CYBERCOLUMN: Music and worship_simpson_60203

Posted 5/30/03

CYBERCOLUMN:
Music and worship

By Berry D. Simpson

I recently attended a Sunday evening service in a Midland-area church, and it was the loudest worship service I ever experienced (unless I count that one Sunday morning in a premier Dallas church when the organist pinned me to the pew, blew my hair straight back and rendered me unable to speak due to the compression waves moving through my windpipe). I've been to a few very loud rock-and-roll concerts, including Rock the Desert here in Midland, but I was expecting the high volume on those occasions. This time in this church, I was caught completely off guard. Maybe the fault was mine for being on the front row of the church very near the speakers.

I must say the praise band was excellent. They were solid musicians and showed long hours of practice. Everyone else in the church was having a great time singing with the band and praising God. It's true that I thought they were singing the same simple chorus over and over, forever and ever, and I longed for a hymn or ballad where the words changed occasionally, but everyone else seemed to be enjoying this powerful experience. I have no reason to doubt that their worship was authentic and true and sincere. They were in the right place doing the right thing; I was the one who didn't belong.

However, in general, I enjoy the guitar-band pop-style of contemporary church music, and given a choice I will almost always chose a guitar song over an organ song.

I do remember one time when I thought an organ was not only the exact worship instrument, but also the only instrument capable of doing justice to a song.

We were in Washington, D.C., on a family vacation, and it was Sunday morning when we went to visit the National Cathedral. As we walked up the sidewalk to the church, I could hear the early service ending and the pipe organ playing “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” As soon as I heard those powerful chords, I broke into a trot toward the cathedral. I wanted to feel that huge organ reverberate against those massive cathedral walls, and it was worth the run up the sidewalk and into the narthex in order to hear it. That is a great song, and it reminds me of the majesty and power and timelessness of God, and whenever I sing it, I imagine that I am standing in a long line of Christian brothers and sisters stretching back to Martin Luther and forward to heaven, and together we are all praising God in full voice. It is wonderful, and a guitar and drum kit can't make that song swing.

But those are all my personal reactions to musical styles and have nothing to do with worshiping God. Rick Warren wrote about worship and music: “Frankly, the music style you like best says more about you–your background and personality–than it does about God.”

Music that irritates me and pushes me away from God might do the exact opposite for someone else. God made us all with different tastes with different styles, and he wants us to worship him from the authentic expression of our heart.

Currently, my church is using a song at the close of our Sunday morning services that was recorded by a horn-blowing rock band when I was in high school. The song is “I've Been Searching,” and it is by Chicago, and it is a great song, even if very few people would expect to hear it in church. However, when I hear the lyrics: “I've been searching for so long to find an answer, now I know my life has meaning,” I realize Chicago told the story of my entire life. I don't know the spiritual condition of the composer of that song, and I doubt when it was released they expected it would ever be used in church, but their original intent is not the point. Chicago tapped into an eternal truth with that song, our search for meaning, and the deep meaning of those lyrics can't be understood except in a spiritual context.

Just like Pharaoh didn't understand God's message in his dreams until Joseph explained it to him, Chicago might not know the real meaning of their own song except as God reveals it. Hearing that song in church makes me worship God, and makes me thank him for guiding me in my search.

Berry Simpson, a Sunday School teacher at First Baptist Church in Midland, is a petroleum engineer, writer, runner and member of the city council in Midland.