Much has
been said in the past twenty years about the fact that Conservative Christian musicians
stubbornly resist change in religious music.
Again Lowell Hart’s writings emphasize that rock music enthusiasts are
also very adamant about accepting any changes in the music that they like and
understand. He also points out that rock
music is often the only music they understand and ipso facto enjoy. So, it is of little wonder that they are at
loggerheads with each other about religious music. It has been said that, during the last half
of the twentieth century, music split and splintered more churches than
theological beliefs. Worship music,
which is supposed to draw the congregation together in Christian love for the
purpose of worshiping our wonderful triune God, has become the “war
department”.
Early in
this discussion of rock music I mentioned that rock music is not going to go
away. It
is a truism that churches who have been allowed to split and splinter
into inner-church musical subcultures are not going to wake up some Sunday
morning and all meet in the sanctuary and sing out of the hymnbook. It is not a
truism that in a supposed future worship utopia, a formerly bitterly divided
congregation will all suddenly see eye to eye philosophically about music.
The fact is that, as a result of unreconciled
music philosophies, this divided church will probably continue to have part of
the congregation in the gymnasium banging out ear splitting sounds that are
supposed to represent true worship renewal while a second part of the
congregation is in the cafetorium swinging and swaying with Sammy Kay, and
finally the, separate but equal, third part of our trilogy of worshipers is in
the sanctuary singing hymns and praise choruses.
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