Yesterday we defined the terms "sacred" and "secular music. Today the topic is musical style! It is generally believed by a host of Christians that style is only a matter of taste. It amazes me that so many Christians who are, what I would consider, extremely conservative in matters pertaining to lifestyle, are very liberal in their philosophical view of music styles. I want to make it perfectly clear at the outset of this discussion that there is more than one style of music that is appropriate in the whole-life of a Christian. Conversely, not all styles of music are, however, appropriate for a Christian to listen to or perform. A concomitant to the philosophic notion that style doesn't matter to God is the further faulty notion that music style is benign. This faulty view opens the door to another notion that since music is benign it is therefore incapable of saying anything at all. The previous set of faulty conclusions leads to the faulty view that ,since music is benign, style is also benign and is of no consequence when it comes to spiritual understandings.
It is my hypothesis that all styles of music
are not equally suited to use as worship or evangelistic music. One of the reasons being that all styles of music are driven by some purpose and that purpose will lead to a specific musical conclusion. It is naive to erroneously conclude that all composer's or arranger's musical works are driven by the same purpose or that all music composers or arrangers are trying to say the same thing with their music.
I
believe in profundity in music and that some
styles of music are without doubt more profound than others. Since the message of Christ and the worship
of the Trinity are very profound experiences, I believe that it makes sense to
marry the message of Christ and worship of the Godhead with music that is
profoundly suited to the awesomeness and solemnity of worship. Therefore, style does matter and it matters in many more ways than we can cover in this brief post today.
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