A Recipe for More Kirk McPhersons

I think Paul Zahl makes a good point in his criticism to Sally's article when he points out that "The practical burden laid on us by her idea, however, is considerable. In her changed universe, it is make-it-up-as-you-go-along-Sunday-to-Sunday world for worship leaders." Sally's idea of a worship service creates an immense responsibility for the worship leader to come up with something that is new, contemporary and different each week. Under this pressure a leader simply cannot thrive. This will create Kirk McPherson scenarios in the leaders of our churches. This is not the kind of leader or leadership we should desire in our churches. It creates leaders who are more concerned about finding the next new and creative idea than they are about feeding their sheep which in turn results in a congregation full of Biblically ignorant people because their leaders have neglected teaching them from the Bible. So, in this scenario we have burnt out worship leaders trying to feed a congregation of people who have yet to move from milk to meat in their knowledge of the Scriptures. I think we would all agree this is not the Biblical model for worship that properly brings glory to God.

“It is the remark of Dr. J. Edward…

…that it is the command of God that all should sing….Those therefore who have musical faculties and neglect to improve them are living in sin, for it is an ordinance of God’s worship in which all are commanded to join” (p. 198).

Dr. Kauffman has often remarked that it’s not impossible for anyone to learn how to sing, it’s natural, it’s part of being human, it’s wired into the brain. “Living in sin” sounds pretty harsh for an average churchgoer that “just doesn’t sing.” But singing is an experience that edifies oneself by preaching the gospel, edifies the body by hearing one another’s words and being united, and glorifies God by obeying his command to sing.

William Caldwell

As a singer I particularly enjoyed William Caldwell's Preface to Union Harmony:

"The giver of every good and perfect gift has been pleased to bless us with singing faculties, and to music we are indebted for one of the most refined and exalted pleasures which the bounty of heaven ever permitted to gladden the hearts of the children of men."

What a beautiful description of the gift of song that God has given us! But he didn't stop there..

"Then, most certainly, it is reasonable that we improve those faculties of our nature as we have opportunity that we may be prepared to exercise them in accents of acceptable praise to our Creator... Music like all other sciences must be critically learned, or it can never be performed correctly, and if it is the duty of one, it surely is the duty of all to sing... those therefore who have musical faculties and neglect to improve them are living in sin, for it is an ordinance of Gods' worship in which all are commanded to join."

God has given us a gift and Caldwell reminds us that we must use that gift to the best of our ability. I found this article freeing as it pointed out the duty we have to sing and to sing correctly by critically learning the science of music. I'm sure the rest of you can see how, as a music major, I appreciated and was challenged by this article. What a perfect summary for this class and challenge to a beginning of a semester.

Total Neglect

“The Total Neglect of Singing Psalms, by many serious Christians, for want of Skill in Singing Psalm Tunes. There are many who never employ their Tongues in singing God’s praises, because they have not the skill […] It is to be feared Singing must be wholly omitted in some paces for want of skill.” (180) Although I believe the main reason we no longer sing hymns and psalms is an artifactual reason I do believe that in one sense we don’t sing them because we now lack the skill. We no longer know how to read music and in many cases we no longer know how to read deep texts with understanding. How did this happen? I believe Thomas Symmes struggled with the same problem when he wrote, “The declining from, and getting beside the Rule was gradual and insensible.” (182) Just like Thomas we need to strive to teach our brothers and sisters and lead them back to the greener pastures we wandered from.

Gotta love the Sixties!

I believe we all covered most of the main points yesterday in our discussion. However, I personally felt the lack of being able to see the difference between modernism and post-modernism. Most of the changes that occurred happened when I was too young to notice the difference. I can now theorize about what the differences are but pragmatically I really don’t remember and have absolutely no knowledge of what it was like before “my time.” That being said, I found it very interesting that both Best and Williams stated that Sally’s “radical” view was not radical at all and was actually very similar to what happened in the 1960s “when virtually every sense, conviction, and passion could be illustrated in gesture, metaphor, sit-in, teach-in, walk-on, an street art. What was missing then seems missing in emerging worship: simplicity, directness, and sparseness.” (235) Williams wrote, “Her proposals for the deconstruction and reconstruction of worship sound radical. In fact, virtually all tried in the late 1960s and early 1970s as mainline churches felt the crush of counterculture and the new winds of liturgical renewal.” (246) Williams goes on to say that these changes were brought about because of culture and changed as soon as culture moved on. He also wrote that the 60s movement was shallow in theology, history, and constantly tented to the bizarre. I get the feeling like the 60s was the same story in that the church conformed to the world.

Keep the Psalms Too!

I know that there wasn't much information per se, but I could resonate with Jonathan Edwards here on what he felt for his congregation. "When I came home I did not like their making some use of the Hymns: but did not like their setting aside the Psalms..." (184) Coming from a church background with no Psalm singing whatsoever, I'm glad that even in a more modern setting with hymns, that Edwards wanted to see his people keep the songs and not neglect them. Oh how I hope to come to love the Psalms and psalter for their place in my worship toward the God who they're all about!

The Future of the Church and Culture

Robert Webber is a pretty smart guy, isn't he? He very clearly summarizes something that I think is crucial and key to how the church must deal with culture, something that's a major theme of Sally's article. "The ancient church teaches us three relationships to culture all at once: It is part of it; it is antithesis to it; it is called to transform it. These relationship are always held in tension with culture. And depending on the condition of culture, they change in the intensity from place to place and time to time."(148) These three categories sounded very familiar to me. Mark Driscoll posted a blog about culture that is very helpful (I'll put the link at the bottom). His three categories are Receive, Reject, or Redeem. Sound familiar? Through this grid, I think Sally is very right where many churches should be scolded for their holding on to tradition for tradition's sake and not looking be cultural at all. These people are not "Receiving" culture at all, which is a problem. The problem that I (as well as most everybody else) is that Sally doesn't seem to want to reject anything in culture. She says "come on in! The water's fine!" But is that what we should be doing? Finally, I think there certainly is a third way, a good way, (perhaps even the best way?), "Redeem". For this, I look to Driscoll's church, Mars Hill (Seattle). I personally know that much of the music that comes from his church is God-honor, Christ-exalting, Spirit-enabled worship, but comes through as hard rock (such as a rendition of Depth of Mercy) or contemporary (a rendition of Love Lifted Me). How can we, being the next generation of faithful, Gospel-centered believers help shape our churches around properly receiving, rejecting, and redeeming culture?

http://theresurgence.com/2010/12/07/why-christians-go-postal-over-facebook-jay-z-yoga-avatar-and-culture-in-general

http://theresurgence.com/pages/kenosis-depth-of-mercy