Being Very Serious (Part 12)

The I love music! One of the hardest things to accept since my stroke is my inability to play most of my instruments. My guitars sit in my closet and I am trusting for the day the Lord will touch me and allow me to at least chord them again. My banjo and uke sit collecting dust (that's an exaggeration if you know my wife) and my left hand just doesn't have the movement that it did before to really play the piano as I once could. I can say out of all that was affected by my stroke the use of my fingers on my left hand was the least thing I worried about, but have suffered the greatest loss from. I have finally got them to use my computer keyboard as they should, but I thank the Lord for Spellcheck more than I ever did. Take music from a musician and it's almost as close to torture as you can get.

Music has always been a part of our legacy in the Church of God, but the devil has fought our church over music since I was a teenager. Our standard for years in the SCCOG was the Annual Singing Caravan held from District to District to introduce a yearly songbook filled with new songs. Most of the individuals involved in the endeavor have passed on to glory now. Dozens of  COG people across SC used to attend the meetings to learn the new songs each year. In fact, my wife and I have a collection of the convention books from the late 40's on. I always said it was my generation that began to bring the change in music to the church. The pop songs of my day became easy songs to change the words to and use their melodies. We didn't sing Kumba Ya My Lord, but we did sing My Sweet Lord inserting the word "Jesus" instead of "Krishna". O Happy Day was in the Red Back Hymnal, but we did it differently. The songs of Andre Crouch, like I've Got Confidence and Sammy Hall's Jesus Is The Man For The Hour  and others begin to affect a generation. I remember some of our Youth Directors during that day getting chewed out because they let that type of music go on in our Youth Camps. In fact, I remembering directing the 1st choir in Eastern North Carolina from the Pine Valley COG in Wilmington, NC to ever use a reel-to-reel soundtrack at the Kenly Camp Meeting. We even had to bring our own recorder to play the tape. Since that time soundtracks started being produced on cassette tapes, then on CD's, and now can be downloaded off the internet as MP3's. Technology has entered the church music business like never before and now you can have a whole church service without live musicians.

But as the music and production became more sophisticated, I started hearing complaints about the "canned music" (which really were the soundtracks). For years I've heard about our music being too rocky, or too loud, or the words too repetitious, or our music program is too well planned. I believe more churches fight over or split over music than anything else in their local congregations. You can change a lot of stuff in time within a church structure, but mess with music people are comfortable with and you're in trouble.

Doesn't history tell us that many of the hymns were rejected earlier in the existence because of some of them sounding like converted bar tunes? Didn't the churches that rejected worship with anything other than a piano or organ start to emulate our music style and even use our songbooks in their worship? Have you personally ever let preference of style stop you from worshipping God? Those are serious questions that you need to answer.

Every generation has a preference in music. I personally don't like rap music, but some Christian artists have gone that route and are doing something for God with the generation who likes it. I am not talking compromise of lyrics or message, but there are some sincere individuals who are serving the Lord who realize that's it's not their style that makes them righteous, but it is who they perform their music for. For so long we have tied music and worship together that we have forgotten that it's worship that God is more pleased with than all the music we can perform. Music can lead us into worship, but it is not a substitute for worship. The squabbling over style INTERFERES with worship. So does that make it pleasing to God? Lucifer tried to make the music/worship thing all about him and look what happened. God really is not concerned about your personal preference, only about your desire to worship Him whatever style of music is being played. I love southern style, contemporary, worship style, and good old fashion red back hymnal choir singing. A musician of any sought really loves them all. My music tastes run from the Imperials to The Oaks, Christ Church and Brooklyn Tab, Steven Curtis Chapman to The Booth Brothers. I like it a little gospel style, country style, rocking style; well, you name it and I like it. But regardless of your tastes it's not worth sacrificing your worship of God over music style.

So whether it's Amazing Grace or How Great Is Our God, singing out of a convention songbook or the Red Back Hymnal, or even off  a screen that's most important, but how you use the music to lead you into worship God. It's not about being comfortable or sitting or standing there complaining to yourself about how it's so much different than it used to be, but about focusing on the One who made the music and gave you the opportunity to worship Him. Pickers and players will come and go, music styles will always change and be disputed, but worship will never be replaced. The next time a song that doesn't suit you is played block it out and focus on the Master. You'll find before to long it doesn't matter what the song or style is because you have entered His presence.