There’s an old adage that says, “music can soothe the savage beast.” In the churches of today, another adage is emerging: “music can divide a church.” Can something as glorious and heavenly as God-created music be the cause of such debate – even conflict – in America’s places of worship? With the introduction of new musical styles, new technology and the formation of post-modern culture, the use of music in worship has become a heated topic of discussion. Is it simply a difference of generations or a matter of individual taste?

According to Dr. Andrew Roby, chair of Union’s Department of Music and current interim music minister of Englewood Baptist Church in Jackson, Tenn., music has been a source of change in the church for several centuries, going back to the days of Martin Luther.

“We credit contemporary Christian music singer Larry Norman with coining the phrase ‘Why should the devil have all the good music?’ but it was Martin Luther who actually said it 400 years before,” says Roby.

Luther used some of the most popular musical styles of the day in his music for the church, and according to Roby, put several of today’s well-known hymns to upbeat dance-rhythms. For more than a thousand years before, the church had forbidden people to sing hymns. Luther changed all that by involving the congregation and writing hymns in the people’s own language, something that was considered heretical at the time. With the addition of praise choruses to the church’s musical palate, some of the same objections raised back then are being raised now.

“I have a problem with the view that hymns and our traditional style of Baptist worship is the only cultural expression that is valid,” says Dr. George Guthrie, Perry Professor of Biblical Studies and chair of Union’s Department of Christian Studies.

“Even in modern mission settings, indigenous people who sing about their faith sing in different styles.”

Guthrie is quick to add, though, that there’s also a great value in hymns because of “the grounding that tradition offers us. The hymn gives us a voice to the faith that is old and substantive.”

Ken Hartley, Jr., a 1990 Union graduate and minister of music to North Metro First Baptist in Lawrenceville, Georgia says that the main source of conflict continues to center on musical style.

“The number one debated question is ‘what style are you’?” says Hartley.

Whether a church is liturgical, blended, or con-temporary, most church musicians agree that the truth being shared through the music is more important than the rhythmic beat or whether the words are sung off a screen or out of a book. It is the quality of worship, and perhaps more important, the understanding of worship that counts.

“In the use of music in worship, it’s important to understand that there are two main types: one that focuses on the transcendent, holy nature of God and one that focuses on God being very near and close to us,” explains Roby.

“Too often we not only make a distinction between the traditional and con-temporary styles, but we make a dichotomy between the transcendent God and the imminent God, which isn’t right, because God is both.”

It is the definition of worship that still has not found total agreement among worship leaders and pastors.

Hartley asserts that worship must be direct, focused attention on God. He says that the reason for the swelling popularity of praise choruses is “while most hymns are about God, most choruses are to God.”

“We don’t take time to intimately encounter God one on one in our worship services today,” says Hartley. “If we miss that, we’ve missed encountering the Holy of Holies.”

One church that has worked hard to achieve that intimacy is First Baptist Church in Franklin, Tenn., also known as “The People’s Church.” Rick White, who came in 1983 to serve as senior pastor there, also serves as a Union trustee. His associate pastor, Ed Rowell, says that they describe their worship not as traditional or contemporary, but as “creative worship.”

“Our worship services usually last about an hour and fifteen minutes and include not only preaching, but drama, music and video,” explains Rowell. Each Sunday has a particular theme that is planned and discussed by a worship planning team. With a congregation that has grown from 400 to 3000 in the span of White’s leadership, Rowell says his church simply reaches out to the people around them – musically talented Nashvillans who came to Music City seeking fame and fortune and who are now working in a bank or selling insurance.

“If a person has strong musical gifts,” says Rowell, “there’s a tendency in our culture to see that as performance. Our goal is not to perform and to entertain people. It’s to lead people into the presence of God.”

When it comes to style, Rowell says that the People’s Church does not base their worship on a particular style. “The question for us is not how many hymns and choruses do we do this week, but what is the theme we’re addressing and which song will better fit that topic?” explains Rowell.

With regard to meeting each generation, Rowell says that his church is continuing to explore what the best course of action is, specifically for Generation Xers.

“I think that when you’re talking about people whose half of their generation was aborted and half of their generation was the product of broken homes,” says Rowell of the generations coming up, “I don’t think these people see many churches being a place that they can find God because it doesn’t connect with their hearts and with who they are as people.

“Paul said ‘I’ll be all things to all people in order that I may reach some.’ I think it’s incumbent upon every church to make the gospel relevant in the form that it can be perceived as being relevant. I think that’s the biggest task ahead,” says Rowell.

One thing everyone agrees on is that worship was not created for us.

“I think as I mature in my faith,” says Roby, “I should be able to come into the presence of God in a worshipful way with whatever style of music used, traditional or contemporary, and find truth in either of those. The fact that my musical preference would choose one over the other only has to do with my pleasure. And worship is not for my pleasure. Worship is for God’s pleasure.”

Article by Sara Horn

Union Students Speak Their
Thoughts on Worship

Kristen Wicker – Junior Christian Studies Major

“For me, worship always comes back to the place of surrender, where my heart and my life must be surrendered to the Lord. If my corporate worship ever exceeds my private worship with the Lord, I know there’s some-thing that’s very much out of order there. Sometimes, the best thing to do is just worship God in the silence.”

Jolie Seaborn – Junior Psychology Major

“Worship is about expression. It’s about your heart and pleasing God, not just the style of music it is. I think we have to teach people how to worship because a lot of people really don’t know how. I think that’s why a lot of people leave.”

Casey Stafford – Freshman

"I think sometimes we limit ourselves for worship to Sunday morning, Friday chapel, Monday chapel, whatever. And worship should be a lifestyle. We can’t limit God. God wants our all, not just this time frame we’ve designed for our -selves but all the time."