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What Is 'Christian' Music?
Some make a habit of listening to contemporary Christian music. I am not one of them, and so I am reluctant to offer a critique on what I am not familiar with. But I admit to listening to various songs either on the radio or CD that have a spiritual theme. Consider the lyrics to "When I Get Where I’m Going," sung by Brad Paisley and Dolly Parton:
When I get where I’m goin’
There’ll be only happy tears.
I will shed the sins and struggles
I have carried all these years.And I’ll leave my heart wide open.
I will love and have no fear.
Yeah, when I get where I’m goin’
Don’t cry for me down here.So much pain and so much darkness
In this world we stumble through.
All these questions I can’t answer
And so much work to do.But when I get where I’m goin’
And I see my Maker’s face.
I’ll stand forever in the light
Of His amazing grace.
Is this a hymn? Is it personal entertainment? Can I sing along and be put in a “heavenly” frame of mind without it being directed to God as worship? Does instrumental accompaniment affect this one way or the other?
I know in my own life, there are a variety of things that pass through my consciousness that inspire me or make me think of things on a spiritual plane, but I don’t consider them to be an “offering” of any kind to God. Perhaps it is a line from a movie, a story in someone’s autobiography or a YouTube video. I personally can draw a distinction between an observation made by another that makes me think of God or heaven or a moral principle and what I purposely offer to God as worship. Others may struggle with such a distinction.
Having said that, I am aware that denominations and liberally oriented churches of Christ have in recent times been lured into using instrumental music in worship, and I suspect that being enamored with contemporary Christian music has played a role in that. If so, there is a practical warning against being unduly drawn to quasi-hymn music to the degree that we or our children are no longer able to distinguish what is offered to God as worship and what is merely uplifting to our rational sensibilities.
It is far too tempting for the undiscerning to say, “If this music inspires and moves me spiritually at home, why not incorporate it into our collective worship?” And so worship in many places has become a hybrid of contemporary entertainment, emotional exuberance and jazzed up hymns, sort of an Isaac Watts meets Isaac Hayes production.
Such festivities have abandoned reverent, thoughtful and scriptural music, and men feel free to offer to God as worship whatever pleases them. This we must avoid doing at all costs.
On a related point, there was a time in our lives when we as a family became very drawn to recorded acapella music. We were newly arrived in London, and the church often used a small British hymnal containing only lyrics – no music. You had to sing the song to learn the tune, but if the song wasn’t sung again for several weeks or months, it was difficult to remember how to sing it.
During this transition time we listened to tapes in the car and at home to “fill a gap” that had opened in our lives. We did not see this as a “substitute” for corporate worship, but those songs did make a deep impression on a young family that had pulled up roots and plopped itself down in the middle of a foreign culture whose musical worship was scriptural but quite different from what we were used to.
So, does our choice in personal music honor some basic principles? Is it true? Is it reverent? Can I distinguish between what is emotionally inspiring and what is offered to God as worship? Do my children know the difference? Am I finding myself less interested in the psalms, hymns and spiritual songs sung with my brethren at worship?
I’m sure there are other pertinent questions and issues, but I hope these will spur us to thoughtfulness as we consider various entertainment options.
