Where do/does you/your church stand on music?

We are pro-music.

 

Not sure what you are looking for! 8o) Congre-
songs choices? Musical instruments used?
Styles of music used/not allowed in worship?
Music thought to be ungodly? Not sure what
you want, so I will try to answer.

We do not use any of the typical songs in a
regular hymnal. All the music we use is more
Jewish, and much of it is sung in Hebrew, but
certainly not all. We have our own hymnal,
but it is for use in our homes; at the synagogue,
we use an overhead for the words.

Some of our songs are Scripture. If any song is
found to be unscriptural in any way, the song is
eliminated. Most of our songs are praise of our
God. Some are slow and thoughtful and some
are very lively.

Our instrumentalists play various instruments,
but we do not have an orchestra; rather, it is
more of a band. The instruments chosen to play
depend upon what the style of music is. We
have a keyboard, flute, trumpet, violins, cello,
and both acoustic and electric guitars. We have
drums, bongos, and several other percussion
instruments.

One of the pastors leads the music. He is very
good with music and plays any instruument
anyone can hand him--or, at least, it seems
that way.

Regarding how we feel about music, music
likes and dislikes are based upon personal
taste. I have noted, however, that most there
lean toward classical music. The young people
have their music, which is not always classical,
but they are not into rock as many others are.

In our teachings, our God has a place in all the
things we do, say, read, hear, produce, etc. If
He, or His teachings, are slandered in any way
in the music, we don't do or listen to that music.

 

We love music.

 

WHere do we stand on music? Usually during the singing of the hymn. For the anthem, we usually sit.

 

We've had pretty much everything.

Except with country, we usually play it backwards. That way, you get your house back, your wife back, and your dog back.

 

TIC Alert!!!

We take a survey among the people to see what type of "worldly" music they prefer, then we pattern our music style after their preferences.

Just for you Preach

 

My small SBC sings hymns only. I was raised that way and prefer them. I'm probably older than most of you and you will understand how hard it is to accept change in the church after many years.

I don't care for the choruses that resemble "vain repetitions" I witnessed while visiting a larger church - after all singing is a form of worship just as prayer is. I'm not saying they are sinful, just saying they are not my preference. He knows He is holy, we don't have to sing it to Him.

However, I don't feel God is revered with Christian rock in His house. You know, I don't even know why a person my age had any business replying to this post.

 

Where do we stand on music? Well, we don't stand on it, but we hold it in our hands. BTW, we stand on the floor!
But in seriousness, We sing hymns, and southern gospel. We use a piano, and organ, and one woman in our church plays a guitar.
~Abby

 

We tend to be fairly conservative in music, but we are open to new things. As far as styles go, we have everything from the Messiah and "high-brow" classical music to a praise band with electric guitars and a drum kit.

Our guiding principle is excellence. If the song is good and scriptural, the musicians are (at least) competent and the music is appropriate to the context of the worship service, we are open to a wide variety of styles.

By and large, our congregation prefers hymns for corporate singing, but we also include contemporary works including praise choruses. We have several composers in the church and we all contribute new work from time to time. (Some of it has even made the Southern Baptist hymnal -- not any of my work (yet ), but the work of Bill Reynolds, former SWBTS seminary professor and leader of the 1975 hymnal committee.)

One bit of "legalism" that we have in our church regarding music is that the pastor and music minister do not allow singers to use pre-recording accompaniment tracks. God has blessed our church with more than enough talented musicians in the congregation to play anything required for a vocalist. About a year ago though, we had some guest singers and there apparently was a miscommunication and the singer had to use a backing track because there was not time to rehearse. It was something of a jarring moment because our church is not used to hearing them. It was extremely distracting to hear the disembodied background singers and instruments.

[ November 27, 2002, 07:30 PM: Message edited by: Baptist Believer ]

 

This is great...very funny...I'm still laughing

 

I read that, too and busted up laughing out loud. That's great!

Our church has a combination of modern praise choruses and the lovely old hymns. I like the combination.

 

9:00 - traditional (hymns)

11:00 - contemporary (hymns/choruses)

7:00 - usually choruses or "special music"

We have an after service service on Sunday nights that's open to anybody but usually only a couple of core folks in the church.

It's pretty cool because it's a free form worship and prayer service and, in my humble opinion, that's where the best music is.

It usually consists of two guitars, mandolin, accordion or piano and sounds like "Desperado"-era Eagles or CSN&Y.

I haven't been in a while because I'm kind of living halfway betweem N.J. amd Maryland and it's hard to make it every Sunday.

 

I don't care for the choruses that resemble "vain repetitions"

Does your church sing "Holy! Holy! Holy!", and if so, do you sing only the first "Holy," then keep your trap closed for the other 2?... vain repetition.

 

Nah, CC, a lot of times you hit the mark, but you missed it that time. It's not vain at all!

 

OK, then how many times can the word "Holy" [or any one word or phrase] be sung without it becoming vain?

 

This IS America old boy and regardless of how snide you might care to be (and you often are), I have a right to my opinion. I suspect you may be short in stature and long on mouth.

 

I know one of those measures 2 7/8 inches and the other 70 1/2 inches... but often I don't remember which is which.