Public
music worship should not be a platform for the pastor’s or the minister of
music’s personal tastes in music. The
assembly of believers does not gather to receive a music lesson on J. S. Bach
or acapella choral techniques or to revisit the oratorios of Handel,
Mendelssohn and Gounod. Neither is the
purpose of congregational singing to keep the hymns of Watts, Wesley and Fanny
Crosby alive. Special singing is not an opportunity to fan the minister of music’s
latent desire to sing bass in a famous southern gospel quartet or a country
gospel band. Richard S. Taylor sums up
the matter quite well in his book A
Return to Christian Culture,
“The fact that some people may like this or that is not sufficient reason for the church to use it. The church should lead the way in such standards, not objectly follow every fad and custom which happens to be “in” at the moment. The Church has no business adopting the philosophy, “If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.” We should be governed by basic and eternal principles. There are music forms, whether secular or sacred, which create moods of pensiveness, or idealism, or awareness of beauty, of aspiration, and of holy joyousness. There are forms of music which create moods of recklessness and sensual excitement. Surely it doesn’t take much judgement to know which forms are most appropriate for religious function.”
“The fact that some people may like this or that is not sufficient reason for the church to use it. The church should lead the way in such standards, not objectly follow every fad and custom which happens to be “in” at the moment. The Church has no business adopting the philosophy, “If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.” We should be governed by basic and eternal principles. There are music forms, whether secular or sacred, which create moods of pensiveness, or idealism, or awareness of beauty, of aspiration, and of holy joyousness. There are forms of music which create moods of recklessness and sensual excitement. Surely it doesn’t take much judgement to know which forms are most appropriate for religious function.”
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