I DON'T LIKE THE MUSIC!

Church music leaders often hear this: "Music has lost its meaning," "back in the day we used to have real worship and praise music," or "I want my hymns back." While I believe these statements are correct from a traditional viewpoint, it is similar to stating "everything was better when I was young." However, God's word, our relationship with Him, and our experience remain unchanged. On the other hand, humanity's ability to understand, act, and respond has changed significantly in the last 2000 years.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love the old hymns and I love contemporary music. However, I personally have a hard time worshiping in spirit and truth with super loud and repetitive upbeat music. But I will defend its existence.

It is sad that the human race, in its intellectual evolution, needs to simplify everything. But at the same time, I believe that those who seek God with a true heart (Jeremiah 29:13) and have a relationship with Him will never lose their longing for God and their daily expression of praise and worship. It's our root and it's systemic, but it's expressed in a different way in this century.

I believe that simply playing cool Christian songs that don't focus on the corporate praise and worship element is wrong and should not be used in corporate worship. Unfortunately, this is what is happening in our churches quite often. However, the evolutionary direction of simplifying everything in our worship culture and culture as a whole is not necessarily a means of simplifying God, it is just who we are in this day and age. We are still able to worship "in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24), even though the music is not as "musical and deep" as it used to be. 

I think sometimes all this is just a bitter cry for what has been lost, bundled with a kind of "selfish" ambition to leave things as they are.

The ever-changing world has changed our ability to perceive, act and react, but the powerful and convicting truth of God, full of expression and stirring emotion, has not changed. Even though our corporate, musical praise and worship gatherings are expressed with fewer words and simpler melodies, God is still God, and His Spirit instilled in us is still the same Spirit as it was 2000 years ago. Our way of expressing it has changed.