberantly, as well as meditatively and reverently. In accordance with the canons of the church, the rector serves as the worship leader for the parish; the music director assists the rector in matters of music.

Our focus begins with who God is: in songs of adoration and praise we worship Him and proclaim His goodness, greatness, love, mercy, holiness and all of His attributes, asking nothing in return but to enjoy His presence. We then move to expressions of thanksgivingfor what He has done for us–in all that he has given to us. Songs of penitence remind us of our sins, our need for forgiveness, and resolve to live rightly. With songs of oblation, we offer both our resources and our lives to God for His service. With songs of prayer, we ask for what we desire and need, when we bring to God our and intercessions and petitions, on behalf of others, and for ourselves. As we worship, our primary purpose, starting point, ending point and overall “umbrella” is an acknowledgement of who God is, and our response His call. This is a very God focused, rather than me-focused expression.

At St. Bartholomew’s, our musical offering is a reflection of who we are as believers living in a post-modern world, connected to the ancient historic faith. We draw from various styles and periods of music, including classic hymns, chant, and anthems, as well as fresh new expressions of music from around the world – praise songs, Taizé music from France, music of renewal from the Roman church, and Celtic music. We sing music that is hundreds of years old, because in addition to the truth it contains, it reminds us we are a part of the historic church, and we sing today the same music the saints of old sang, and in that way are joined as one church universal. We sing modern music, because he has put a new song in our hearts. We draw from the wealth of resources from our varied traditions. We sing in other modern languages (Spanish) to remind us that we are part of a global church, and we sing in Latin, which was the language of the church for most of church history. When we sing in Spanish, we connect to the believers in our church body who worship with us, singing in their first language. When we sing in Latin we connect with the historic language of the church–a language that is still sung every Sunday around the world. When we sing the service music we join our voices “with angels and archangels and all the host of heaven” (i.e. the cloud of witnesses).

Continue reading “Eric Wyse: A Theology of Music in Worship”

Fr. Ernesto on Music in Orthodox Worship

Note from CM: Fr. Ernesto Obregon has been one of IM’s “liturgical gangstas” for a long time. He practices his faith in the Antiochan Orthodox tradition. We turn to him when we want insight into the theology and life of the Orthodox church. He blogs at OrthoCuban.

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Orthodox worship involves the whole body and all its senses. One quote from an Orthodox website says, “Orthodox Church art and music has a very functional role in the liturgical life and helps even the bodily senses to feel the spiritual grandeur of the Lord’s mysteries.” In many Orthodox worship settings throughout the world, there are literally almost no spoken words. All words are chanted (sung). In fact, chanting styles have developed to try to guarantee that what is said is understood.

This is because in an Orthodox worship, the words that are being chanted are of supreme importance. There are different chanting styles, but they all have as a goal the making the words of the chant to be fully understandable. In fact, the words of an Orthodox worship have not varied in centuries, though sometimes certain words have been omitted. (Note: the translation of the words has obviously varied, but not the general words themselves.)

But, you need to understand that at its heart, the Orthodox see their music as connecting them to the music that is being sung by the angels and the elders at the foot of the throne of God (Rev. 4:8-11, Isa. 6:1-4, Eze. 3:12). Exodus 25 claims that the worship of Israel followed a heavenly pattern. The Book of Hebrews confirms that and further alludes to Christian worship also following that same heavenly pattern. “We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.”

Music is not an option for the Orthodox or frosting on the cake. It is something which ought to be a part of every believer’s life. Saint Ignatius of Antioch wrote, “You must every one of you join in a choir so that being harmonious and in concord and taking the keynote of God in unison, you may sing with one voice through Jesus Christ to the Father, so that He may hear you and through your good deeds recognize that you are parts of His Son.”

When we chant, we chant Truth. When we sing, we join with the angels in heaven and the elders before the throne and the multitude from every tribe, nation, people, and language. When we chant, we pray to God. When we sing, we express our oneness and our fellowship is with God the Father through Jesus Christ so that He may hear us. When we chant we join ourselves to the Old Testament patriarchs and prophets, to the New Testament apostles, to the historic saints and martyrs of the Church, to both the Church Triumphant and the Church Militant. When we sing we join our Earthly experience to the heavenly realities.

Worship Is Not Sex

UPDATE: I’m sorry that so many of you have missed the point of this piece. I have been driving from Chicago all day and didn’t have opportunity to say this earlier, so please hear this now: this post is not primarily about the content of certain contemporary worship songs. I used the Lark News piece at the beginning to show that this connection between worship and sensuality has been an issue for a while in contemporary worship.

Furthermore, the main point of the piece is more about contemporary liturgy than it is about certain songs (though the music and songs often fit the liturgy well). It is about how worship leaders have developed strategies of leading people through certain patterns of emotional response using today’s music (and we could add, technologies). This has led to people in the congregation thinking that what worship is all about is having an emotionally-charged encounter with God. I disagree with both the definition of worship and the means being used to try to make it happen.

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UPDATE TWO: In which Chaplain Mike thought, “If I have to explain it, I must not have written it very well in the first place.”

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The latest Vineyard Music worship CD, “Intimacy, vol. 2,” has raced to the top of the Christian sales charts, but Wal-Mart is refusing to stock the album without slapping on a parental warning sticker. The ground-breaking — some say risqué — album includes edgy worship songs such as “My Lover, My God,” “Touch Me All Over,” “Naked Before You,” “I’ll Do Anything You Want,” “Deeper” and “You Make Me Hot with Desire.”

“We’ve had concerns about previous Vineyard CD’s, but this time they went overboard in their suggestive imagery depicting the church’s love affair with Christ,” said a Wal-Mart spokesman. “It would be irresponsible to sell this to 13-year-old kids.”

A Vineyard Music Group (VMG) spokesman defended the album. “We felt this was the next logical step in furthering people’s intimacy with the Lord, as the title implies,” said Sam Haverley, director of VMG public relations. “People aren’t content with yesterday’s level of closeness. They want something more. We feel this album gives them that.”

Wal-Mart represents a third of all CD sales, which has forced VMG to try to negotiate a deal. VMG proposed adding a heart-shaped warning sticker rather than the black-and-white label more often seen on raunchy rap albums, but Wal-Mart refused. VMG is considering issuing a censored version of the album.

“If Christians want to make R- or X-rated music, that’s up to them,” said a Wal-Mart spokesman, “but we don’t have to carry it.”

– Lark News, April 2003

The foregoing piece of satire is a classic commentary on contemporary worship.

Michael Spencer made reference to this piece and wrote about it back in May of 2004, speaking of the “romanticization” of worship. He rightly noted that these are not the only kind of songs featured in contemporary Christian worship music and that the trend to romanticize worship didn’t begin when we started plugging in guitars but back in the 1800’s, when revivalism became the default mindset of many churches. Nevertheless, he saw a significant strain of romanticized music increasingly infiltrating worship and transforming it into an experience in which the chaste may find themselves blushing.

Continue reading “Worship Is Not Sex”

What He/She Said…

Today, here are some recent quotes from folks around the blogosphere that I heartily affirm…

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Roger E. Olson, “What do I mean when I say the Bible is ‘trustworthy?'”

Note from CM: One of Michael Spencer’s conflicts with evangelicalism was over its insistence on a biblicism that requires the foundation of inerrancy. He came to an understanding similar to that expressed by Dr. Olson here in his typically clear style. I’m with him too.

When I say the Bible is trustworthy, I mean it can be (and for Christians must be) trusted to transform those who are open to its message, the gospel, by bringing them into encounter with the living God through Jesus Christ. I do NOT mean the Bible is a source book of information about history or cosmology or even morality. All those are in the Bible, but they are not its main purpose.

When I say the Bible is trustworthy, I do NOT mean every event recorded in the Bible happened exactly as it is described there. And anyone who says all did have simply not wrestled deeply enough with the phenomena of Scripture. It takes Herculean efforts to harmonize many biblical accounts of the same events and, in the end, they are not worth it and do not really succeed (except by forcing harmony where it does not exist). An excellent example, of course, is the event of Peter’s denial of Jesus. Harold Lindsell had to have the rooster crowing six times to harmonize the gospel accounts.

Even most conservative evangelical biblical scholars know this, but they keep it a secret (except among themselves). They don’t want to share it with the lay people who look to them for fundamentalist support. If they really told their constituents what they know to be true about the Bible, they would be crucified by many of them. So they preach inerrancy, but among themselves and in their footnotes admit that the Bible contains many “problems” that resist harmonization.

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J. Michael Jones, “The Miniscule God of the Evangelicals, Part IV: The Magician”

Note from CM: JMJ is doing a series that challenges common religious language and misconceptions. Often confronted with people who tell him his “God is too small,” Michael turns the tables and shows how their deity is the true mini-master. I agree. As Michael Spencer would say, some people are too God-centered and not human enough.

…But to the evangelicals, God’s miracles is in the lines of him being a magician . . . or maybe an illusionist.

The problem begins (keeping with the theme of this blog) with the notion that this physical world is unimportant. Therefore for anything to have meaning, it has to be connected to the far more important spiritual realm (so goes their thinking). Therefore, nothing has value unless it is a “miracle.” So then everything becomes a miracle, meaning a super-natural (above the laws of nature) miracle.

…it saturates the evangelical thinking. All illnesses are either caused by the direct hand of God (“God disciplining me”) or the devil (see the previous post). Any resolution of an illness isn’t through the natural (God-given in my opinion) forces of our biochemistry of healing but had to be the direct hand of God.

…But they have no other choice. If they believe that this physical world is crap, rather than an incredibly beautiful place with God-designed complexities and forces, then you have to believe that all things are miracles. At that juncture you loose all contact with reality.

But, I do believe that God does work outside of nature, but it is rare. My God does things like create universes and the complexities of all that is. I’m very okay with God working within the nature He has created because I love it the way He made it. As Einstein said, either everything is a miracle or nothing is. I’m in the camp that everything is. The big bang and on. No, the universe makes no sense, something that big created by a personal being.

But the absence of such makes less sense.

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Karen Spears Zacharias, “Practice Goodness”

Note from CM: Please follow the link and read Karen’s article about Whitney Kropp, the high school sophomore from Michigan who was targeted in a cruel, “Carrie”-like bullying plot. Read and stand amazed at what her community has done to support her and to overcome evil with good. For more about this, here’s a link to the news story from the Detroit News. I agree that this is another opportunity for the church to learn from the “Samaritans.”

Listen to what Karen says:

Wouldn’t it be something if the churches across America took a page from West Branch and instead of ignoring those who look different from us, the person who dyes their hair purple, or tats up their neck, or admits to loving a person of the same sex, wouldn’t it be something if instead of shunning those people, we did what West Branch is doing for Whitney? What if we surrounded those people and told them that they are worthy, that they matter to us?

Because that really is the Gospel message, isn’t it?

The town of West Branch is living out the Gospel the way those of us who claim it as our creed ought to be doing. The town of West Branch is writing a storybook chapter in Whitney Kropp’s life, reminding all who witness it Good can overcome that which is meant to harm us.

Now if only more of us would take it upon ourselves to practice goodness more often.

Psunday Psalms: The First Song of Praise

King David, Chagall

Psunday Psalms
Devotional Thoughts on the Psalms

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When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
the moon and stars that You put in place,
what is man that You have been mindful of him,
mortal man that You have taken note of him,
that you have made him a little less than divine,
and adorned him with glory and majesty;
You have made him master over Your handiwork,
laying the world at his feet,
sheep and oxen, all of them,
and wild beasts, too;
the birds of the heavens, the fish of the sea,
whatever travels the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name throughout the earth!

– Psalm 8:4-10, Tanakh (JPS)

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If we have been reading the Book of Psalms, starting at Psalm 1, we will notice a dramatic change of mood when we arrive at Psalm 8. This composition is the first song of praise in the book. In it, the psalmist praises God who reigns in heaven and on earth and expresses wonder at the human being through whom God’s rule is enacted on earth as it is in heaven.

This has been God’s plan from the beginning. Psalm 8 is a meditation on Genesis 1, particularly Gen. 1:26-28 —

Then God said, “Let us make humanity in our image to resemble us so that they may take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and all the crawling things on earth.”

God created humanity in God’s own image,
in the divine image God created them
male and female God created them.

God blessed them and said to them, “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and master it. Take charge of the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and everything crawling on the ground.” (CEB)

John Walton has convincingly argued that the Bible’s first chapter describes how God built his cosmic temple, appointed human representatives (“in his image”) to rule on his behalf as royal priests, and in the end sat down on his throne (“rest”) to take up his rule over the universe.

We have seen already in our study of Psalms that Psalm 2, one of the two psalms that introduces the book, tells us that this book is going to be about the God who rules and who will triumph forever, despite all the opposition arrayed against him. The powers of sin, evil, and death shall not ultimately stand against the Lord and his Messiah.

Psalm 8 therefore is not merely a reflection on God’s plan for humans at creation, but a reminder of the Human (“son of man”) who came and was declared God’s Son and Lord of all nations through the resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:1-5). That is why the author of Hebrews, reading this psalm, understood it in the light of Jesus.

God didn’t put the world that is coming (the world we are talking about) under the angels’ control. Instead, someone declared somewhere,

What is humanity that you think about them?
Or what are the human beings that you care about them?
For a while you made them lower than angels.
You crowned the human beings with glory and honor.
You put everything under their control.

When he puts everything under their control, he doesn’t leave anything out of control. But right now, we don’t see everything under their control yet. However, we do see the one who was made lower in order than the angels for a little while—it’s Jesus! He’s the one who is now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of his death. He suffered death so that he could taste death for everyone through God’s grace. (Heb. 2:5-9, CEB)

The majesty of God, for which we praise him, is most clearly seen in the One who died and was raised to renew us all into the Image of God in a new creation.

May your Kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as in heaven.

iMonk Musical Musings (1)

Note from CM: On Saturdays in October, we’ll put together some of Michael Spencer’s thoughts about church music that he expressed over the years here at IM and present them to you for your consideration and discussion.

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No one will be surprised to hear me say this, but we need to find a way to simply have less music in evangelical worship. I don’t say that out of any distaste for art or from a lack of appreciation for the need to reach musicians and people with musical gifts. I mean exactly what I mean: in the typical evangelical church, there is simply too much music, too much attention to music, too much judged by music, and too much attributed to music.

Evangelicalism was always better in the days when any evangelical church had 12-15 minutes of music in a typical service, most of that congregational singing. In the new churches we start, elders need to have an intentional approach to the use of music in worship that is balanced and sane.

Outside of the worship service, we need to encourage music and every other kind of art far more than we do, but a ministry of a church and an necessary (and demanding) element of public worship are two very, very different things. I’d be happy to explore this in a later post, but just think of it this way: what a church strategizes to do as a ministry will seldom dominate that church’s public worship. We need music ministry, not musical dominance of worship.

– Five Post-evangelical Answers for Today’s Evangelical Crisis (June 2007)

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I’m fairly convinced that Americans over-relate to music anyway. We tend to “wall-paper” our worlds with it. Notice, for instance, how we like it playing in the background of everything, and how commericals use it to create a reaction. And while we might complain about that in the elevator or the store, we will practice it in our own environments.

– The Music Debate at Our House (Feb 2004)

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CCM’s success has been phenomenal. Yet, among those who love, buy, and discuss CCM, there is a significant amount of discontent, a considerable agreement that the vast majority of Christian music and Christian artists are mediocre, and a growing sense that the industry has serious and escalating problems. For those interested in art that reflects a mature understanding of the Christian worldview and of artistic excellence, listening to CCM radio is a depressing experience, as it is clear that a kind of commercial wet blanket has come to dominate the genre. K-Love, a syndicated satellite station, increasingly renders Christian radio a land of identical Muzak. Truly talented, risk-taking, culturally relevant communicators must find their way into the world of the internet, small indy labels, and constant touring. It is generally agreed that a contemporary Larry Norman would go largely unheard in today’s CCM environment.

– So Long Ago, When CCM Wasn’t Awful (Undated)

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For example, in one large church of my acquaintance, the staff has, over a period of seven years, eliminated the hymnal, the organ, the acoustic piano and exiled hymn-singing to the senior adult fellowship. Sunday evenings, once a service where pastors could teach scripture to the faithful, are now frequently given over entirely to concert formats where young people dance and do all the expected behaviors of a club set. To say this overlooks and estranges whole generations is an understatement. And the changes were made with breath-taking swiftness, alerting the older generation that it was “my way or the highway” as far as worship style goes. Inter-generational worship, once a solid strength of the church, is now a forgotten part of the past.

In addition to embracing the CCM revolution, the current crop of church leaders has taken up an entire novel and rather bizarre theology and practice regarding music in worship. One will hear worship leaders speak of the Holy Spirit descending into the room as the music is lifted up. Music now apparently “prepares” the congregation for the teaching of the Word, softening up those hard hearts. The new music is frequently equated with some sort of spiritual “river,” bringing an anointing or spiritual renewal to those who will join in the music. This is all, to be blunt, silly and superstitious. I now meet dozens of untalented and undiscipled young people, often living lives of serious immaturity and even immorality, whose stated goal is to follow a call from God into a successful career in CCM. Suddenly, God is apparently wanting to flood America with more CCM artists in need of our financial support. How blessed we are.

 – What I Saw at the Revolution (2002)

 

Saturday Ramblings 10.6.12

Well, iMonks, the frost is on the pumpkin. Of all stupid sayings, that may be the leader of the pack. Yet it seems appropriate this weekend as much of the country is experiencing some very fall-like weather. Up in Maine, Ted and JoanieD may be telling us they’re experiencing winter-like weather, as they may have snow before the weekend is out. Yes indeed, the frost is on the pumpkin. Now, if only it was frosting on a pumpkin cupcake, that would make sense. More about cupcakes in a minute. Pull on that bib–it’s time to ramble.

Oh boy! It’s that time once again, time for Pulpit Freedom Sunday. It’s the one Sunday each year when preachers are encouraged to defy the IRS and endorse specific political candidates and issues from the pulpit. Jim Garlow explains why he thinks this important here. I know Jim well. He truly believes what he is doing is a way to “advance the kingdom.” I disagree strongly with Jim on this (and many other issues), but love him dearly. Whether you agree or disagree, please remember Jim and his wife, Carol, in prayer. Carol is staring cancer in the face right now.

Some say if Mitt Romney is elected as president, he will be the most religious president since … since … Who do you think has been the most religious Pastor In Chief of our great nation? The answer given by Slate may surprise you.

Continue reading “Saturday Ramblings 10.6.12”

Harold Best on Sound and Silence

Harold M. Best is emeritus professor of music and dean emeritus of the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music in Wheaton, Illinois. He is past president of the National Association of Schools of Music. Best has a reputation as one of evangelical Christianity’s foremost authorities on church music. His 1993 book, Music Through the Eyes of Faith, is a classic study of the connections between music-making and Christian faith.

There is a great deal we could mine from this treasury of insight, but I want to focus your attention on one passage from his chapter, “Music and the Worshiping Church.” This excerpt got my attention because it speaks to a broader cultural issue that many of us don’t think about enough, in my opinion. This issue makes our perspective on music, as people of the 20th and 21st centuries, different than that of any previous generation of human beings.

We’re talking about the ubiquity of music in our lives.

Here’s what Harold Best has to say in the light of the music-saturated world in which we live and move and have our being:

There is such a thing as too much music, even when all the music is good music, in the same sense that there is such a thing as too much food even when all of it is nutritious. Musical gluttony is not uncommon either in general culture or in Christian music making. In fact, it is virtually beyond argument that music is so nearly omnipresent in our lives that it has become absent, not in the acoustical sense, but in the sense of having true significance. If we were to keep a tally of all the times we hear music during the day — in stores, at work, in our automobiles, on television, radio, and stereo sets, day in and day out — the total would be overwhelming. Then, if we were to do a set of comparisons:

  • (1) between the amount of music that reaches our ears and the amount of music we consciously perceive;
  • (2) between the amount of music that serves as background and the amount that functions in direct connection with another activity — for there is a distinct difference;
  • and (3) between the amount of music heard or listened to in all of the above circumstances and the amount we actually sit down and listen to just for the challenge and joy of perceiving music for what it inherently is,

we would probably discover that the first situation in each comparison would win out. In other words, despite the overwhelming presence of music in our lives, very little of it has any direct significance.

This has carried over into our perception and use of music in worship. We would be better off if we forced ourselves into musical silence in order to discover two things:

  • (1) that it is quite possible to worship God without music; God will still keep company with us in our silence;
  • and (2) that music making is at its best, not when we engorge ourselves with it, but when, as lean and spare worshipers — temperate and spiritually fit in all things — we make music in exactly the right amount.
(emphasis mine)

Remember, Harold Best wrote this before the iPod and the even more constant soundtrack by which we live today, blasting at us from all corners of our world.

Silence. What a concept.

As much as I love music, right now that sounds like music to my ears.

Once Upon A Christian Nation

With last night’s debate still fresh in our minds, I thought we might step away from our look at church music this morning to consider this essay from Craig Bubeck. 

I love my country . . . I mean, you gotta’, right? Even during its awkward cycles of uninhibited vitriol, come election time (with its debates). In so many regards, its ethos and heritage are so ideal driven, so optimistic, and yet so . . . practiced. What I love is its being foremost about the people—their lives, their liberty, and (imagine) their pursuit of happiness. From the jaded vantage point of a fallen and corrupt human history, it’s only reasonable to marvel at the great “experiment’s” miraculous conception, never mind survival.

Even so, I can’t say I’ve been particularly zealous in insisting it is “Christian.” To a great many of my younger brothers and sisters in Christ, this begs the jaded question. They’ll shrug: What does that even mean, “Christian nation”?

But since my decidedly evangelical childhood in the 60s, that has been my faith’s quite literal party line. It has morphed through Sunday sermons, Sunday schools, Christian schools, Christian radio, and talk radio. It has been and remains the evangelical battle cry for the better part of the modern and post-modern eras.  Here we stand—to claim the nation for Christ upon any and all “moral” grounds—we can do no other.

Can’t we?

Continue reading “Once Upon A Christian Nation”