Issues in Worship (pt 1)

Throughout my Christian life I have been exposed to many different variations on worship. (To clarify when I talk about worship, in this context I will be talking about the act of singing and praising within a church service.) I have been to churches where if a song was written post 1600 it was considered to be ‘loud’ and ‘unruly’. Conversely I have attended churches where anything written pre 2000 is considered ‘out of date’ and ‘boring’. How then can we decide how we should worship? What is appropriate and what isn’t in a Bible believing church? The Bible has much to say on this topic and over the next few posts I will be considering these passages and explaining my own thoughts on the subject.

Firstly, the Bible tells us to sing praises to God, and there are plenty of examples of this happening. (2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 9:11, Jeremiah 31:7, Isaiah 12:6, James 5:13, Colossians 3:16, Revelation 5:13.) So, singing to God is good, and he can certainly be glorified by it. It is something we are commanded to do and something that should definitely be part of Christian meetings of all types.

But, does this mean that there are only certain types of songs that should be incorporated, only certain styles that should be sung? My answer would be no, and I will explain why looking at what makes a ‘song’.

Firstly we shall consider the issue of style, and by this I mean the musical style of the song. In recent years songs of a more modern style (i.e. with electric guitars and drums) have started to appear in our churches. Is this wrong? I don’t think so. Whatever song we are singing in church will obviously reflect the popular music of the time. Hymns written 100 years ago contain melodies and harmonies similar to those found in the popular music of the time. Writers are influenced by the music they hear every day. The disciples, the early church or King David would not have been singing Charles Wesley or Matt Redman songs would they? Does this mean the songs they sang were invalid? No! The songs they sang and the tunes they used would have almost certainly have influenced by the popular music of the times, as well as the instruments available. How many churches have you been to where a Harp or a Lyre was used in the music group? Not many I would suspect but the Bible clearly states that these instruments were used to Praise and Glorify God, Psalm 150:3 .To dismiss a song simply because of it’s style is wrong and to say that certain instruments should or should not be used in churches is narrow minded.

At this stage let me clarify one very important point. Just because these styles are not wrong does not mean that they will be to everyone’s taste and that is fine. We are to sing songs and worship our Lord with whatever style of music helps us best. To say that we must impose more modern styles on those in our churches who find them unhelpful is just as narrow minded as saying that we must not use this style of worship at all.

Lets not forget that the point of worship is to Glorify God. He is the one to whom we are singing our praises and we aren’t to just sing along, getting into the music of a good song and forgetting why we’re singing in the first place. (This issue will be addressed in a later post). God is Glorious beyond out imagination. We are to give him ALL the glory for He is more than deserving of it. However in terms if style I believe we may use whatever style helps us to Glorify him through song.