On Music in Church

Erik Routley, in The Music of Christian Hymns:

There is an "immobility in amateur singers which composers for them have to live with. They like repeated notes and stepwise movement--which they get in many popular tunes today."

Speaking of a hymn melody: "Its popularity must be mainly due to its extreme simplicity.  Not many tunes move only within the compass of a fifth, but this one does, and it could not be easier to memorize. In all other respects it is limited and unenterprising, but congregations will put up with a great deal of that if it brings with it the premium of demanding very little effort on their part. (Musicians constantly wonder why congregations in church tolerate so much dull and tedious music; but musicians have to live with a certain amount of that because not everybody is like them: they are like good tennis players having to play with rabbits.)"

I agree completely with this need to accommodate the man in the pew's musical ability, while rejecting the tone of superiority I perceive in the quote.

It isn't loving the boring or tedious, but returning to the familiar and easier so your focus can be on the Lord Himself.

As a pastor and musician, I think it is critical that church musicians reject an attitude of superiority to the congregation (why can't they appreciate more complex music?) and adopt one of service.  Not saying you've got that problem, but I've seen it around now and then.  Yes, you have more musical knowledge and skill and appreciation than most at church, but how you bring that to them to crucial.  Just as a preacher needs to connect with people on their level and not just dish up a lot of Hebrew/Greek and heady theology in the pulpit, so music selection needs to be accessible and only occasionally challenging.

I remember starting a pastorate years ago and being excited to have the Trinity Hymnal and Book of Psalms for singing to work with as far as picking music every week.  I went a little crazy picking too much lesser known stuff in my zeal to expand the congregation's repertoire.  A wise deacon piped up at a Session meeting and asked if I could limit the unfamiliar number of hymns/Psalms to 1, 2 at the most, per service.  I was a little grumpy about it at first, but he was right.  I love the Psalms and ancient hymns we sing at church, but I think we can frustrate our congregations and especially visitors unknowingly when we sing too much complex and challenging music.

People usually come to worship music as a place of rest, NOT a time they want to learn something new and put in effort to explore creatively.  The familiar facilitates worship in a way the new does not.  We know this liturgically - routine is important - recall the CS Lewis quote about not wanting to feel experimented on during a worship service!  The time we spend focused on the steps of the dance (learning new music or trying complex music) should be minimized in preference to enjoying the familiar dance.  Not that we have to always cater to that ("Sing a new song to the Lord") but we need to serve them with the main goal of facilitating worship.  That means considering the frame of human worshipers and managing expectations accordingly.  Educating or innovating creatively in our music selection is a lower priority, though also important.

My favorite example of this: when 9/11 happened I was in seminary with a college campus next door.  The college chapel people came over, planning a memorial service that night, wanting to borrow the seminary's hymnals.  (They didn't have any.)  They knew the CCM they were singing wouldn't cut it in the face of such tragedy.  On a smaller scale, your average worshiper comes into church every Sunday seeking refuge from distress in the familiar.

Revolutionaries // Seriously

Groen van Prinsterer should be better known.  Here is an article summarizing the 19th Century Dutch historian's thoughts on the French Revolution, politics and faith.  For one example, the Revolution showed that a government based on secular unbelief will be not the savior, but the executioner of the people.  He also critiques social contract theory, which repudiated the divine right of kings, and which was foundational in the American political formation.  Van Prinsterer's book "Unbelief and Revolution" has just been reprinted.


John Piper has a serious article on Galatians.  After quoting several verses of Paul's imploring and severe words ("let them be accursed!"), Piper drops this bombshell: "Woe to the pastor or the worship leader who creates an entertainment atmosphere in their church where this kind of seriousness feels out of place."  Churches need to do a lot more thinking of how to foster in our meetings an emotional tone that fits with Scripture instead of so badly going against its grain, in trying to be casual, accessible, hip, or otherwise relevant to the culture around them.

A Bible Question: Does God Stop Listening?

Psalm 32:6 "Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him."

Question: Isn't that saying that sometimes God isn't listening? What am I missing?

The main point here connects with verse 5: there will come a time when it is too late to repent and be forgiven. Both in our death and God's final judgment of us.  But also on earth, God brings consequences for our sins after a time if we don't change in time.

The second half of the verse is tricky and can be read two ways.
1. "They" refers to the godly's prayers. The point then is that the prayers of confession are too late - only to stop the consequences, not to really repent. Hebrews 12:16-17 would be an example of this. I don't read the verse this way, because it says "the godly," and it's the ungodly who act this way.

2. "They" refers to the waves that won't reach the godly. Verse 7 seems to confirm this. This isn't an absolute: "the godly will never have trouble, and be spared all consequences of their sin." But there is an ultimate sparing and mercy from God to His people.

Handling Your Toddler's Temper Tantrum

What do I do when my 2 year old throws a tantrum?

What parent of little ones hasn’t faced this?  Here are some thoughts.

1.      Remember the human condition.  We have inherited a sinful nature going all the way back to Adam and Eve.  As your child’s physical capabilities grow, so will her ability to sin.  Expect this, no matter how diligent you are in your home to discipline your children.  When the fit starts, maybe you arranged things badly and can learn from that.  But many times a tantrum comes from sin welling up from within.  You haven’t failed as a parent.  When you enroll in a math class you should expect math problems; when you become a parent, expect to deal with sin in your child.

2.      Trust God.  The first step in solving this problem is faith.  You’re staring sin right in the face, and it’s in your precious baby!  You’re desperate to stop it, and you know you’re called to deal with it.  But remember we overcome sin only with God’s help.  The toddler tantrum is one of the early indicators for Christian parents that they are not in full control of their child’s soul.  God is sovereign here as everywhere, so we have to trust Him.  But that is not a resigned trust.  God has given us promises of blessing for our children as we trust Him.

3.      Keep calm, and parent on.  What does faith look like when the tantrum starts?  Keep a calm and strong spirit in response to an emotional child.  If you lose it in response to their losing it, you are not leading but following your child.  I don’t care what Montessori says, this is the death of good parenting.  Pleasant and smiling resistance is the name of the game.

4.      Don’t let them win.  In the long run, “us against them” is a losing parenting attitude.  But when the child makes it that for this episode, if you give them their way, you are training them that they can get what they want from you by some kind of aggressive emoting.  Teach them later the right way to ask for what they want, absolutely.  But in the moment, do not give in.  Do not reward bad behavior.  (It may not be the moment to punish it, either.)  Simply withholding what they want and not replacing it with something else to distract them is often the best approach.  A minute after they stop, have them ask or sign respectfully for the same thing, then give it to them.  If they cry in the crib because they don’t want that nap, waiting to go in to them until the screaming fit ends (or at least pauses) can reinforce in the same way.  Disrespectful clamoring for what you want will not be rewarded.  (Parents mostly taught the last two generations the opposite, and look what it has reaped in the political and public square of so-called debate!)

5.      Be patient.  Toddlers throwing tantrums are generally too young to mentally understand abstract concepts like respect and self-denial, but they are old enough to have learned to exert their will.  This is frustrating to parents.  It takes some months of basic training where you aren’t sure if your explanations, spankings, or other artificial consequences are “taking.”  Trust God, and be as consistent as you can.  Be a student of what your child is learning: “what did he just take away from that episode and my parenting?”  Introduce more extensive negative consequences the older and more able they are to connect them to their behavior.  Tweak your tactics when needed, and be ready for that next tantrum.

Yes, your children are sinners, and it is dis-heartening sometimes to see that in such an ugly form.  But Jesus has died to remove the ugly shame and guilt of their tantrum from God’s sight.  You are called to pull weeds in the garden of your family.  May the Lord give you wisdom and diligence and joy in this calling.