John Thomas writes on Five Mistakes of a Church Planter. They are probably mistakes of pastors of established churches as well. It is worth reading and considering.
Scot McKnight links to this Wall Street Journal article, “Are Pop Songs Getting Sadder?” It begins with this assertion: “As measured by key and tempo — and setting lyrics aside —pop music has gotten gloomier since the ’60s.” It’s a strange source for the affirmation that keys and tempos carry meaning without word. In other words, music is moral. It has meaning even when you set the lyrics aside.
Here’s an interesting article on the senses, and the way we have distorted life by filling it with technological noise. You won’t like all the emphases, but it’s a good reminder to stop and smell the roses sometimes. And not just metaphorically.
And on Father’s Day weekend, this isn’t a bad reminder.
2 comments:
The same thing is happening to Christian Music. Even thought the lyrics are very good at times, the music is more "down" in the feeling. The conservative "old style" music makes you want to sing your heart out and feel joyful. Much of the "new music" does not leave one with much joy because the music is more minor key a lot of the time. I observed this very clearly in a service where the types of music was mixed.
One of the things that much church music lacks is the themes of lament found so frequently in the psalms. It often presents a jilted or distorted view of Christianity that all is happy and nothing is ever wrong.
Lament and meditation plays an important part in Scripture and in the Christian life. It should also have a place in the corporate worship of the church. People probably need to spend more time meditating and mourning, not less. It is hard in the materialistic culture of the American church, though.
The key thing in this regard is that the music needs to match the words. And the service needs to be coherent. Going from one to the other is shocking. But when the theme of the service ties together, it makes sense.
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