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Another Perspective
Praise Music Flunks
If it is meant to attract church-goers, is there any hope for their aesthetic soul?
My sister came for a quick visit this last weekend to attend a going-away party for our older son, who is off to prep school. On Sunday, my wife took the gang to church for 9:00 a.m. Sunday school. My sister and I dawdled behind, aiming to be late for the worship service at 10:00. Why? We were both agreed: We hate praise music.
Praise music, for those who don’t know, has sprung up in the last couple of decades as a replacement for traditional hymns in “Bible” or “Gospel” churches. In its tunes, it resembles modern pop, soft rock, or country music. It is generally played by combos — in church! — that include guitar, bass, drums and piano. There are generally a handful of singers, usually including unschooled sopranos.
It used to be said that singers like Aretha Franklin, who made the jump from gospel to pop, sang music much like they used to sing in church, only substituting “Baby” for “Lord” or “Jesus” or “God.” Gospel music at least has the benefit of soul, that ineffable quality of passionate excitement that adheres to the black voice. Praise music, by contrast, is pure whitebread.
And it just isn’t very good.
CONTRAST THE CLOSING “PRAISE” SONG we sang in church that Sunday, “You Are My All in All,” with “O, Worship the King,” the traditional hymn that our praise band played during the dismissal. You can listen to “You Are My All in All” at a Barnes & Noble site here (scroll down). “O, Worship the King” may be heard at the Cyber Hymnal, here.
“O Worship the King,” with its stately, beautifully harmonized tune, illustrates its theme — “God is our king” — in its every word and part, without ever literally saying so. It has a distinguished history. In its original lyric, it appeared in the Genevan Psalter of 1561. Robert Grant modernized the words in 1833. It appeared as “Old 104th” in Whole Book of Psalmes, by Thomas Ravenscraft in 1621. The current tune and harmony? Johann M. Haydn.
p>There are six stanzas. I quote two: br> /p> blockquote> em>O worship the King, all glorious above, br> O gratefully sing His power and His love; br> Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days, br> Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise. /em>
Jonathan Kuehling | 1.2.09 @ 3:03AM
I play modern rock music for a living, but a large chunk of my music education was in sacred music and classical piano. I've seen both sides, and many who take this view forget that there were just as many lousy hymns written as there are lousy 'pop' worship songs. It's a straw man argument to choose a weaker worship song to pick on. And it's a fallacious assumption to claim that all modern churches use contemporary music 'just to get people in the doors'. There are many reasons churches include modern worship music in their services, and many legitimate ones they do no sing all hymns.
Jonathan Kuehling | 1.2.09 @ 3:07AM
...In that last sentence I meant to type 'There are many reasons churches include modern worship music in their services, and many legitimate reasons for which they choose not to exclusively sing hymns'.
paul cummings | 5.13.09 @ 3:20PM
(Nice comment Jonathan!) I also find it interesting simply to ask "how many people are listening to classical music today?" The number is miniscule. How many Christians are still reading only the KJV? They are the minority.
So why do we still insist on singing music and repeating words that for the most part have nothing in common with our world today?
David says multiple times in the Psalms "SING A NEW SONG!!!!!!!!!"
I find that most folks who don't appreciate modern worship never understood Biblical Worship to begin with.
Dan Adams| 5.16.09 @ 3:10AM
I am reading Mr. Henry's post for the second time, nearly a year after the first, and I can' help but notice how uncharitable and mean his words sound in describing what he must consider a typical praise song. His phrases -"means really nothing" ... "triteness follows upn triteness"..."almost literally gag-making" -are totally subjective, and it seems he cannot find enough pejoratives to convey his disdain. I would venture he cannot find anything scripturally wrong with this song. In fact, I could support most of the lines with scripture. Earlier he states that he hates praise music. Well is it the praise or the music? When the hymn writer enjoins us to"worship the king" and then we do, are you saying, "stop, stop, that's not how I meant for you to do it!" BTW at my church last year we spent more maintaining our pipe organ than on our entire worship budget.
Dan Adams| 5.16.09 @ 2:14PM
Just a couple more comments, as it was getting into the wee hours during my previous post. "All in All" is by no means one of my favorite songs. I find the lines "taking my cross, my sin, my shame, rising again, I bless Your name" to be grammatically confusing - who is doing the taking and rising- Jesus, or the songwriter? This is an objective criticism. Mr. Henry offers none of that. And Jonathan, your point that there are plenty of bad (musically, theologically, and -yes- trite) hymns could easily be proved by a casual perusal of most hymnals. Perhaps Mr. Henry's observations about apostate churches appreciating the hymns is not such a paradox at all - they love them for their refinement, not their content. And in fact, many denominations have actually changed the words to better fit their liberation theolgy.
My final point is that Mr. Henry tips his hand in his comment that "real Christianity" consists of "Churches devoted to rigorous, difficult theology," as if an intellectual life is all there is to the Christian faith. Sounds a little like Gnosticism. James writes "Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." Of course you need to be devoted to rigorous theology to keep yourself unspotted from the world, but "real Christianity" is not simply an intellectual pursuit. And you run the risk of having your lampstand removed.(Revelation 2:2-5.)
paul cummings | 5.21.09 @ 9:25AM
AMEN DAN!
Jack| 6.10.09 @ 7:06AM
We need to set aside statistics on how many Americans listen to classical music versus pop music, for that reduces worship to marketing the gospel. We need to avoid doubting one another's salvation just because one of us expresses a commitment to an intellectually rigorous faith. We need to seek in the scriptures how God wants to be worshiped. There is much to say here, but surely it is important that the psalms are beautiful poetry. Most praise music, by contrast, is clumsy adolescent poetry set to melodies, harmonies, and instrumentation borrowed from advertising jingles. Is praise music the best we can offer to God? I fear that instead we evangelicals are once again absorbing and regurgitating the surrounding American culture that we so badly need to stand against.
Hi I'm paul| 11.23.10 @ 12:02AM
I feel like you fail to realize that most modern teenagers have a hard enough time staying true to the word of God without songs that a good majority of us can't stand. If we are bored to tears during worship and aren't focused than what's the point of worship at all. The music should be appropriate to maintain the congregations attention so that they actually hear the message instead of spacing out.
Dan Adams| 6.10.09 @ 8:31PM
Jack, thank you for your comments and keeping the thread alive. Since some of your comments seem to be in response to my post (and some to paul's) I'll just say that I totally agree that we should look to scripture to see how God wants to be worshipped. I seem to be the only one here who has quoted or referenced scripture either to support or refute, so let me just say that not only scripture but our Lord Himself says that "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth" (John 4:24) I don't find a verse that says "Thou shalt not worship me with clumsy adolescent poetry "- interesting that Lawrence Henry used that term, too - or "thou shalt not borrow instrumentation from pop culture." Using an electric guitar or synthesizer or drums is no more caving to "the world" than is publishing "Christianity Today" as a "magazine" or producing feature films, as did the Billy Graham organization back in the 70's.
Also, it wasn't me who questioned anyone's salvation, but Mr. Henry did by stating that "real Christiantiy" consisted of devotion to "rigorous, difficult theology," inferring that anything else was not "real" Christianity. I in fact affrimed the neccesity of such theological integrity, but pointed out from scripture that our faith is more than just that one aspect.
It seems both you and Mr. Henry think "praise music" is just a marketing ploy. But if the songs are theologically sound and those who enjoy them are praising the attributes and character of the God of the Bible, is there some scriptural reason to deny them a form that helps them connect with that God?
Dan Adams| 6.10.09 @ 8:37PM
My apologies to Paul, who did reference scripture in his post, "Sing a new song." (Psalm 98:1 among others.)
Josh Marihugh | 11.19.09 @ 10:21PM
I'm a worship leader. My mix consists largely of modern praise and worship music, but I throw a number of the classic hymns and gospel songs in, although I'll usually rock them out again. Different songs for different people and different times -- God loves all of us equally, but that doesn't mean we're all the same!
Charles| 12.13.09 @ 2:22PM
Great article and I agree wholeheartedly. Praise music is just another symptom of the dumbing down of America. Trite, shallow & easy to sing crap -- religious pablum for the moronic masses.
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Bobby Williston| 12.30.09 @ 11:55AM
Amen, brother! Over the years I’ve just become very much averse to the whole “anti-traditionalist” movement in the contemporary evangelical church. This movement is most entrenched in the evangelical megachurches. Here are some of the trappings of this movement that I so despise:
1. Eschewing of traditional hymns (beautiful, classic hymns I might add) played by traditional instruments (piano, organ, possibly horns and strings) in favor of rock-style, guitar-and-drums dominated “worship music” This (goofy, in my opinion) music features abstract, sometimes downright weird lyrics.
2. Church buildings that abandon the traditional design and furniture of steeples, stained glass windows, and upholstered pews, in favor of more trendy architecture that looks more like a shopping center than a church. Additionally, the buildings look a lot more like a shopping mall than a church on the inside, too. A staple of the contemporary anti-traditionalist mega-church is the coffee shop and café, as well as the “student” area, which features all kinds of diversions for youth, from video games to pool and ping pong to basketball and even rock-climbing walls.
3. The leadership, including the “worship team” and the pastors, eschewing the traditional suit and tie and conservative grooming in favor of “hip” and “trendy” clothing and hairstyles. Their style of dress and hairstyles are now so ubiquitous among them that they are laughable. Such obvious attempts to try to sell themselves to those whom they perceive would be hostile to the traditional trappings of church. They’re like the clueless undercover cop who tries to pass himself off as a member of the criminal element he’s trying to infiltrate. What are some of the hallmarks of their style? One is the “bedhead” haircut. You won’t go to any contemporary megachurch without seeing at least two guys onstage with a bedhead. Another is the goatee. And no shirts tucked in. Those three are the essentials. And it’s not at all uncommon to see males with earrings.
4. The complete lack of any dress code among the congregation. Jeans and t-shirts and sweatshirts are not at all uncommon, and in the summer months it’s quite common to see people wearing shorts and open-toed shoes.
The way I see it they’ve become the very thing that they criticize as to the traditional church setting. They have themselves established their own brand of what is the orthodox church setting and what is not. To the staunch traditionalists, anything but a suit and tie and traditional hymns is unacceptable; if you stray from that, you’re being irreverent. And to them, anything but hip and trendy clothes and grooming and “worship music” is unacceptable; if you stray from this, it shows you’re focused on the wrong things. I believe these anti-traditionalists will be just as condemning of a person who comes to church in a suit and tie with a conservative haircut as a traditionalist would be of someone who comes to church dressed like them.
Mary| 2.2.10 @ 2:44PM
The early church sang a hymn after the preaching of the word and the early christians sang before being killed..In 2ndTimothy, there is a song the early christians sang...I realize we call praise music worship, but worship is as it is in Romans, ridding oneself of all that does not pease God..to offer oneself a living sacrifice unto God...When this happens, a christian will know from spending time in God's Word what is acceptable to God...There is NEVER TO BE ANY ARGUMENT OVER MUSIC...it is not what is important..what is important is to become a disciple that will ead others to the Lord..not to music but to the Lord...There isso much jealousy, greed and strife over the music and not to mention the industry of it...take time to be holy for the Lord thy God is holy and in His presence we come humbly and in reverrence...the time is so short and this world waxws worse...I recently read and was shocked over Ray Boltz..are you praying for him..please put what is more important first..
Reed| 9.4.10 @ 1:16PM
All of these posts are valid. We are all so different, and there is not a 'standard' that most would or could follow. I've played music since the early sixties. After years of Rock, Blues, Country, Community Choirs, Praise and Worship, and even Mexican bands, I prefer music that is not the norm. I like folk music from Eastern Europe, Russian Orthodox Liturgical, Old Irish, Civil War, Appalachian Mountain Music, and the list continues to grow. Praise music means something to those who like it, and can be annoying and nauseating to those who don't, like any other music. I think we assign too much value to form. I came to Christ after watching "Jesus Christ Superstar," I used to sing 'new songs' out of Scripture with my guitar. I've gone through many changes in my life, and my musical tastes have changed just as much. I don't listen to Praise music anymore, which does not mean that I am not a committed Christian. I don't listen to it because I don't care for it generally, with a few exceptions. Find what you like and commit to it, and don't get wrapped up in what you can't change.