I had a great conversation last week with my friend Tim Brannagan who serves with an organization called Freedom To Lead. [visit site] The conversation was a reminder to me of what I love about serving God’s people. It always amazes me how at times the most mundane and somewhat pedestrian things can trigger deep and profound desires and passions. A simple get together over a cup of coffee, or in my case tea, was such a trigger.
The mission of Tim’s ministry, as I have understood it, is to take the message of the Gospel and modern discipleship methods and deliver them to the two thirds of the world that does not learn by reading. They do it by imagery, story, and song. Our conversation rekindled my thoughts and desires to be a part of such things, not only to cultures across the world, but right here, right now.
It has long been my concern that the western church (North American specifically) is losing it’s authentic song. I’ll explain. For thousands of years the stories that bind people groups together have been shared orally. In lyric and song, teaching truth, and the hope of the Gospel has been transmitted from person to person, and community to community with potency. It just doesn’t seem to work the same anymore. There is so much to appreciate about the 21st century. So many blessings and conveniences that we take for granted. Yet, this progress comes with a price tag.
The globalization of popular art has proven to come with that price. In all the progress, local community art has been drowned out by the saturation of pop culture. Parenthetically, lest this sound like a diatribe against popular music and art, I am a fan. There is much to appreciate, view, listen and enjoy. It is simply that the mindset about live music (especially in church) has changed dramatically in my lifetime. The effects of this on the local church and congregations is staggering. The rate of change and proliferation of music, video and art in the church is just one example of the altered landscape of corporate worship. Many congregations struggle to engage their collective voices, congregants allow their musical tastes to supersede authentic creative expression and truth. Style has become the focus. Disunity abounds, and the authentic indigenous song of the people fades in the distance like a soldier playing taps on a hillside.
Now if that wasn’t melodramatic enough, consider this. If you are older than 35, you can remember the days before CD’s and high fidelity music formats. Consider for a moment what happened when our audio and visual electronics began to produce a better quality sound than the majority of live performances. Sensibilities were effected. The standard of excellence was raised. It was like HD for the ears. Compact Discs changed portable music and thereby corporate worship music forever. Here’s how.
On the whole, before 1980 you would have been more likely to hear superior musical quality at your local flagship church on Sunday morning than you could in your automobile or home. As a matter of fact, the audio and music industry was striving to develop technology to make music as good as live. Remember the commercial, “Is it live or is it Memorex”? Once they achieved this, the tables slowly turned. To the same degree that HD television changed how we see the world, high fidelity changed our listening ears.
What effect has this had on worship? Well, think about the comments you may hear ,or have said, after a Sunday service. “I just wish they could make the sound a good as the recording”. “I don’t understand why they don’t do it the same way as the radio”. “I can worship as good or better with my iPod than I can at church”. Also, think about the pressure upon leadership in performance. (using mostly volunteers, not studio musicians) The pressure today is not to have the best quality you can have with the artists God provides, but frequently it is about making sure you possess a fidelity that rivals what people hear on the radio and in their iPods. There are a myriad of struggles with this perspective, philosophically and theologically in my opinion. In most cases, it is nearly impossible to duplicate live what was done in a studio. This is especially true in worship music. Besides, duplication in this artists opinion is not the goal. Authentic, indigenous worship and the involvement of a congregation with the best possible quality is. On the positive side, it can be said that churches have used this fidelity issue to seek to provide better audio reinforcements, acoustics and qualified musicians to worship, yet we must examine ourselves soberly to make sure our motives are truly aimed due north.
There seem to be two primary contributions to the struggle for authentic song. One, the popularization of music and the struggle with elitism. (if it’s not written by Tomlin, Crowder, Hillsong etc..it’s not worth singing. I know some of those artists and I think most would agree that they do not want to be idolized.) Two, the unrealistic expectations and potentially disingenuous musical sensibilities for worship gatherings.
Beyond this, there is one more area of struggle; originality, or more formally, indigenous worship. With all the options for music today and the globalization of the music industry, the local church frequently ceases to embrace and pursue original songs that arise from its people. Much of the highly regarded hymnody possessed by the church was not written by professionals or ministers. They were written by people of the pew who feasted upon the Word of God and then responded artistically. In many churches today, even the lead musicians won’t venture into this territory for fear of rejection and critique. Not all congregations have artisans that can do this well, which is understandable, but to discourage the pursuit passively or actively is a tragic loss to the local body and the kingdom. It is a truly healthy congregation that takes in the Word of God and produces fruit in the form of the arts.
So, in the words of Inigo Montoya “Let me esplain.. no there is too much. Let me sum up.” Many more words could be written on this topic, and maybe I will find ways to explore it further. Until then, consider that the God who created all things is working His will in you that you may produce fruit for Him. For some of us, we need to prayerfully and aggressively pursue the arts with abandon and allow the church to seek, find and proclaim the song of the people.