annsni said:
You know what else causes offense and causes churches to split? My in-laws church had a huge church split and it was very viscous. You know what it was over? Decorating. Yep - the women argued over the drapery fabric and the men argued over the A/C unit. I'm totally serious on this. I've heard of this in other churches too. Does that mean that we just no longer use draperies or A/C units? No. In the same way, if someone is going to leave a church over the music, they need to seriously pray as to whether they're leaving over their own desires or God's will. If each of the members who left my in-laws church prayed to seek God's will, they would have seen how stupid it was to leave a church over draperies.
I have seen those types of differences in the church as well, and I have seen the Deacon body gear up in my church and do their jobs, and that job is to promote church unity. However, how can you be sure it's Gods will to welcome in CCM. You can't, so I don't think there is any similarity that you can draw between draperies and music as far as splitting churches. One of these arguements is trivial, the other concerns the entire face of the church body.
Yes, there are people who will leave a church over music and their own desires. That's just being selfish, IMO. I could be in a church that played only hymns if the focus was on the Lord. I've also hated the worship at some churches because, while the music was the "style" I like, it was a performance and 'me' oriented, which was not what I want my offering to the Lord to be.
Yes, I would leave my church if we went to a completely contemporary, or even a blended service. That is not my own desires, trust me, the church hymns are NOT my personal preference. I just don't see how using a multi effects pedal with an electric guitar, syncopated beats, dim lights, projectors, and the lifting of hands waving them , drawing attention to yourself(which we should not do) pleases God
CCM is not the thing that takes the focus off of God - trust me.
Here is where we are going to seriously disagree. CCM is just a way for people to chase after their own musical preferences in church. That's all it is. I mean seriously. There is a meeting of all the Angel Food Ministries Host sites in Missouri (of which my church is a part of) and the minister of outrech for us was frantically contacting everyone trying to find guitar players and such for a directors meeting. He seemed more concerned with that than he is in doing Gods will. If CCM doesn't take the focus off of God in your church, that's great, but just wait, the day will come.
My hubby is the worship pastor and his constant prayer is that he is able to be an instrument in God's hands to bring His people to His throne through the worship music each week.
I have no idea what a worship pastor is, since my church doesn't have one, we do have a music director, though. The problem here is the focus, which according to this statement
is on the music. The music in church is not to be used to "bring people to Gods throne" The music is to prepare our hearts for the preaching. The word of God is what brigs us to His throne. The Holy Spirit working in our lives is what brings us to His throne. And most of all, our loving Savior, Jesus Christ brings us to Gods throne.
He's struggled over songs, written songs, taken out songs that we used to do (he just recently became the worship pastor, but has been a worship leader at our church for years), all because of the focus. He's taken out hymns that we've done because of the shallowness of the song and the fact that, while it's a great song, it's not what we would consider "worship" - a song ascribing worship, honor and glory to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He's mixed things up and just used a guitar, used the entire worship team, and he's even looking to do a complete acapella worship at some time. It's not the music, it's not the style - it's the words and the heart of a song that makes a song worthy of being worship or not.
Again I disagree. The words are great, but the problem with CCM is it takes the focus off the words and puts it in the music that you hear. That is why they use projectors and take the hymnals out of the hands of the congregation. There are still people in this world (me not being one of them) that can read sheet music, and follow the melody by reading the score, my wife can do it. When you take that out of the peoples hands in worshiping through song, it's not long before the people who go along with CCM to become mind-numbed robots, and forget why they are there.
I'm with Tim - can you show us a melody that's shared between a worship song and a song sung in a bar? I'd be interested to hear it. I know many of the songs that we sing are written by men of God - men who we've met and have ministered with, and some are even written by my husband. I KNOW that the melodies are original. I heard them from the start.
Pretty much every CCM song I've heard I can root back to a song that is played in bars, nightclubs, and so on. Of course, you're not talking to an amateur here, I can play lead guitar in any band I choose to, I can find any chord on a guitar
without using a capo, God has blessed me richly with my talents in playing the guitar, and I want to play it for Him, not me. I have been there, I've seen the evils that music can bring. The musician that has taught me everything I know died last August. Many times did I see him drinking, leading the life that came with the music that we played. It tore my heart out to lose him, I loved him, he was like a dad to me, and closer to the end for him, he came to know Christ, he was a believer, I know we will see each other again, and it will be very soon, because eternity knows no boundaries. He was the best guitar player I had ever seen, I was blessed to learn from him, and I want to put what I learned to use in Gods kingdom.
In closing, I would like to quote scripture.
1 Corinthians 8:12-13 says:
But when you sin so against the brothers, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ.
Why, if meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world stands, lest I make my brother to offend.
Meaning that we are
not to offend our brothers with what we do. CCM allows people to no longer "dress moderately" as Paul has taught us, it allows the lifestyle that comes with secular music to come into our churches and corrupt the weak. We should all stand up and recognize this.
Todd
