Theology of Special Music

The subject of special music in church services is one that I’ve given quite a bit of thought. I won’t give all my opinions, but wanted to outline some areas to consider on the question of whether should churches use soloists or small group performances in worship. There are two contrasting assumptions debated among theologians.

Regulative Principle of Worship: God commands certain elements of worship in Scripture and prohibits all other practices.

The Westminster Confession of Faith (21.1) states:

“But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God is instituted by himself, and so limited by his own revealed will, that he may not be worshiped according to the imaginations and devices of men, or the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representation, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scripture.”

In some Christian traditions this has been strictly interpreted to mean only singing the scriptural psalms and singing without musical accompaniment. Other traditions have used a broader definition to allow a variety of instruments and styles of congregational singing, but prohibiting special music by individuals or groups. One of the Scriptures used in support of this principle is Deuteronomy 12:32:

“Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.”

Normative Principle of Worship: If Scripture does not specifically prohibit something, then it is permissible.

This too has been interpreted in a variety of ways—from churches with a fairly set order of service that includes solos and choirs, to churches that include full bands, interpretive dance, and special effects. Advocates here might point to verses like Psalm 33:3:

“Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre; make melody to Him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to Him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.”

Other Considerations

Music has been an important element in the worship of God since at least Exodus if not before. Scripture makes frequent reference to music and singing. The Bible includes a whole book of psalms to be sung. Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn together following the institution of the Lord’s Supper. Paul and Silas sang hymns in jail, and Paul instructed the Corinthian church:

“What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up” (1 Cor. 14:26).

This verse would seem to allow for one to sing a solo in the church gathering, but we can’t ignore the end of that verse— “for building up.” All the contributions to the service are meant for building others up in the faith. Earlier in the letter Paul wrote:

“All things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up. Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor” (1 Cor. 10:23-24).

Just because something is permissible doesn’t mean it is the best choice at any given time or place. In the book of Amos, woes were pronounced upon those who sang “idle songs” and invented musical instruments but “are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph” (Amos 6:1-6). There are times to sing and times to be silent.

Music used in worship should consider both the glory of God and the good of the gathered body. Paul told the Colossians:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him” (Col. 3:16-17, see also Eph. 5:18-21).

The modern Western church has at times tended to adopt our culture’s focus on the individual—what do I prefer, how do I benefit, and how can I get recognition? We may be less conscientious about considering what is best for the local church body. Our culture is also increasingly focused on entertainment, which has impacted the church as well. Far too many people look at worship as a spectator sport. Some church-hop to find the best show and some people seek the recognition of being featured.

There are several questions that I would encourage church leaders to consider:

• Is the use of soloists and special music contributing to worshiping God and proclaiming His Word, or is it promoting entertainment and glorifying people?
• What is the motivation of those who are asking for special music or those who are asking to present such music?
• Who in the church has jurisdiction over the choice of music and musicians?
• Are there ways to use gifted people in leading music without featuring them as performance artists?
• How might church leaders guide the congregation to focus on God and the truths of Scripture more than on the musicians?

I believe that different churches can make different decisions on these questions, but all churches should consider why they do what they do. We’ve probably all adopted certain traditions without thinking through them biblically. “We’ve always done it that way” is not good justification for anything. I’ve heard of churches where non-members are not allowed to sing in the choir, and I’ve heard of large churches that hire non-Christians to play in the band. Either extreme raises concerns. To those inclined to legalism the caution is, “In vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Mark 7:7). To those inclined to indulgence, “All things should be done decently and in order” (1 Cor. 14:40).

“Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name” (Psalm 30:4).

© 2022 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Sing!

Keith and Kristyn Getty’ book, Sing! How Worship Transforms Your Life, Family, and Church, is a good one for pastors, song leaders, church members, and parents alike. The following are a few quotes that caught my attention:

“Repeatedly and throughout Scripture, we are commanded to be a singing people. There are more than four hundred references to singing in the Bible and at least fifty direct commands. We are not to disregard the command because we don't like the music or the personnel or are not in the mood... Colossians 3:16 also speaks into how we sing… “with thankfulness in your hearts to God” … Thankfulness is more than saying the words with your lips. In fact, you are not singing Christianly if you are singing only with your lips… How we sing does reveal how we think and feel about something” (14, 18).

“If our songs are not giving us a balanced, rich, nutritious diet, we will not be spiritually healthy people… Could it be that many of our services today turn people off who are suffering and seeking Christ? Do our songs present a veneer of happiness rather than a robust joy in the midst of pain? Are the fountains we point to as we sing deep enough to meet the thirst that the trials of life give us? If not, then our diet is impoverished—our words are too small” (46).

“Songs help us train children in the ‘language’ of the Christian faith. What we want to teach our kids travels deeper inside them when we sing it rather than only speak it to them… Singing together in the home is an excellent way to prompt questions and give answers and aim for depth of spiritual understanding in our children in a memorable way” (57-58).

“Our singing (even when it joyfully falls off pitch) should always, unapologetically, contribute to our sense of family and community and never be rushed through, mumbled through, or handed over to the ‘professionals’” (76).

“Biblically rich content in song, sung by people who look like they mean what they are saying, helps teach the gospel as something that is credible and powerful rather than cultural and optional” (78).

“We must actually believe and live the truths we sing, otherwise what we sing can make us hypocritical, and not only doesn’t attract non-believers—it turns them off. It is easy to sing about the Lordship of Christ; far harder to live under it” (92).

“The songs we sing together are lifelines that draw each of us back to the heart of the King we serve and to the priorities of the kingdom we are members of. The songs we sing to ourselves are what tether us to our Lord day by day. The songs we sing to others are what proclaim His kingdom manifesto in a way that reaches deep into their heads and their hearts” (98).

In the end, the question is “Will you sing?”

“Sing praises to the Lord, O you His saints, and give thanks to His holy name” (Psalm 30:4 ESV).

© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

You Alone Are Able

Most people don’t know that I dabble in arranging music for piano or euphonium. Usually that takes the form of taking SATB choral arrangements and boiling them down to a piano score (probably the opposite of what most arrangers do!) mostly because I’m too cheap to buy the piano music for myself. All that aside, I have actually written one song of my own. The words and melody were written during one of Pastor Matt’s first sermons in October 2008, though I promise I did listen to him. This week I’ve been revising the accompaniment and may make still more changes. You can listen to the audio file of the current version here. (No, that’s not me playing piano.) Here are the words:

You Alone Are Able

You are holy
And worthy of praise.
I fall before You
In awe of all Your ways.
You are worthy.
How I need Your love and grace.
Show me who You are today.

You alone are able
To take away my sin.
You alone are able
To cleanse me deep within.
You alone are worthy
Of all my praise.
I will give You glory
All my days.

Some day I may actually record the vocals, but for now I’ve been singing it to myself as a reminder of the One “who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us” (Ephesians 3:20 NIV).

Words and music © 2020 Dawn Rutan. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.

Heart and Mind

The other day I was listening to Christian radio and heard a song I was not familiar with—“More Like Falling in Love” by Jason Gray. As I thought about the lyrics they made me distinctly uneasy. One line that is repeated several times is “It’s gotta be more like falling in love than something to believe in; more like losing my heart than giving my allegiance.” The story behind the song (found here) clarifies his intent somewhat, but I still have problems with the message. Gray said,

“I think we’re in danger of making our faith about intellectual beliefs of facts of who Jesus was and is today. The danger, at least for me, is that a solely intellectualized faith can lose its heart, and over and over we are told in Scripture that the heart matters.”

While that may be true to some degree, I don’t think that is the predominant problem with American Christianity. It seems to me that we are far more likely to pursue some kind of emotional response that may have very little to do with the facts of who Jesus was and is. Yes, faith is more than an intellectual exercise, but it is also more than a love affair. Gray’s lyrics set up a false dichotomy. Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37 ESV). Faith requires engagement of both heart and mind.

In his chapter in Standing on the Promises, Larry Knowles wrote:

“Let it be said again that worship ought to engage the mind and the emotions. Careful wording and cerebral agreement alone do not a worshiper make… There is no doubt that the love of God is something the Christian will want to internalize personally and celebrate with emotive affection… Our concern with heavily romantic or sensory lyrics is that they communicate God’s love as primarily a subjective phenomenon, grasped mainly by its emotional and personal impact. Granted, these words may come from the genuine experience of a lyricist. But the glut of choruses that talk about ‘falling in love with Jesus’ finds no correlate in Scripture” (178-179).

Someone may say, “True, but Christian radio is not worship.” The average listener is drawn to songs that stir their emotions, not necessarily those that clearly represent scriptural truths. That’s one reason I rarely listen to the radio. Listeners tends to identify artists they like, and then listen indiscriminately to anything that artist wrote. A large percentage of the new songs that get introduced in churches start out on the radio, and many church music leaders don’t evaluate songs by their theology. Church leaders should be cautious about “endorsing” artists who are not consistently presenting solid theology.

I have a bit of a pet peeve when it comes to music used in worship services. In many churches the music is unbiblical, unsingable, or (often) unrelated to the day’s sermon. Since Jesus proclaimed that “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him” (John 4:23b), those who plan the worship service and choose the music have a responsibility to lead in spirit and truth. Alistair Begg gave three guidelines on worship music:

1. It is biblical, being grounded in the truth of Scripture.
2. It is rational in that it engages our minds.
3. It is clearly spiritual in that it involves the very core of our being.

Begg also quoted from Keith and Kristyn Getty’s helpful guidelines from 5 Ways to Improve Congregational Singing. Their first point, “Begin with the pastor,” states:

“Ultimately the buck stops with him in congregational worship. Every pastor must be intimately involved in the language being placed in the congregation’s mouth, for that singing ultimately affects how they think, how they feel, how they pray, and how they live.”

In Christian freedom, we can each listen to whatever we like on the radio or online, and churches are free to use whatever music seems to best fit their context. But personally, I have found that “taking every thought captive” (2 Corinthians 10:5) is closely linked to “making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding” (Proverbs 2:2). Our ears and eyes are the two primary methods of input to our thoughts and beliefs. If we aren’t paying attention for ourselves, no one else is likely to do it for us.

“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

© 2019 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.