So... I've been thinking. When we first returned to my old church, they were going through some growing pains in regards to what kind of music people wanted during the service. You know the age old fight... do we allow new funky contemporary music or do we stick with old-style hymns and stuff.

I think the whole fight rather disappointed our preacher, and he preached once really blatantly about the subject... about how we shouldn't be fighting over something that isn't essential to salvation. No where in the Bible does it discuss proper music or anything of the sort. I'll admit to that. Since then, he's always brought it up a bit more subtley in his sermons. (I wonder if anyone picks up on it.) Since then, I, personally, have become less aggressive when it comes to music styles. Sure, I can't stand the boring, brainless, three-word, three-minute songs they sing sometimes, but I take it in stride.

However... there's always the subliminal issue of "reverence". WHY do people fight for new, contemporary music? I notice that most (but not all) newer songs seem to talk about you, the singer, and what you're doing for God. "I pledge to do this", and "I'm going to do that", and "I'm giving you this", and "I need to do that". So why do we sing songs in church?

Well, it's "worship", right? That's what most churches call singing time. The way I see it... most contemporary songs aren't talking about God's glory and grace and power, they're talking about how awesome "we" are and what "we've" been doing. It's easy for me to see the words to songs, since our church has a projector. You should try analyzing the words to songs sometime. I'm not saying ALL newer songs are this way, and I've seen some older hymns the same way... but I've just noticed that MOST newer songs are like this.

I'm all for jazzing things up a bit. Personally, the old hymns put me to sleep and I'm not awake during the sermon and I HATE that. I've just never been able to do that. Our church has an early service that still plays strictly old songs by one piano, and it's a real drag. I just can't do it. However, for the later services, you've got the complete other side of the spectrum where it can become just crazy songs. Not nearly as bad as just about every other church I've visited, as I have to keep reminding myself, but it's still a bit out there sometimes.

What I have a problem with are the songs that repeat the same words and/or the same notes over and over again. It's brainless and boring and it hurts to listen to. Anyone can bonk out some tune on a piano, write the words "You are holy" and just repeat it enough times to make it as long as a hymn. Which actually brings me to another point of newer songs.

The lyrics are so completely vague. They always talk about "you" and "him". They barely ever say "God" or "Jesus". The songs could be applied to ANYONE. Sure, we know who we're singing it to, but that doesn't make the song special or dedicated to Him. Try picturing if you can sing a "worship song" to, say... your wife. If it's just some silly love song that can be applied to anyone, then I don't think it belongs in the church. It is, quite literally, a "worship song". The song is worshipping, yes, but it could be worshipping anything you're singing it to. It's nothing special. I don't think those belong in the church.

I can't remember if I ever told you about the song they sang once... it sounded... uhm... like some pop song you'd sing during a "James Bond bed scene". It was so embarrasingly vague and just... steamy sounding. I refused to even sing it in my head. No way I'm singing something that could be in some porn video. I can't remember all the lyrics, but it was talking about breathing and warmth and touching and being close to each other, and... uhm, yeah... I'm not that kind of guy. The icing on the cake was that it never mentioned any names, so it could be sung to anyone and anything. Not... good... But thank God we haven't sung that more than twice and not for a while.

Another thing that comes up when I think of people fighting over music... WHY are you fighting? I guess I kind of got distracted from my "reverence" point. But here we go! I mean, are you arguing over the music because you feel it's not reverent, or because it's not the music YOU like? I'm kind of torn on this, because, naturally, people have songs that THEY like. It's just a natural thing. But are you wanting to sing songs because YOU want to hear it, or because you want to praise God with it? To me, it almost seems as if there's a fine line between enjoying the praising and just plain enjoying the song. I mean, I have favorite contemporary songs that I listen to sometimes. But I admit it's for my listening pleasure.

So, when people don't want to sing a certain song, or want to play a certain kind of music, are they worried that the song isn't properly praising God? Or are they upset that someone doesn't like listening to their favorite song. I'm okay with contemporary songs, myself. As long as it's not too wild. I mean, please... crazy drum solos and heavy beats and stuff, that's usually only for personal enjoyment. You can SAY that it's for God's glory, but is it REALLY? I'm biased here, I admit, because I've heard some scary stuff about the origination of rock music, and how drums beats are anti-harmonious and rather dangerous. For crying out loud, witchdoctors use drums to summon spirts. Specially designed beats and rhythms that witchdoctors turned Christian will pick out in "modern music". That, to me, is really freaky. But that's something else entirely that I'm not quite prepared to talk about. I'm a bit rusty on sources for that.

So, I guess... that problem I see in music isn't necessarily the music (well, unless it gets too wild), but the fact that people seem to get upset because THEY aren't getting what THEY want. I think we need to watch out for that more than anything else. I think a lot of the in-fighting will stop if we concentrate on worrying about singing songs that are specifically reverent to GOD and GOD alone, songs that aren't so vague that they can be sung to your significant other, and songs that aren't outlining everything YOU'VE done for God, instead of what HE'S done for YOU. Come on, it's a time to worship GOD, not yourself! This is basically what I've always had a problem with.

So... it's late... and I started losing my focus, but I hope you've got the point.