‘The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever’ (Isaiah 40.8, ESV).
I often think about the state of music in evangelical churches and lament the low standards of musical ability and quality (my own standards included). This is one of the reasons that we’re trying to train up church musicians on the Music Apprenticeship Scheme, because it’s important to sing praises to Jesus that honour him, and aren’t just second rate and thrown together ten minutes before a church meeting.
Choral jealousy?
However, I also forget to praise God that, whatever the quality, musicians in evangelical churches have been (and we pray always will be) committed to the faithful proclamation of the Word of God. It’s very easy to look at the English choral tradition, and the beauty of that music produced in wonderful cathedrals, and to be filled with a certain amount of jealousy and inadequacy when we pick up our guitars (I tend not to pick up my piano — I tried it once and it hurts). But, beautiful as this music is, it is only the word of our God that will stand forever — even the ‘great’ English choral tradition is only a few hundred years old, which hardly makes it great at all. Some English choral music is like a beautiful flower (though there are some pretty ugly weeds in there too), and should be enjoyed and celebrated, but not at the expense of faithful proclamation of the word of God. That’s because, unlike the English choral tradition, proclaiming God’s word is a truly great tradition, because it goes right back to the creation of the world, and is powerful not only to create life, but to bring people to eternal life.
Latest musical styles
A similar ‘flower’ is the newer contemporary ‘tradition’ that has grown up, with its professional bands in big churches and at large conventions. Evangelical church musicians can often be made to feel even more inadequate by this music than by the cathedrals, because of the perceived need to emulate this music in order to reach out to a contemporary society. However, even if were able to keep up with all the latest musical styles and fashions we would find ourselves to be out of date within only a few weeks. The grass withers, but the word of God stands forever.
We evangelical church musicians are often looking over our shoulders in every direction musically — trying to keep up by not being left behind. Should we be like Hillsong, Worship Central, St. Paul’s, Mars Hill, Kylie? Trying to emulate other ‘traditions’, however, doesn’t serve our own congregations as much as discerning how we can best help the proclamation of the Word of God with the gifts and musicians God has given us.
This should be an encouragement to us in two ways. First, this should be an encouragement not to pursue musical distinctiveness simply for the sake of pleasing men or our own ideas of what constitutes musical beauty. The music we produce may be like a beautiful flower or rich grass to those who hear it, but that beauty will pass as tastes change. Moreover, it is difficult and often expensive to keep up with the Jones’s latest church music vibe.
Attitude of our service
Of course, let’s work with all our hearts musically, as if working for the Lord, but it’s the attitude of service with which God is pleased (the working with all our hearts bit), and not the beauty of anything that we produce. Mercifully, the Lord himself will define what true musical beauty is in the new creation — not us, Mars Hill or St. Paul’s Cathedral. So — don’t be threatened by impressive choirs, bands or music labels. Keep doing what you’re doing, and work at it with all your heart, as if working for the Lord. second The encouragement is (with no apology for sounding like a stuck record) to keep investing in the proclamation of the Word of God (sung or spoken). This never goes out of date and has real spiritual impact that affects souls for eternity. It is also very cheap to do — you don’t even need to pay for singing lessons to be part of a tradition that stands forever.
