Selah

Alright, so I guess at this point I'm supposed to post something about New Year's resolutions or something like that. Part of me rebels. It says, "Yuck! Do I have to do that?" The other part says, "Just shut up and write something profound."

Hmm...

Here's the deal. A few weeks ago, on a Sunday afternoon, Beth and I were on our way home from church (yeah, I know, the whole "we are the church" thing...). Beth asked what I had planned for the rest of the day. I said, "Well, I'll probably try to get a few hours of work in, " to which she replied, "When was the last time you just took a whole day off?" I couldn't remember.

So that day, we just spent the day together, out and about, doing no particular thing. It was great!

Later it dawned on me. You know, I have been so busy doing the Lord's work that I hadn't given myself the luxury of just resting in the Lord. Nor had I spent much time in quiet reflection, allowing God to speak to me.

Throughout the Psalms there is a term which shows up from time-to-time. It is the Hebrew word "selah". It's generally believed that selah means to pause -- probably a musical term, but one which has spiritual implications -- benefiting the singer, after pouring out his heart to the Lord, by giving God a chance to speak to his spirit.

Psalm 46:10 quotes our Creator: "Be still and know that I am God..." Of course we know that He is God, because we read about Him and see His handiwork in creation and sense Him when we pray and glimpse His glory when we worship Him. But how often do we know He is God in our stillness? Do we allow him that chance?

It is in those "selah" moments that we allow God to have His say. As we meditate on His word and on His person, He will speak. How can we expect to hear His "still small voice" when we are only talking or singing and not pausing to let Him?

So I guess this is my resolution -- to be still and know...

Happy New Year!

On the Lighter Side

After yesterday's post, I felt that I should lighten things up a bit.

So it's just less than a month that we leave for Ireland again. I'm getting really excited about this trip. It think it will turn out to be as significant as our last vist -- maybe more so.

We have several workshops that we are conducting in local churches in Dublin and Cork. If you don't know what our worship workshops are like, you can find out on my October 15 post.

We also have a bunch of people to meet with to share about our ministry and establish relationships.

There is much to so before we go. We will be out-of-town for a week beginning Friday and then there's someting else.. um... let's see...

Oh - Christmas!

Then we have a lot of potential supporters with which to meet, and I need to get a lot of work in to have enough money to pay the bills while we're gone. All this before we leave on the 9th!

Whew!

In our weakness He is made strong.

How many more?

This little diatribe isn't a reflection of bitterness, but simply an observation of questionable practices by Christians -- saved-by-grace sinners, of which I am the chief. These are questions I am asking myself...

How many more people for whom Christ died will we consider not worth the effort?

How many more times will we ignore the broken hurting person right in front of us because we feel uncomfortable with "that kind of person" or their situation?

How many more lives will be damaged by the attitudes, practices, predjudices, and pride of Christians?

How many more people will we, the church let fall through the cracks because they dress, talk or act "differently" and therefore "it must be a spiritual issue"?

How many more times will we attempt to remake a person on the outside before we allow God to do that from the inside?

How many more non-believers will we shun and look down our noses at with disdain and say, "I thank you Lord that I am not like that person"?

How many more believers will we deceive into believing that we have it all together -- that "if we were doing any better, we couldn't stand it"?

How many more people will we assume are unsaved because they are doing something that we have labled as sin?

How many more ways can we justify treating another person poorly in the name of Christ?

How many more issues can we invent that divide the Body of Christ?

How many more offerings will we attempt to bring to the Lord while we hold hatred, malice or ill-feelings toward a brother or sister?

How many more "I love you, Lord"s will we sing while being unloving to others?

How many more social or humanitarian issues will we ignore because we fear being associated with liberals?

How many more things can we, as believers do to invalidate the Gospel in the eyes of the world?

Just a few things to think about.

What about Style? Pt. 2

The nitty gritty...

The way I see it (this will most likely never make it to a Starbuck's cup) music comes from the soul. It is often called "the universal language". But here's the thing, musical style is not universal.

I find it ludicrous that missionaries from the "civilized" West enter "uncivilized" cultures and teach the natives how to sing "Amazing Grace". Okay, so they teach it to them in their own language, I'll give them that.

But consider this little fable:

North America is a heathen society. Japan is the society in which Christianity has been native for two millennium. So Japan sends missionaries into North America to evangelize the natives. It has been a given for centuries that the only appropriate style of music for use in worship is Japanese Opera, so of course the missionaries begin to teach the North Americans worship songs (in their own language, I'll give them that).

What might be the response of these heathen natives to this tonal and rhythmic system that has no resemblance whatsoever with what they consider music? This is not their heart music.

Okay, so where does that leave us? Well, lets look at this from another angle.

Pretend you are a person. Another one, not yourself, silly. There is only one style of music that you have grown up with that really speaks to you. It is your heart music. When you think of good music, this is the style that comes to mind. Your emotions, your joys, your sorrows, your life -- it's all wrapped up in this style of music. You naturally express your heart through this music.

So someone shares the Gospel with you. You respond to God, and the emotion that you feel is like nothing you've experienced. You're natural reaction is a desire to worship, so you go to a worship service. The music begins and those around you begin to sing. But this music is not "your" music. You want to worship, but the music is such a distraction to you that you can't worship -- you can't express your heart through this music that is so foreign to you.

Then you find out that there is worship music at another church that is in the style you are familiar with and when you go there it's like going home. It's like an old pair of jeans, redeemed for a new use.

Stay with me now.

What is important to believe in as a Christian?

- God's grace through faith in Christ's sacrifice on the cross.

- One God.

- The Word of God.

- Commitment to walking in the light.

- Heaven and Hell.

These things unite the Body of Christ.

Now there are many other things that can easily divide the Body of Christ -- things that are unimportant.

Musical style is one of these things.

The unfortunate thing is that there are those who would major on the minors and divide the Body of Christ, rather than seek unity around the important things. We accept the fact that there are many different types of personalities, life experiences, cultures, etc., which bring diversity to the Body worldwide. Why then do we apply spiritual significance to cultural idiosyncrasies?

Well, it's been quite a journey. Here we are where we started -- kind of.

So now that you know my feelings on musical styles, hopefully you understand why we avoid "teaching" our style in our workshops. How do we do that?

It helps that Beth and I both have backgrounds in many different styles of music and are familiar with most of what we might come across. As we work with a band, we listen for basic musicality. We can then speak to musical technique and skill, doing what we can to help the musicians improve their ability to do the music they do within the style to which they are accustomed. If it is a style in which we feel comfortable, we will offer tips in making it work more effectively and give suggestions that they can then utilize or veto. This all has to be adjusted for each individual circumstance as the make-up of each worship team as well as their musical skills can vary greatly.

Does that make sense? It does to me, but let me know if further clarification is needed.

I'll let it lie for now.

Be blessed.

What about Style?

Okay, so on October 15, my entry about what we do at our Worship Workshops, I stated:

"The thing we try to stay away from is style. Our style may not be that particular fellowship's style and we don't want to put up any walls because of it. I'll get into musical styles in worship at a later date."

Well, it's a later date and I've had someone recently bugging me about when I was going to follow up -- so here goes...

Style is sometimes a controversial topic when referring to worship music. There are viewpoints all across the spectrum -- from those who believe that only instruments which are mentioned in the Bible should be used to those who use trance music in rave-style worship experiences. So where do I stand?

In a moment. Let me preface this by saying that the following is my opinion. I won't presume to present pure fact, but theory based upon what I have discovered in my own studies. It may be true or I may be wrong. One day we will know in full. Also, don't expect me to bring up every bit of Scripture that has to do with worship. That would just be too cumbersome.

Alright, so let's go back about 6 millennia. As languages are growing and changing within the various cultures after God gifted them with different tongues, music in different parts of the world is developing on parallel paths as well. In the Far East a tonal and rhythmic system is developing independent of what is happening in, say, North America, South America or Africa. Unique Music is even developing in the area of the Middle East from where the nation of Israel will arise.

So God calls Abram and he becomes a worshiper. There is no canonized narrative giving instruction on the tonalities or rhythmic structures that are appropriate for worship.

Fast forward to Jacob, when Laban, his father-in-law speaks of music on tambourines and harps at a celebration that never took place. Nothing to do with worship here, just a family gathering. There are several more Old Testament instances of these and other instruments being used in a secular setting.

Fast forward to Moses when he receives the Law from the Almighty. There are very specific instructions regarding the ways and means of worship, sacrifice, diet, etc., etc., etc. This is the Old Covenant given to Israel. Musical stye and instrumentation are neither one mentioned here.

Fast forward to David dispensing roles for leading worship. He asks the leaders of the Levites to appoint players of lyres, harps and cymbals, and Kenaniah is put in charge of the singing. Wait, aren't these the same instruments used in the secular music of the day? And David makes no indication that these instruments are the only instruments to be used, at the exclusion of all others. In fact, shortly after this, we see that someone has brought along rams' horns and trumpets. "Hey, who said you could play those in worship!?!"

Fast forward to New Testament times. Sorry, no record of what instrumentation was used in worship during this period. This is why certain denominations have made it a rule in their congregations to have no instruments. Still nothing to say regarding musical style either.

Fast forward to Pope Gregory and the time period when the chant was all the rage. Monophonic vocal music (only one note at a time -- no harmony) was considered to be the purest form of music and the only music appropriate for use in worship. When some miscreant decided it might sound nice to add a little harmony here and there, he was considered a heretic. Once polyphony (music with harmony) became the norm, there was one interval to avoid at all cost. (For those of you without any musical background who have no idea what an interval is, it is simply the distance between two notes.) What is very interesting about this is the fact that this particular interval, called "the devil's interval", is found in many of the hymns in use in churches today and in most "traditional Gospel" songs. Hmmm.

Another interesting point -- many hymns from the 19th century used sacred poetry set to secular tunes such as military marches, love songs and even murder ballads.

So today we have certain groups who feel that any instrument that is not used in worship in the Bible should not be used in worship. They seem to justify the use of the organ by saying that the organ is mentioned in the Bible. I'm really pretty sure that we're not talking about the same instrument. (After all the ducimer is mentioned in the Bible, but it appears to be a wind instrument, whereas today it is a stringed instrument.) I'm also curious where their harmonic structure originated. I'm guessing it is closer to the Western musical tradition than the Biblical, of which there seems to be no record.

So that's the background. Next we get to the nitty gritty.

To be continued...