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When did music become an issue?

Discussion in 'Music Ministry' started by NaasPreacher (C4K), May 5, 2008.

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  1. NaasPreacher (C4K)

    NaasPreacher (C4K) Well-Known Member

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    Serious question, and one for which I really don't have a clue. Hoping someone here knows and is not just guessing.

    I heard the Beatles on the radio this morning. I got to thinking (VERY bad thing) about when music style became an issue. It seems to me like perhaps there was some kind of connexion between the "Beatles era" and an issue over music in church. I know that it was about then that facial hair became an issue.

    So my question is this - does anyone know when the musical style became an issue in churches? It seems like I have heard some reports about Sanky's style being an issue as well.

    Just curious as I mull over some stuff in my own head.
     
    #1 NaasPreacher (C4K), May 5, 2008
  2. MNJacob

    MNJacob Member

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    Seriously, when polyphonic instrumentally accompanied choral works began to displace Gregorian chant.

    This is not a "new" problem.
     
    #2 MNJacob, May 5, 2008
  3. SBCPreacher

    SBCPreacher Active Member
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    That's a good point. It became a new problem as each different musical style was introduced (and then entered the church). It's not just a hymns v. CCM thing.

    I can hear the fights now - "We've always sung CCM. It was good enough for my grandma! I don't think we ought to change to _______. In fact, if we do, I'm leaving this church and finding a CCM only church!""
     
    #3 SBCPreacher, May 5, 2008
  4. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    From the Baptist Hymnal (SBC)

    Congregational singing has not always been a common practice in Baptist churches. Some churches in both England and America in the 17th century offered vigorous opposition to "promiscuous singing" (the singing of believers and unbelievers together) and the singing of "set forms" (the metrical versions of the psalms because they were "man-made") However, congregational singing prevailed and continues to be a vital force in Christian worship and fellowship among Baptists.

    If that is the case, I would ask DR Bob for a firsthand account.:laugh: . Hmm, I wonder which side of the camp he was on :1_grouphug:
     
    #4 Salty, May 5, 2008
  5. rsr

    rsr <b> 7,000 posts club</b>
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    The proper mode of singing - and even if it should be allowed at all - was a matter of dispute among 17th century Baptists.

    The Generals, as The Baptist Hymnal noted, shunned "set-piece" singing (as well as planned sermons) in the belief that such liturgical niceties were not spontaneous and would quench the Spirit. (John Smyth even objected to the use of printed Bibles during worship services, much less printed hymns.)

    The controversy came to a head in a very public dispute between Isaac Marlow and Benamin Keach. Marlow wrote that "our Brethren are not able to cite us one Text of Scripture inthe whole Bible, to shew that ever the Ministers and the People sang with conjoined Voices in the Instituted Worship of God under the Law ..."

    Singing "metrical Rhymes," he said was "neither Scriptural, Spiritual, nor simply Natural, but Artificial Worship, that pelaseth Nature and not God; and if our People will have it, right or wrong, they must answer for it at the Judgment-seat of Christ, where I expect to stand the tryal of these Controversies with our Brethren."

    Keach had introduced singing to his congregation for the Lord's Supper, and the custom gradually spread to special services and finally to regular Sunday services. Keach, in addition to endorsing singing, also published hymn books that broke with the Puritan practice of using only metrical psalms – Biblical psalms paraphrased to be easier to sing – by introducing songs that were not from scripture.

    Those of Keach's bent eventually won out. His son, Elias, preached around Philadelphia early in the 18th century, and after the Philadelphia Baptist Association was formed, it reworked the Second London Baptist Confession to specifically name hymn singing as an ordinance:

    Of course, there were more controversies concerning the use of musical instruments, which only gradually gained acceptance among mainstream Baptists.

    In the mid-1800s, Baptist historian David Benedict would recall some of the dispute:

     
    #5 rsr, May 9, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: May 9, 2008
  6. NaasPreacher (C4K)

    NaasPreacher (C4K) Well-Known Member

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    Good posts. Thank you.

    Does anyone know if it more or less continued through the years, or if it was settled for a while then reawakened in the last few decades?
     
    #6 NaasPreacher (C4K), May 9, 2008
  7. exscentric

    exscentric Well-Known Member
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    From my limited view the cont. music issue began when the Gaithers started writing their first music. There were two issues in the circles I was in.

    1. They were charismatic and why would fundamental/evangelical folks want to support charismatics in anything (as in giving them money support or be identified with them).

    2. The Gaithers put out a song that was really off doctrinally and they were asked to change the words and they refused telling their detractors that the words to their music were inspired by the Holy Spirit.

    Some time later some of the music was coming out of groups like Later Rain.

    That is my recollection at least. :thumbs:
     
    #7 exscentric, May 9, 2008
  8. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    I still like their music
     
    #8 Salty, May 9, 2008
  9. sister christian

    sister christian Member

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    I really believe that so much of what is debated amongst various christian churches and denominations does not really come down to theology so much as a difference in the temperments and the expression thereof.

    People that are of a more sanguine temperment gravitate toward a charismatic type church, and therefore their music is going to be more demonstrative as well.

    People who are of a melancholy temperment may gravitate toward a more traditional and reserved style of worship, and their musical preference is going to reflect their temperment, etc.
     
    #9 sister christian, May 9, 2008
  10. J.D.

    J.D. Active Member
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    I agree. This is the root of the problem. But in spite of personality differences, I have yet to meet someone that does not get the same goose bumps that I do when the Hallelujah Chorus is done well. So there must be common ground between people's preferences. THAT is the direction we should be going.
     
    #10 J.D., May 9, 2008
  11. sister christian

    sister christian Member

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    Amen and Hallelujah! By the way, did you know that the word Hallelujah or allelujah is universal in every single language?
     
    #11 sister christian, May 10, 2008
  12. Sopranette

    Sopranette New Member

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    Maybe it was when lifestyles and genres of music could no longer be seperated.

    love,

    Sopranette
     
    #12 Sopranette, May 12, 2008
  13. Gayla

    Gayla New Member

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    I thought the Gaithers were Nazarene. Is that considered Charismatic?

    Is "The King is Coming" the song you're thinking of?


     
    #13 Gayla, May 12, 2008
  14. exscentric

    exscentric Well-Known Member
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    "I thought the Gaithers were Nazarene. Is that considered Charismatic?

    Don't know what they were or are but the thinking at the time was Charismatic and no Nazarene's are not normally charismatic.
    Is "The King is Coming" the song you're thinking of?"

    My memory does not recollect that fer back.
     
    #14 exscentric, May 12, 2008
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