Choosing a Church, Part 2

Many people today look at music as a decision making factor of where they will attend church. “I love the worship part of the service, it really gets me ready to hear the word, or I like the traditional hymns, and so on.” Music has been a huge part of my life, so I’m right here with you on this one. One of the things that I loved so much about our churches in Romania was the music. The people loved to sing and did so with no inhibition. They truly just made a joyful noise to the Lord and it was loud and strong and beautiful.

I remember when “worship and praise” music was becoming popular in churches and there was such a debate, especially between young and old, about the type of music that would be dominate in church. This goes right back to the problem of children not learning respect for their elders. Because this music makes ME  “FEEL” good and puts ME in the mood to worship, it has to be the best way, right? We have definitely learned the lesson well that it is all about “ME”.

I’ve seen churches go several different directions on this. I’ve seen churches split over it, I’ve seen churches segregate the age groups over it, I’ve seen split services, where the early morning service is “contemporary” and the later is “traditional” or vice versa. I have seen churches that just leave the traditional hymns and go strictly with praise and worship, which is where I think most have gone. Some try to incorporate both to make everyone happy.

When we first started having services, we did a good deal of looking back at the first church and what they did. What did their services look like. Even though our culture is a part of who we are, we don’t want it to rule us. Culture doesn’t dictate truth. Culture does affect our lives, but it changes with time and from place to place. Do we really want something that changes with the passage of time to be our standard of truth. Of course not. So, what did the first church sing? The Bible says, “… psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” All of us knew the hymns, and spiritual songs is a more broad term. Praise and worship music could even fall into this category, at least some of it. When we think about psalms, I could probably count the ones I knew on one hand. There were a few children’s songs I knew that were based on psalms, but not many. The elders discussed it and we ordered psalters. I have to admit when we first started singing psalms it was a little awkward. We didn’t know these songs and so it really didn’t “feel” right. It is still hard at times, but I can honestly say that it is one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. God said His word doesn’t return void. What could be more beautiful that singing God’s words back to Him? We are also learning many of the psalms in 4 part harmony, which has also been a challenge. Sometimes after singing one that we’ve been working on for a while, the words of Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life”  come to mind, “Hot Dog! It’s just like an organ!”

I would say that music is definitely something to be considered in choosing a church home. Should it be a deciding factor? I don’t think so. It has too much sway over our emotions. The key is to look at the music in the church to discern whether it is God honoring, not according to how it makes us “feel”. My emotions and feelings can be manipulated and deceived. Not that they are bad, but I can’t trust them. Always go back to the word of God. The fact that there are actually songs in the Bible written specifically for praise and worship is amazing. I don’t see how we could do better than that.