Comments on: Christian contemporary

By: Austin

Austin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:00:34 +0000

The spirit of our age (which many Christians drink heavily) says that anytime someone is “stricter” than me in a certain area, or has stronger convictions on a certain point and is not afraid to defend their view, then that person must be hateful and unChristike, no matter how generous and loving the person may actually be. The evangelical church in the U.S. is full of this mindset. I think that, for the most part, the stereotype that Reformed people are hateful is an unwarranted overreaction to the fact that people can’t handle being disagreed with.

By: Amber

Amber — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:26:26 +0000

I didn’t think you were authoritarian or bigoted at all. I just think we need to be careful when we present our opinions on such issues. I’ve discovered more and more recently that we who are reformed seem to have a greater reputation for completely trampling the “weaker brother” than do many. And yes, it worth maturing from, but I think it can be done is such a way as not to do as much trampling as we often do.

By: Matthew Hurley

Matthew Hurley — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:58:04 +0000

Again, I think that’s a good point to keep in mind. I’m all in favor of faith and love, and I’m blessed to be in a church where we can sing a selection of somewhat more reformed-influenced music, but retain that. But I have heard that some churches lose that, and sing what’s supposed to be powerful, worshipful sacred music, but don’t do justice to it. I agree it would be better for them to sing Third Day in a true spirit of worship. Er…I think I believe that. Well, at least if they just sang praise choruses from the 70s, that would be better than stiff, ungrateful Psalms by the reformers or something. Anyways, I don’t mean to come across authoritarian or bigoted, but I do think improving the aesthetic of church music is worth it. I think it’s worth maturing from KMBI 24/7.

By: Amber

Amber — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 07:34:30 +0000

One more, and I’m all done. After some more research I would be very willing to concede that the “bar room” claims may well be unfounded. However, the folk and secular ones aren’t (though the music was often undeniably better then, not all composers/lyricists did, and there are a whole host of other musical and historical arguments that could be made surrounding musical culture in the past). I just get a wee bit tired of some of the inward-focused discussions I see circulate among the reformed (as reformed as I am). We often fail to regard the “others” as brethren or to realize that this is (among other things) a very, very old problem in the history of the church. Now I’m really, truly finished!

By: Amber

Amber — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:30:35 +0000

Oh, and I had actually never heard of bar and folk tunes being associated with Luther, but more with the Wesleys. And even if the “bar tune” part isn’t true, the folk and secular part can be concretely attributed to many hymns. I don’t want to come across as defending CCM, because I don’t approve of most of it, but I do think that those who criticize it most harshly often need to examine themselves for attitudes that come across as superior, unloving, and frankly, un-Christlike. And Anna, on a side-note. I don’t think you are any of those things!

By: Amber

Amber — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 06:25:21 +0000

I agree that much of what is out there isn’t good in either the Christian or secular genres. There are those jokes about I-IV-V-I that are absolutely true, among other flaws. But many Christians, particularly those in Reformed circles, seem to think we have the corner on the musical market and that we’re fighting something entirely new on this front. And we simply aren’t. I did appreciate something pastor Wilson said awhile back in an exhortation. I don’t remember an exact quote, but the gist was something like this. Many of us inreformed circles have the appropriate music for expressing great faith in and love for Jesus, be don’t actually have it. Many who are into the more contemporary music have that faith and love, but lack the means to express it. And I’m sorry to say that all too often I see folks in my circles (people I know and love) getting all riled up, condemning and criticizing those in the latter category.

By: Matthew

Matthew — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 03:09:20 +0000

That’s a good point about the secular tunes. And I don’t think there’s anything wrong with using tunes like that for worship. Sneaking popular folk tunes into classical music produces some brilliant stuff, and snippets of Holst or Brahms have translated into some glorious hymns. Strictly speaking, secular music.

I’m just concerned that much of the Christian Contemporary genre is neither good secular music or good sacred music. Oh, and I like some of the Hebraic or gypsy-sounding melodies for psalms.

By: Mrs Bombie

Mrs Bombie — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 02:48:06 +0000

Bar tunes… hmmm I’ve heard it associated with Martin Luther… look here for a very complete explaination of that error:

http://www.av1611.org/question/cqluther.html

scroll down a bit a good discussion…

By: Amber

Amber — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 23:17:19 +0000

Sorry, I felt that I should add a wee bit more.

I guess my point was that this very struggle is nothing new to music, or the church. In the medieval period church musicians were sneaking secular tunes into the bass lines of the masses they composed, and the clergy were none the wiser. Of course, they were outraged when they learned, but they didn’t learn until these things had been being sung in the churches for sometime. While there are certainly arguments that are very good and valid regarding the theology of contemporary music, others start to fall flat. Some contemporary music isn’t pleasant to listen to at all. And though the quality of the harmonic structure of most of the older psalms and hymns is typically vastly superior, some of them do, quite frankly, just stink in the musicality department. Though I’m sure I’ll raise a few hackles here, and I’m not going to mention names, some who are attempting to write new psalm and hymn tunes are falling rather flat as well. The tunes are terrible, unsingable, and just plain unappealing–even if the theology is right on. Yet, when others use the same psalms, but write variants on Hebrew tunes, or use Hebrew melodic structure, they are critized for sounding “gypsy-ish” or too contemporary, when in reality, ir sounds much more like it would have when those Psalms were written. Okay, I’ll get off of my soapbox now!

By: Amber

Amber — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:51:22 +0000

I’m not a big fan of most contemporary Christian groups, but there are some I listen to. And, having spent 4-1/2 years in undergraduate and graduate music work (at a Baptist university) I learned something that comes as a total shock to most Christians who are appalled by the fact that contemporary Christian music sounds much like secular music. And that is that many of our hymn tunes started as bar tunes. That’s right. Around the time of the reformation there were many hymn writers, who, in an effort to appeal to the masses, put hymn lyrics to bar tunes–and they survived as hymns rather than the bar tunes that they originated as. So, I guess that translates into the same thing that many are trying (and often failing) to do with today’s contemporary music. The theology in those hymns was certainly much better than that of most contemporary songs, but sometimes the history of things we find to be “superior” isn’t entirely as pure and rosy as we like to think…