May 17, 2010
22:45
In 1517, Martin Luther essentially started a series of events which would split the church. While it is fair to say that this was probably not his intention, it was a definite result of his actions. The church was then split on the basis of theology, and has been ever since.
When I read the New Testament of the bible, I find it evident that “the Church” is a term used in the singular form. This is why the Church is referred to as “The Church”, and not “The Churches”. In fact, the only time (that I have found) the phrase “The Churches” appears in scripture is in the book of Revelation, although the context is different. This refers to different locations of church buildings—different gathering locations for the Church, if you will. Still, the Church is one, unified body. The Church is named throughout scripture as the Bride of Christ. The Church, being one unified body, is the Bride of God himself.
This led me to think about what a bride is. Of course, I didn’t have to think much because though a wife has innumerable roles in being a wife, her most important role is to love her husband. All of her other roles are derived from this love. Would a wife take care of her husband if she didn’t love him? Would she make him dinner, and iron his shirts (or whatever it is wives do) if she didn’t love him? With this established, it is clear that the role of the bride of Christ is to love Him. This is all. All we have to do as Christ’s bride is love Christ.
If all we the Church has to do is love God, it bewilders me that we place things ahead of this, as if they were of higher importance. Most specifically, I’m thinking of theological debates. Ever since the bride divorced itself in the sixteenth century, the Church has been debating with itself things that really don’t matter. For instances: What does it matter if the Church uses instruments or not? What does it matter what the person who stands on the stage for half an hour every Sunday morning is called? What does it matter what the room in which people gather to worship is called? Do names really affect the reason for which the Church has gathered? Does using instruments mean you don’t have the same reason for gathering to worship as a person who prefers to worship in an A Capella format?
A subject in which I personally have had a lot of self-conflict is song selection. If we the Church sing the same song a lot, I tend to get sick of it, as I do with songs that are played on the radio. I tend to notice that we might sing a song which had been sung last week, and I say to myself, “Oh, we did this last week. Can’t we do something new? This repetition is boring.” This is an indication of the core fault of the Church. I have placed entertainment and personal enjoyment ahead of spending time with God. I would ignore what the song is about, and only think about how annoying the repeated song actually is. A prime example of this is Matt Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name”. This is one of the greatest worship songs that has ever been written. Obviously most people agree with me, because it is used often to praise God. Because of this, I equally as often discard this song as overdone and repetitive. However, when I look at the lyrics and really understand what they mean, I find that this is actually one of the most beautiful songs. The theme is that through the good times as well as the bad, God’s name will always be blessed. That is beautiful.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I am strong believer that the list of songs sang in a church should be changed often. My primary reasoning behind this is to reach more people. For instance, I tend to connect to God more through songs that are humbling—songs that essentially say “God, You love me even though I don’t always love You back. I don’t deserve it, but You don’t care; You love me anyway.” Other people seem to feel more connected to God through happy, upbeat all-praise-all-the-time songs, such as anything that Chris Tomlin has ever written. These songs essentially say “God is good all the time, and I’m always happy because of this.” To say that one style of worship music is superior to the other is to place the music itself above what really matters, which is the interaction of Christ with his Bride.
I suppose the primary reason churches remain different today is to accommodate everyone’s personal preferences. For instance, I enjoy a church in which the aforementioned “humbling worship” is practiced more than a church in which the “happy-all-the-time” worship is practiced. This is only a personal preference, and to say that one is better than the other is to take away the focus from where it matters.
I would say, though, that there are some legitimate theological debates. They all, of course, derive from love. Sometimes people tend to place things above God, possibly without even realizing it. For instance: singers or members of a band at church. If the singers get too caught up with making sure they sing the right notes and “sounding good”, are they really praising God? If the band feels like it must be totally rehearsed in order to keep the congregation entertained, can they really be called a “praise band”? They would only be praising music with lyrics addressing God’s name. The purpose of church leaders is to connect people to God, not to appear pleasing to the crowd.
Anyway, I have ranted on and on about what I have seen happen. All I really want to say is that only one thing matters: love. The debates between denominations is about as silly as the debate between wireless carriers. Verizon says, “We have more 3G than anyone else”, AT&T says, “Oh, yeah? Well, ours is better!”, and Sprint laughs quietly to itself because it uses 4G. The debates between denominations really don’t matter. In fact, they distract people from the love of God, and often turn people who have not established a relationship with God away, because they don’t see how they can connect to God through the Church which can’t even connect with itself. Debating theology is only destroying the Church.
As I have said, I enjoy how different denominations exist to accommodate everyone’s personal preferences. Individuals connect to God in different ways. But to say that one way is “better” or “sinful” is being judgmental, which is not what Christianity is about. Christians aren’t around to judge people; we’re around to love God. This is why He created us—to love Him.
The song “Come Around” by Jimmy Needham comes to mind… Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2WvlP0Qh9A [music, with an Image of Jimmy staring at you]
http://www.cmt.com/lyrics/jimmy-needham/come-around/21140905/lyrics.jhtml [lyrics]
May 17, 2010 at 11:44 pm |
While I certainly agree with your overall point, I might take slight issue with what you say in the eighth paragraph. Yes, the point of praise music is to worship God and not for people’s enjoyment, I also think there is nothing wrong with doing one’s best in everything he does. In the case of leading worship in church, this may mean rehearsing and making sure the notes are correct and the voices blend well, if there are multiple singers. Not only do I not see this as wrong, I think a Christian who has been given a gift such as singing and/or leading worship is obligated to use that gift to the fullest of his potential. I might actually have a problem with a worship who does not work to get the notes right and sound the best that he possibly can, because he thinks it will be more praise-focused that way. Certainly I am not saying that every worship leader must be a brilliant singer or get every note right, but if a person simply is not willing to work at singing or simply does not have the gifts needed to sing somewhat well, then perhaps music ministry is not the best place for him to serve in the church. Once again, that doesn’t mean that most people are excluded from leading worship. I would emphasize a person’s willingness to work to do his best at anything over natural talent. There is little worse than a person who has much ability, but is lazy and does not live up to what he is capable of, even if what he does do is still better than someone with little ability who does his best. Sorry this response was so long. This is not nearly as important as I am making it out to be, and I do not think you made it that big of a deal in your post, but I wanted to point it out anyway. As you know I think the single greatest problemin the church today is the denominational disagreements which cause so much unnecessary division over issues that don’t really matter that much.
May 18, 2010 at 8:27 am |
Well, I do actualy agree with you that sounding good is always nice. If Good gifted people to sing, let them sing for him. But all I’m sayng is that people should not put all of their efforts into sounding good if their hearts aren’t into it.
May 18, 2010 at 1:08 pm |
I would agree completely with that. I know I’ve sung in choir before and forgotten that I should do it to the glory of God, and although it may have been good, it seemed completely meaningless.