Musical and Social Meaning…part 13

Musical and Social Meaning…part 13

The way we music in the context of public (and private) worship helps to form musical and cultural listening habits that are shaped by these ideologically informed critical metalanguages of music.  We are not only “what we eat” but also “what we music”.  Christian musicians may scoff at the belief that Church Music Matters but every time one musics in church an ideology is  being formed or at least a musical paradigm is being carried out by the music leaders doing. The way a church musics develops of a set of shared musical habits within that body of believers. These musical habits become beliefs that influence the way a Christian community thinks, acts, and views the world.

 Christian musicians at times seem to forget that although baby boomer’s musical views will probably not be altered much by the music that a worship leader is trying out on the congregation in order to be trendy. However, children and teenagers will be forever changed by what and how a Christian community musics. Music has the potential to change how millennials and little children will view the world and even more seriously their paradigm of God. All too many congregations of believers are subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) being catechized that that traditional forms of sacred musicing are not meaningful or relevant to 21^st century worship.