Referencing Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna
Barna, Tyndale House, 2002/8
6
Ministers of Music: clergy
set to music, (Pagan Christianity, chapter 7 title)
Somewhere
between 1980 and now, a strange stream of consciousness poured in and
overpowered the ‘philosophy of music’ that lay at the heart of the worship of
God by the people of God.
And
perhaps it goes even further back – and the 1980s was an inevitable development
from foundations laid much earlier. But
the thing I notice the most is a profound shift from the sound of human voices
singing drowning out the music such that musicians can’t hear what their own
fingers are playing to music drowning out the human voices singing such that
‘worshippers’ are most likely to lip-synch than actually sing.
And the
thing I notice second-most is the vibrations of the bones in my chest as the
bass player assaults everyone with his/her ‘skill’ and craft.
Not
that long ago, human voices singing were the music we heard – they were the
instruments we played to worship God.
And the words we used were mostly made up of adoration, praise, prayer
and teaching.
In the
church life-stream I grew up in, Sunday morning was for believers to come
together to worship God from the heart; Sunday evenings were for inviting
unbelievers in to hear of the grace of God in Jesus Christ. Songs would be used ‘ad hoc’ – for the purpose; or bespoke as we like to say today. Organs (only) were introduced in the 1950s –
I suspect partly as a result of the sky not falling in when Billy Graham
visited Australia. Other instruments
followed in time, but instruments were chosen for their cultural relevance when
it came to appeals to the unbelieving masses.
But,
hey, I’m not a student of church music history – and that’s not really the
point here.
The
Minister of Music idea simply flows flawlessly from the professionalisation of
all that the various church facets had become: buildings, comfort,
genteel-ness, politeness, obfuscation, priests, deacons, vestments, etc. etc.
Whole
tracts of christendom adapt stories from the old testament (rarely the new
testament) to justify the use of “professional” musicians, singers and dancers
without much thought about the meaning and purpose of them over against the
fact of them.
But
nothing in the old testament record of what Israel did has any automatic or
uncritical adoption into the affairs of ekklesia
post-Jesus. The meaning and purpose of
the musicians, singers and dancers is not an automatic carry-over into the new
covenant no matter what we believe about the alleged importance of worship
under the Davidic Covenant.
We are
not Jews/Hebrews; Jews and non-Jews are one in Christ according to the new
covenant documents we have. What is
critical for us is to understand and comprehend what God is doing today in our world – the mission Dei if you like. The Holy spirit is God’s most powerful gift
to His sons of faith and, as Paul notes a bit in Romans, our responsibility is
to “live according to the Spirit”.
That
means we don’t do things because that’s “the way” it ought to be done; because
that’s the way we’ve always done it; because some bible verse says someone in
the past has done it; because there is a right way and wrong way; because
someone in a hierarchy tells us what we must do; because a visiting
‘influencer’ has a plan; because we want to showcase a talent ... you can add
your own ‘because’ here.
The
idea of a Minister of Music and formal choirs and ‘music teams’ and music
run-sheets – all of it, is a slide away from the imminent Holy Spirit in our
times together and towards removing ever more pieces of the spiritual life of a
congregation from the hands of the members of that congregation.
I love
this paragraph from Viola and Barna:
Perhaps you are wondering. What’s wrong with having a choir leader, a
worship leader, or a worship team to lead the church’s singing? Nothing ...
if every member of the church is content with it. However, many Christians feel that it robs
God’s people of a vital function: to select and lead their own singing in the
meetings – to have divine worship in their own hands – to allow Jesus Christ to
direct the singing of His church rather than have it led by a human
facilitator. Singing in the early church
was marked by these features. (p. 166)
But
there is matter here worth noting: having “divine worship in their own hands
... rather than have it led by a facilitator” is precisely what popes, bishops,
priests, ministers and pastors did not
want in their congregations – across many years. Congregations were blind, dumb sheep needing
a shepherd’s crook – at least according to their betters. And that attitude is still present in many
places.
And
just in case you’re wondering, the professional musician approach fits well
with the Greco-Roman influences that have taken hold in most of the church
today – at least in the West and those places where what Renée Padilla in 1975
called “American Culture Christianity” dominates.
On page
167, Frank (Viola) asks us to “imagine...”:
Every brother and sister free to lead songs
under the headship of Jesus Christ – even to write his or her own songs and
bring them to the meeting for all to learn.
I have met with numerous churches that have experienced this glorious
dynamic. Someone starts a song and
everyone joins in. Then someone else
begins another song, and so worship continues without long pauses and with no
visible leader present.
That’s
what I grew up with; and I have both led and participated in groups and
meetings where this is normal – surprise, surprise, even when the only music is
our God-given, Spirit-led human voices.
Beats the pants off a rock concert with flashing lights and smoke every
time.
There
is such a thing as new covenant worship, music, singing, dancing, etc – and
their is such a thing as old covenant worship, music, singing, dancing,
etc. This blog series is all about moving
from the old to the new; from church to ekklesia;
from hierarchy to Christ.
Note to self: Remember “when you come
together, each one has a psalm, a teaching, a revelation, a tongue, an
interpretation – just let all things be done for edification.”
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