I have no doubt that many of the people who press for particular styles of music in worship are motivated by a desire to help us be more culturally relevant in the liturgical life of the church. They believe our musical expressions in worship needs to sound more like...
“I will sing with the mind and also the spirit.” (I Cor. 14:15) Music engages both emotion and intellect, so directors should clearly enable their singers to sing with intelligence, expression and faith. Complex and overly challenging music could stand in the way of...
The use of music as an expression of emotion linked to theological truth is common in all churches. In the evangelical traditions where personal religious experience is emphasized, emotional expression is one of music’s most important meanings; it is probably that...
Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent.
After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music. from Music at Night
Feelings are great liars. If Christians only worshiped when they felt like it there would be precious little worship that went on. Feelings are important in many areas, but completely unreliable in matters of faith… We think that if we don’t FEEL something there can...
Worship is a soundtrack for the rest of life, the words and music and actions of worship inside the sanctuary playing the background as we live our lives outside, in the world… The words of worship are like stones thrown into the pond; they ripple outward in countless...
Emotionally expressive worship has a strangely addictive quality for many. This may lead some to worship their worship experience, rather than worship God. from The Great Worship Awakening
Is not formal worship, some ask, an irrelevant waste of time? Perhaps it can be so construed. For candles and flowers are as irrelevant as the song of birds, hymn and chant are as non-utilitarian as a lover’s kiss, prayers and litanies are just words—cheap as...
Worship is the expression of the Christian believer’s relationship with God. However that relationship is very complex, since God is at one and the same time our Creator, Redeemer (through Jesus Christ), Sustainer, Indweller (by the Holy Spirit), Friend and Judge. I...