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Praise & Worship Styles

The subject of musical styles, as they are used for the purposes of praise & worship in the church, is one wrought with much controversy among Christians. Some Christians believe that any style other than a traditional conservative style, is irreverent, shallow, distracting from God, and too much like the world. Others see the use of traditional styles in praise & worship as cold, stodgy, music of the past that renders the church irrelevant in having a significant impact to the world today.

Both sides raise some good issues that need to be addressed. It is true that there is a proclivity among churches with contemporary forms of music, to focus more on the singers and the musicians, than on God. It is true that the congregations in these churches have a tendency to focus on what they can get out of a service instead of what they can give. I've observed such church members make a choice as to whether or not they are going to actively participate in the P&W service based upon whether or not they like the particular songs chosen or styles utilized. I've also witnessed a tendency among these types of churches to give glory to the musicians instead of to God. The musicians in these types of churches are more apt to seek glory for themselves instead of for God. Pride can dominate such church services. Having a disposition towards entertainment/performance can squelch the Spirit of God.

On the other side of the coin, many churches that take the more traditional approach to P&W styles can be cold and dry churches which pridefully cling to tradition, afraid of change, confusing objective truth with subjective preferences. These churches can be overly judgmental, not limited to musical styles, but in many other areas of life also. Balance is necessary.

It is interesting to point out that the Bible never once addresses the issue of musical styles. However, isn't it also true that among the ancient Jewish culture in which the Bible was originally written, there existed essentially only one style of music? see footnote 1 All other styles of music that the Jews would have been exposed to, would have been from foreign nations. Since, prior to the new covenant, all gentile nations were pagan, of course the ancient Jew would have associated foreign music with pagan worship. This fact can be used to serve the positions of people on either side of the traditional vs contemporary argument. Traditionalists can use this to support their notion that there is a "Godly" style and an "ungodly" style. However, proponents of contemporary musical styles could say that this only proves that there was at one time such a thing as "Godly" and "ungodly" styles. Since salvation has now come to the Gentiles, representing diverse cultures, such an argument is a moot point. Such a standard may have applied for ancient Israel in the old covenant, but it is unsuitable for modern Christians, coming from all walks of life, under the new covenant. This is my position. Unlike old covenant Israel, in the new covenant, we no longer live in a time where one culture is considered Godly and the rest are considered ungodly. Today, God has chosen to save not only Jews, but Greeks, Chaldeans, Italians, French, English and even Americans! :-)

I am convinced that the reason the Bible doesn't address the issue of musical styles is because God doesn't care about what style of music that we use. Styles of music are amoral, meaning that in and of themselves, they contain no morality. Just as a material object, such as a car, baseball bat, or even a gun can be used both for good and evil, to defend life or to kill life, music can be used both for good or evil. In and of itself, just like a television set, it is amoral. Just as a T.V. can broadcast moral as well as immoral programming, so music of all styles can express both good and evil. see footnote 2 Instead of style, God cares about our hearts. Christ had to remind the religious leaders of this continually. In Matthew 15 Christ is challenged as to why he doesn't hold to the traditions of the religious leaders by washing his hands prior to eating (note this is not a question of hygene, rather a question of ritual). Christ challenges the pharisees by asking them why they violated the commandment to honor father and mother by withholding a possession from their parents by declaring it "Corban". Dr. Tony Beckett explains:

There was almost like a magic word that could be said, a Pharisee could look at something that he had and pronounce it "Corban." He could pronounce it as being a gift to God. Well now it's God's and he could say, "I'm sorry Mom and Dad. I can't let you have this, because I'm giving it to God." And it was a trick. It was using a tradition to keep something for themselves, rather than helping their parents with that thing. Now let's keep on reading here:

"'Whatever help you might otherwise have received from me is a gift devoted to God'--"he is not to honor his father with it." Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites!" This is what Jesus said. "Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you: 'These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men.'"

See what the Pharisees did is, they found a loophole, so that they could say all the right things but their heart was not in it.

The point to this is that so many times we get distracted by the mechanics at the expense of the real issue, our hearts. If a Christian, is praising and worshiping God in "Spirit and in Truth" as Christ commands us in John 4:23, then does it matter whether or not the style of music, which is nothing more than a vehicle for P&W (more on this later), is a traditional hymn, southern gospel, modern rock or R&B?

But what does it mean to worship in "Spirit and in Truth"? Jesus spoke these words in response to the Samaritan woman at the well. She had brought up the question of whether or not they were to worship on one mountain in which the Samaritans worshipped, or another mountain in which the Jews worshipped. Jesus' answer is interesting in that He jettisoned these "details" implying that they weren't important, instead addressing the real issue, which was whether or not one worshipped God in Spirit and in Truth, as opposed to where one worshipped.

Jesus drew a line of demarcation between the nonnegotiables and the negotiables in this issue of worship. Worshipping in Spirit and in Truth, meaning that one should know the God that he/she worships (see verse 22) was the issue. The negotiables were, in this case were where one worshipped.

We therefore can conclude that God doesn't care about such trite issues as to what style of music we choose to worship Him, but rather where is the worshipper's heart (worship in Spirit) and where is the worshipper's mind (worship in Truth).

Now after establishing that styles of music are amoral, this does not mean that there are no issues in regard to styles. However, the issues that I'm about to address are not moral issues, but rather pragmatic. Different types of music affect our minds, our moods and our emotions. As to whether or not this is because God has preprogrammed us this way, or this is a learned response, (I suspect both might be true) I can't say. Nevertheless, different styles of music affect us in different ways. For instance, if you want to set a mood of relaxation and sophistication, classical music or smooth jazz will do the trick. For high energy, pop, R&B, and rock music are the tickets. Feeling sentimental? There's nothing like a slow ballad to pour your heart into. Depressed and want empathy? How about some old country and western? Feeling the blues? A little Stevie Ray Vaughn goes a long way.

There's no denying that there's a shared human response in regards to music. Sure, if you were to play an instrumental song to a room full of people, and ask them to come up with a title for the song, you'll get as many different titles as you have individuals, however, those titles will all fall under the same emotional categories. If I played a sentimental instrumental ballad, I'm sure that all the varied titles would fall under the sentimental, category, as opposed to something along the lines of "Highway to Hell", "Like a Virgin" or "These boots were made for walk'n".

Because different styles of music elicit different emotional responses, although there isn't anything immoral about putting a heavy metal sound to Amazing Grace, that style certainly doesn't carry the message as well. This is something that a good song writer learns. Write the lyrics in such a way as to fit the style of music. To do otherwise is to write a parady. Wierd Al Yankovic, and a whole host of other comedy songwriters, have made careers out of putting a lyric to a style of music that doesn't fit. Recognizing that different styles of music, different rhythms/grooves, different tempos, dynamics, and keys all elicit different emotions and themes, we can conclude that some styles of music are going to work better than others in a Praise & Worship context.

In my early years as a Christian, my family attended a church that sung P&W music in the style of old fashioned southern gospel music. This might explain why there were so many sad songs about momma praying and very few songs about the majesty of God. That style, try as you might, doesn't do justice to the latter very well.

With this in mind, the appropriate musical style is always the style or styles that best serve the lyric. If the message of the lyrics is on the grace of God, a traditional style could work as well as a lilting mellow contemporary pop sound. On the other hand, a song that celebrates the joy of salvation could be well served by a contemporary rock style, an upbeat style, a black gospel style or southern gospel style. A song about the judgment of God (judgment songs aren't commonly done in a P&W context but there are several Psalms with these types of lyrics. Psalms 110 is just one example) might be well served with a traditional medieval sounding melody or a dark heavy metal style. (GASP!)

As you can see, in every example that I've given, we had more than one choice in the style of music that would carry the emotion of the message. And since styles of music are amoral, we can use others factors to help us narrow our choices. One of these relates to the target congregation. Who is the demographic being served? If your church is a predominantly white, middle to senior aged church, they might prefer more traditional/conservative styles of music. For a predominantly black church, some good old Black Gospel might be in order. If your church consists mostly of young people, or you are playing for a youth group, play contemporary styles of music. For a church with diverse races and socio-economic classes (my favorite), mix and match the styles to cater to everyone.

Another issue to consider is whether or not the style of music is distracting to the message. I'll be the first to admit that from an entertainment perspective, I love flashy instrumentation. I love to listen to and watch virtuosity. But if such flash and virtuosity becomes a distraction from God to the musicians, then it is wrong. The Bible does however advocate:

Psa 33:3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to develop a litmus test to determine when skillful music crosses the line and becomes a distraction. Judgment in this matter is therefore highly subjective.

Another consideration in regards to musical styles, is whether or not the music is simple enough for corporate praise & worship. I love complex music. Unpredictable music with altered time signatures appeals very well to me as long as it still holds to a theme and still has melody and dynamics. I'm sure this is why I'm such a huge Dream Theater fan. However, I believe that God has chosen music as the primary form of corporate praise & worship because music serves to unify a body by getting the body to speak the same lyrics at the same time. This is what I meant earlier when I said that music is a vehicle for praise & worship. This purpose would unforunately be negated if progressive rock was the predominant style of P&W music in our congregations. Believe me, I'm disappointed. For a congregation to participate in corporate worship, the music must be easy to follow. The lyrics can't have too many syllables and the melody and rhythm must be easy to pick up. The music must be easy to clap to. I guess this rules out 17/16 time signatures!

A final consideration is whether or not the music is edifying to the body. After all, edification, is the primary purpose of the Spiritual gifts listed in I Corinthians 12 and 14. This is why Chapter 13, which speaks about love, is squeezed into these two chapters discussing the Spirit gifts. The edification requirement, legitimizes the entertainment value of music within the church.

I've struggled with this one because my knee jerk reaction to the word entertainment, is to think of it as shallow, worldly, nonsubstantive meaningless. Entertainment makes people feel good. My natural instinct as a Christian is to shun such things because of the predominant, "If it feels good, do it" mentality that has infected our culture. It is true that the world, in it's rejection of truth, seeks after selfish desires and has replaced truth with meaningless. However, once again, we need balance.

Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. Yes this act was an act of humility, but it was also an act that pleased the disciples. If this act of edification didn't please them, then His attempt to perform this deed as a means of servanthood would be obviated. We Christians have a tendency to shun anything that "feels good" because we associate such things with sin. However, the Bible never teaches us that we can't have fun. There's a reason why Christ's sermon on the mount keeps reitterating the statement "Blessed are......". Entertainment within the church, when put in it's proper context and priority (subservient to truth) is a valid form of edification. As I've come to grips with this as a musician, I've become free of the guilt associated with a fellow Christian simply liking my music for no other reason than the fact that it was ear candy. Of course, I hope that my music has a deeper impact upon the soul, however, such a reaction is just as legitimate as sending your brother or sister in Christ a friendly card showing your love for them.

The point to this entire article is to free the church up from it's self-imposed legalism. Let's separate preferences from objective morality. Objective morality can be defined as God's command for us to live a certain way. However, there are many things that God hasn't commanded to do or not do. These things fall into the category of preferences. Styles of music are just that, styles. They are preferences that hold no morality. They can therefore be approached pragmatically in order to serve a purpose. That purpose is to give glory to God and to edify the church.

All of the above can be summarized as follows:

The only legitimate question to ask about Praise & Worship music in the church is "Is the music conducive to Praise & Worship?".

Styles of Music are amoral.

Legitimate style considerations.

1. Does the style of music best convey the lyrical message?
2. What style is best for the preferences/tastes of the congregation?
3. Is the style a distraction to Praise & Worship?
4. Is the style simple enough to P&W collectively?
5. Does the music edify the church as a whole?

*FOOTNOTES