Music in Church

The following email was sent to me last night by my friend Larry York who received it from the the writer. Larry is a member of the West End congregation in Knoxville. The Providence Road church of Christ which is mentioned in the email is in Charlotte, NC. Jeff Walling is a minister there which should come as no suprise while you read this account if you know his history. Yes, they also have a "praise team." Dr. Randy Gill, who this article is about is, teaches in the music department at Lipscomb University. That will give you something else to think about!

" I found this to be interesting, relevant, and thought provoking. I went to http://www.prcoc.org/ to listen, but the audio has not been posted yet.

Providence Road C of C has been having some special classes this summer on Wednesday, that they refer to as “Hot topics”. This past Wednesday was on instrumental music. I attended to hear what was being said.

The speaker was Dr. Randy Gill. He is the worship minister at Woodmont Hills in Nashville, where John Mark Hicks and (formerly) Rubel Shelly are ministers. He is also an executive with Zoe Group, the producer of Wineskins Magazine. He is a graduate of Pepperdine and taught music for years at Rochester College (formerly Michigan Christian). Considering his background, his presentation was not surprising.

Randy began by discussing his journey. He was raised to believe that instrumental music was a sin. He recited his belief as a young person that there were no other real churches and part of this distinction was the use of acapella music. As he began to teach, he had his ten reasons while instrumental music was a sin, and included it in his teaching.

Over time, with the intersection of various music activities at the university and interaction with “Christian” non members of the church, he became increasingly confronted with contradictions.. This led him to the next step on his journey. He came to believe that the only issue was doing it in worship. And so he began to listen to Christian contemporary music, etc. and “appreciate” its potential to improve people. He used the classic example; Do we want our kids to listen to Love Gun by KISS or Christian instrumental music? He ridiculed the practice of some churches to allow instrumental music in the fellowship hall for weddings, but not in the auditorium.

He came to understand that instrumental music was not a sin, but just our tradition. He noted that the NT use of synagogues was not authorized and yet Jesus used them. He also noted the cultural association of instruments with pagans. He knew all the arguments including gopher wood, Nadab and Abihu and the “no priest from Judah:” He knew all the definitions of Psallo and the debates. He accused us of picking and choosing between women wearing hats, anointing with oil, washing feet and one cup. In light of the limited texts on the topic (he read 1 Cor. 14; Eph. 5 and Col. 3), and there context was not really worship “rules”; he now considers instrumental music as cultural and incidental. It is not a salvation issue.

Now he is in a stage of not causing division with people, while at the same time not losing our young people and appealing to the community. Why should our traditions stand in the way of reaching the loss? Keeping our young people? He said we have a generation of young people that do not understand or accept the arguments on instrumental music. Instrumental music objections are akin to “race” discrimination of days gone by, and people consider it a throwback to a failed way of thinking. An older generation had both problems and he now lnks them together.

At Woodmont Hills they have full instrumental music in classes, drama and other presentations, just not on Sunday morning. He laments the limitation. It keeps people from using their gifts. It causes young people to question and leave. It keeps the un churched from coming.

He concluded the session with Q&A that were written and handed in. During the session, most of the audience was readily agreeing and laughing with him as he scorned the church. (There were a number of elderly people that sat very quietly and I frankly felt sorry for them.) However, some of the questions were pretty good. Why shouldn’t we just take Church of Christ off our sign? He said he was hurt by that question, that the he had as much heritage in the church as anyone else. Don’t instruments drown out the singing? That’s a technical issue that the sound board manager can handle, if properly taught. How do we maintain any distinctiveness? Let’s be known for our love, not our music. Etc. He did say, no one should worship this way if it goes against their conscience.

All in all, it was disturbing, but not surprising. I was especially surprised with the ready acceptance of most of the audience. And remember, this is the Wednesday night crowd. Like Woodmont Hills, I do not believe they are going to go instrumental anytime soon in their worship. This was part of the continuing education (brain washing) that is being done all over the country. They do not have any objections to it today, except people’s conscience. One day they will have instruments; it is just going to take more education and more old people passing on.

Ten years ago, Woodson and Holland did some presentations on the Change Movements Mode of Operation. I bolded and underlined the elements they sited. There is an eerie consistency in the agenda.

Notice:

1 – have a well educated speaker to cause the audience to feel inferior
2 – talk about being on a journey, the implication is from simpleness to enlightenment
3 – highlight perceived contradictions in our approach, too many people do not know how to handle them or their history
4 – anything you don’t agree with, talk about it as being culturally limited ( PR will get there on women’s role too,,,,and this is how others have gotten to homosexuality is ok)
5 – state you now all the arguments, but never address them. Randy did not recite his ten reasons and then show why they are not valid.
6 – state this is not a salvation issue. Of course, that is not the question, it is a question of what does God really want and how interested am I in finding out.
7 – If we don’t’ do this, we can’t reach the loss and keep our young
8 – tie the issue to other things that nobody agrees with…race discrimination one cuppers, etc.
9 - Show how it limits people on using their gifts (maybe we should get Barbara McDermott to paint us a picture on the stage during worship)

My only response is to keep teaching the truth, and when ever the opportunity exists, pull people back to the real core issues, not the peripheral impacts."

Amen!