The church must impact culture which includes our music.
Mark Driscoll strongly advocated this position: We must embed ourselves in a culture and develop friendships with lost people so that we can be informed and avoid making erroneous judgments …. As a missionary, you will need to watch television shows and movies, listen to music, read books, peruse magazines, attend events, join organizations, surf websites, and befriend people that you might not like to better understand people that Jesus loves” (Mark Driscoll, The Radical Reformission, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004, pages 97, 103).
How deeply do Christians Embed in Culture?
The issue is how deeply do we embed in culture to get educated to reach the lost. This philosophy will affect our styles of music. There are three basic styles of music according to Driscoll: High culture, Folk culture, and Pop culture. Driscoll uniquely evaluates these three styles.
Driscoll describes high-culture music as a gourmet meal that is prepared by professionals. Its equivalent in music is opera, classical music, and ballet. The church which prefers high culture music will sing old hymns accompanied by an organ and robed choir.
Folk culture is like mom’s home-cooked meal made from scratch. Folk music reflects the personal touch of local communities like black spiritual songs. This church has sold the old hymnals on Amazon.com and writes its own songs and music.
Kent R. Hughes writes: We applaud the growing trend of taking non-poetic texts and setting them to music. For example, see the new songs written on the Gospel of Luke (http://thegospelcoalition.org/lukealbum/) (click to open). If you are preaching through Jonah or John, Ecclesiastes or Ephesians, why not flip through the Scripture index in a few hymnals, search the Web to see what songs have been written, or commission your church musicians to write new contributions to the local and universal church? Kent R. Hughes, “Hymns and Songs” in The Pastor's Book (p. 341). Crossway. Kindle Edition. The Pastor's Book (p. 346). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Pop music is like a fast-food meal served without the sophistication of high culture or the personal touch of folk culture. Pop music is fleeting and changing and is represented by Michael Jackson who “continually reinvented his image so thoroughly that he has transformed from a black man to a white woman” (Mark Driscoll, p. 99). Instead of a “minister of music” there is a worship team casually dressed with a keyboard, acoustic guitar, and bongos.
My question for you is, “Which meal do you prefer?” Do you like eating at Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse or Hillbilly Hide-Away or McDonald’s? Is it possible for churches in our circles to have High, Folk, and Pop music if they are done in good taste or “decently and in order” as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 14:40?
There are two different thoughts on this subject.
Mark Dever advocates exposing your church to a variety of styles:
This certainly doesn’t mean that you have to use hymns and older songs exclusively. There is actually much wisdom and edification in employing a variety of musical styles so that people’s musical tastes broaden over time with wider exposure to different musical genres and time periods. This wider exposure can help curb the intensity of people’s musical preferences based on personal tradition and experience, which in turn will lessen the likelihood of division or conflict over issues of musical style. Careful planning here can help defuse the most notorious bombs of the “worship wars” (Mark Dever, and Paul Alexander. The Deliberate Church : Building Your Ministry on the Gospel. Crossway, 2005).
Kent Hughes while not arguing that one style is more Scriptural than another, believes the preferences of the congregation should be honored:
A hymn or song may be textually sound and its tune may be consistent with the text, but it may be either too formal or too informal for a certain congregation in its particular setting. The loving worship leader will be “attuned both to the Word and to the people who are served” (Kent R. Hughes, The Pastor's Book (pp. 343-344). Crossway. Kindle Edition).
Another question of great importance to me is, “How deeply do we embed in our culture to get educated?” Driscoll discusses three responses to this issue.
The Opinions on How Deeply Christians Embed
The Fundamentalist is not embedded enough and is too restrictive. The Fundamentalist forbids Christians from listening to certain musical styles, getting tattoos, watching movies, smoking cigarettes, consuming alcohol, and body piercing (Driscoll, 103). Not all who call themselves Fundamentalists would agree with Driscoll’s description.
The Liberal is too embedded and too permissive condoning drug use, fornication, homosexuality, and cohabitation before marriage.
The Reformissionist is not too hot or too cold but is just right (Driscoll, 103). I personally think Driscoll is embedded too deeply when he condones drinking and any musical style no matter how radically performed. Driscoll recently advised, “If you’re going to be a fundamentalist or moralist …. Don’t pick something stupid like, ‘Don’t listen to rock music.’ I don’t know who’s choosing all the legalisms, but they picked the worst ones” (Christianity Today magazine, April 21, 2009). At least, Rick Warren warned against the lyrics of rock music. It is the antiChristian and anitBiblical lyrics of some rock music that can be harmful to our Christian growth. Which is not limited to rock music. Bad philosophies or worldviews can actually show up in all styles of music.
Here are some broad principles to help guide us in our music style choices. These principles will be interpreted differently by each of us and therefore we should allow latitude in their application in different churches in different cultures.
General Principles for Music Style Choices
1. Does this music teach God’s Word (Colossians 3:16)?
There are three ways to assure our songs are biblical.
First, we can sing the inspired words of Scripture directly (or as directly as possible, as all songs set to patterns of English poetry are in a sense paraphrases of the original Greek or Hebrew). This would include the Psalms (see Paul’s admonitions in Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16) (Hughes, R. Kent. The Pastor's Book (p. 344). Crossway. Kindle Edition).
Second, beyond the songs of Scripture, we can sing other biblical texts. We applaud the growing trend of taking non-poetic texts and setting them to music. For example, see the new songs written on the Gospel of Luke (http://thegospelcoalition.org/lukealbum/) (click to open) (Ibid., 346).
Third, we can sing the great doctrines and themes of Scripture. Following Scripture’s lead ….And we must write new songs that recount and celebrate the works of Christ, such as the Keith Getty and Stuart Townend song “In Christ Alone.” The lyrics of the song address major themes: Incarnation—“In Christ alone (click to open), who took on flesh” Death—“Till on that cross as Jesus died” Resurrection—“Up from the grave He rose again!” Return—“Till He returns or calls me home” ((Ibid., 346).
What about hymns that teach unbiblical concepts such as crossing the Jordan River as entrance into Heaven? What about Rap? Shea Linne’s False Teachers (click to open) is very biblical. In this song, Sha Linne, who is a Christian Rapper refers to three biblical references that expose and warn against False Teachers (Matthew 7:16; 2 Peter 2:1-3; 1 Timothy 6:9-10. He also has a video (click to open) where he explains why he produced the expose on the Prosperity Gospel.
2. Does this music edify other believers (1 Corinthians 10:23)? If the music is so loud or distracting or hurtful to the eardrums, the words are lost and no one is edified.
We must always keep before us that singing is central to corporate worship, and instrumental offerings should never eclipse the voices of the Lord’s church. How we are to nuance this is a matter of conscience and wisdom. Believers may differ, but they should be united in their affirmation with the psalmist, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” (A Cappella Music in the Worship of the Church Everett Ferguson Desert Willow Publishing, 2013 (Revised ed.); 142 pages) REVIEW (click to open). John Chrysostom was called the Golden Mouth preacher. In keeping with his era, John favored a cappella singing in worship and opposed the use of musical instruments. Instruments were allowed in the Old Testament to entice people to attend worship, he said, but Christians shouldn’t need such inducements.
3. Does this music help me worship the Lord (Ephesians 5:19) or the performer?
Some, but not all, concerts are so entertaining that the unbiblical lyrics in the songs are overlooked because the audience is so caught up in the performance. I recently experienced this at a church concert. The singers were so entertaining that their unbiblical message was lost.
All styles of music can violate these principles if performed in the energy of the flesh or followed if these principles are performed in the power of the Spirit. Someone well said, “The singer and the music should draw attention to the words of the song, and the words should draw attention to Christ.”