What do We Do Now that Rock Won't Go Away?-Part 13

What Do We Do Now that Rock Won’t Go Away-Part 13  

       At this point in time, there is little that one can do to try to undo all the trouble and hard feelings that have arisen from the rock music worship wars.  There is nothing productive that can come about as a result of laying blame to those who have been involved in the worship over the recent decades.  What I am trying to do with this philosophical discussion is to caution all those involved who are ministers of music in traditional churches to proceed with much caution.  It is much easier to divide a congregation philosophically than it is to try to pull them back together after the damage has been done.  

       Before you treat everything that has gone on musically in churches for the past 100 years with complete contempt, please study the history of church music very thoroughly and also study music in the Bible very carefully.  This intense study will reveal to you what has fueled the fires of public music worship historically.  It will also reveal what the Bible has to say about worshiping God with music. 

       Young musicians should recognize that it is just as nearsighted to make a wholesale condemnation all gospel songs and hymns as it is for a traditionalist to make the same condemnation of all new worship music.  I contend that the solution involves two things—utilizing the best of the old and the new, and rejecting the use of the trite, shallow, and banal music of both new and old church music.  Blended music worship goes far beyond being politically correct.  It is the result of the utilization of good music and worship common sense.  To ignore the quality and depth of musical works like those of Getty is just as nearsighted as omitting the hymns of Watts and Wesley or the gospel songs of Fanny Crosby.