Can any instrument be used in Corporate Worship?

It must surely depend on many factors. How suitable is the instrument for accompanying the singing? (I don't think many people could sing accompanied only by triangles, or only by claves, or only by a tin whistle, yet all those are musical instruments). How is the instrument being played? Some instrumentalists play so loudly that they drowns the singing. It is possible to play an instrument in such a flamboyant way as to draw attention to the instrumentalist. Neither is right in a church service, in my view.

 

Modern American Christians would try to persuade you that guitars are sufficient for leading a congregation. They are, of course, wrong. The guitar is one of the worst choices for leading a group of people, since it cannot carry the melody. And I'm not saying this because I hate guitars or hate contemporary music in church. It's a musical issue.

There is a reason why the organ was once considered the best choice. If we didn't feel the need to conform to secular society in our services, people would freely admit that is far superior to the guitar.

Overbearing percussion is also not conducive to corporate singing.

 

Any instrument can be used but a band on the stage will give me an excuse to stay home.

 

While you can play the melody on a guitar, I get what you're saying. I also agree that the organ is the best instrument for congregational singing.

 

The thoughtless human voice might be the worst.

Being next to someone boisterously bellowing out in self grandiosity not only kills the desire of those around to participate, but can brew discord which will quench the Holy Spirit in the assembly. Besides being ear offensive consider how many don’t realize that rather horrible breath can emanate from their cavernous mouths.

I remember years ago being in a brush arbor meeting and such was the deportment of a self important person. Folks broke out in laughter when a June bug flew into that gaping mouth.

 

Years ago our only pianist had a serious heart attack and was out of church for nearly a year. I filled in and played acoustic guitar for all services. I prefer piano or organ myself, but guitar will do if that is all you have.

I have played electric in church, last year I played What Child Is This on a Telecaster through a Marshall amp using chord melody style for our Christmas show. Folks enjoyed it.

I play acoustic every Sunday for Sunday School, my pastor also plays acoustic. On Friday nights we play acoustic for Kid's Church, my daughter plays piano with us.

 

As long as the drum set stays in the plexiglas cage where it belongs!

 

Wow, you guys (and gals) are so stodgy...

Ever read Psalm 150?

Give me full on whatever, and let it rip.

I've worshiped under some of the best music of every sort, from doctoral level organists who played a grand pipe organ so well that they shook the rafters to full on rock set on the platform. I like GOOD worship. Music style is secondary. But what I find in many churches is not good at all. Grandma plunking with two fingers (well almost) from hymnalls that have songs that the church considers the only "true" hymns of worship, even though most of them are dated between the late 1800s and 1950 or so. Funny how what was new back then is the only right music now... :BangHead:

I've worshipped BEST when talented musicians use their gifts from God in ways that transcend the mere leading of singing, and yes, at times that means musical interludes where the praise team just cuts loose and does what they do. It is all offered to God!

I'm reduced to tears often in worship, but for two different reasons. One is when the worship is SO bad that I weep for the congregation, knowing that they will not grow because of it, and I weep when the worship goes to a high level, guitars ripping and drums drumming. I can hear that before the throne room of God! :thumbsup:

Oh, and I play drums for worship. No cage for me, thanks!

I still recall when I was doing a church start in Platteville, WI. Our mother church was in Reedsburg, and they were doing some praise chorus stuff, the type that most everyone dislikes these days. The planting team showed up, and all of us played (and had been spending hours jamming during the church plant gatherings). We set up and rocked the house. It was so fun to watch. At first, everyone was almost blown back out of their seats. The eyes were funny to watch... Then, they caught on and the worship caught fire. They never looked back and we played all summer until we launched our own congregation, where the same concept continued. The mother church also adopted that style of worship and is still there as well after 10 years (with updates, of course).

 

Agreed, but be careful before making judgments on such a "singer" - it might be that he or she is deaf, and simply does not know how loudly, or how out-of-tune, they singing may be.

I know what a brush is, and I know what an arbor (or as I would spell it, "arbour" ), is. But I have never heard of a brush arbor, or a brush arbour meeting. Sorry!

 

Back in the day, that is what folks would call an open air meeting place.

Sometimes a pole structure would be constructed and leafy branches spread on the top to allow a bit of shade and weather shelter for the meeting area.

Later, more permanent structures were built, but the sides weren't usually totally enclosed.

If you Google, "brush arbor" and look at the images you will see something of what I am describing very poorly.

If you have seen the film "Sheffy" there was an open air building that was burnt by vandals.

 

Thanks! I did the google search (as I should have done earlier ). Good job I had your description as well, because the first site to come up was about a religious pop group called Brush Arbor !! Thanks again!

 

"Can any musical instrument be used in corporate worship?"

That is a flesh question. It does not matter what instrument. Worship in spirit and truth.

 

Psa 150:1 Praise the LORD! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Psa 150:2 Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Psa 150:3 Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Psa 150:4 Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Psa 150:5 Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Psa 150:6 Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!

Sounds rather like a unplugged rock band to me... :smilewinkgrin: Of course, they could not plug in, there was no power of that nature yet. But I would expect that if they could have, they would have.

Interestingly, the removal of musical instruments is part of the curse God pronounces against Babylon in Revelation 18:22.

Also interesting is the simple fact that the two musical instruments not mentioned in Scripture are the organ and piano... :thumbsup:

Tends to make one think, especially when contrasted to all the times musical worship is included in the throne room scenes, where harps, singing, exhuberance, etc., are all mentioned.

 

As far as the organ is concerned, it depends on which translation you are using. The KJV for Psalm 150.4 is:

Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
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Webster, Wycliffe, Brenton, Young's Literal Translation, the Bishops Bible, and The Geneva Bible also have "organs" at Psalm 150.4.

Don't worry - I know that the word in the original does not mean the huge multi-keyboard instrument we think of as an "organ" - such an instrument had yet to be invented at the time when the bible was being written. (The nearest thing would have been the hydraulis, or water organ, invented around 250BC, but the sounds it emitted would have rendered it useless for accompanying singing!) No piano in the bible either - that instrument was invented in 1698 by Christofori. :laugh:

 

I'm shocked! From the infallible Translation? :laugh:

Of course, some have argued that piano and organ are merely extensions of the instruments listed in Scripture, i.e., pipes and strings, and it is only the manner in which they are struck or piped that changes, but if that is the case, then I guess that we would have to toss out all the electric organs found in churches throughout the land in favor of a biblically expressed pipe organ powered by mere human effort. Sort of illustrates how ludicrious the entire argument is...

What I often wonder -- aside from the Scriptures that tell us about the use of music in worship, even in heaven as penned by John in Revelation -- why it is that we choose one particular cultural expression for church music then say that it is the only viable sort. Just page through the hymnal and check the dates when that particular favored hymn was penned. Most stem from the revival period of Billy Sunday and D.L. Moody forward. More, it is always interesting to see good Baptists who disavow the Methodist Arminians and Lutheran amyrauldians, yet they sing the hymns penned by some of those who held those positions, Wesley and Luther.

I also wonder what people tune into on their car radios on the way home from church and why we think that church has to be "special" (in the sense of those with mental deficiencies)... :laugh:

 

Drums....after playing in bands for years and years, and raising a drummer, I cannot tolerate drums in church. I have YET to meet a drummer that can stop dinking around, stop banging on stuff, stop doodling between songs, stop playing the opening to Rock n Roll by Zeppelin, SOME CONSTANT NOISE.

That's why I don't like drums in church.