Evaluating Music

This process is one of the few activities that I cannot decide my stance on fully... probably because I can see both sides of the issue. I can't bring myself to say that this is unnecessary, because it is always important to evaluate what we are singing and saying in church. However, at the same time, in my opinion, the standards I think that church leaders should use are different than the ones you had us use in class.

I think its important to look at the content, and if something contradicts scripture, this is obviously not okay. However, the process we went through of holding it up to scripture, while it was interesting to see where songs drew some of their lyrics from, I believe is unnecessary and limiting. I have always had a hard time with fundamentalist ideas in general... I believe that the Bible is true and inspired by God and should be used as a basis of truth. But holding every little thing up to scripture, and throwing things out just because they aren't in the Bible, while they don't contradict it, is wrong. I believe there is plenty of truth outside of scripture, and most of the songs we evaluated I found little problem with, even if what they said didn't directly stem from a Bible verse. For instance, many of the metaphors the authors wrote were beautiful and reflected truth that they discovered through their experiences with God. There are plenty of real Christians who live off the Bible alone, but I think that God is so much bigger than the Bible. He can't be limited to a book, and our responses to Him shouldn't be either. The people IN the Bible listened directly to God, and I feel like its a huge problem in our culture to only limit God to what He has said in the past. I'm not saying that we shouldn't hold all music up to the Bible... I think that it is important to hold compare lyrics to the Bible and the core beliefs of the truth, and if the words in a song clearly oppose these values, it should definitely not be sung. I understand this is a bigger issue than the topics we have discussed in class, something that separates denominations, etc. But I can at least argue that this process would probably be a little different for some churches than more conservative churches.

In addition, I think that reading the evaluating the text based on its literary style was kind of pointless, as well. You yourself said that its all about the words, the message. If the words are being clearly communicated, I think that it is a valuable song. Poetry and music are very intertwined, but it is not necessary for a song to function as a poem with a defined rhythmic scheme and rhyming words. However, even if we did use this standard of evaluation, I think that there would be very few songs that would not meet this standard, if any. Modern poetry comes in many many different forms-- it definitely doesn't have to rhyme, and the pattern of words can vary to the extreme. Because music is very rhythmical, I think that it almost always will be a poem in today's standards. But even if this song that doesn't meet the "standard" is found, throwing it out for that reason would be totally missing the point. If a song has a beautiful message and communicates it well, it doesn't really matter how we communicate it. It may not meet the standards of the musical world or the music faculty at a university of a good song, but if it has a good message, it definitely meets God's standards. And who are we singing to?

I understand that this was an important element of music throughout history and that a lot of the beautiful music we have today stemmed from music in the church. And contemporary music in the church is a lot different and simplified and would probably not meet the high standards of a quality composition. I think hymns are beautiful, poetically and musically, and its sad that a lot of the elements that made these songs beautiful has been lost as Christian music has evolved. However, the beautiful poetry that is found in hymns is just not NECESSARY. Its valuable, but not necessary. If we are evaluating the quality of a song, we could use this standard, but it is not a valid reason for throwing a song out of the church repertoire.

Here is where I agree. I agree that it is very important to evaluate what a song says, because we do not want to sing something that is untrue. And I think that a lot of churches fail to do this, and this is a dangerous thing to do. I also think that it is important to determine the function of a song and the overall message of a song, and it can be beneficial to choose a song that would be appropriate for a service based on its function. The music staff at my church very closely examine the message of a song and try to correlate the words to supplement the sermon. And I think that it causes you to leave church with the message firmly placed in your heart, versus singing random things and hearing random sermons and messages. This isn't necessary, but I think its a great idea. I think selecting and organizing music is an art, sort of like the music itself. It is nice to have a worship service with people that can sing well, with instruments that can play well, but it so much more about the heart. The same is true for musical compositions-- I think it is great to have music that is tastefully composed, but it is just as beautiful, if not more beautiful, to God if it is simple, but carries a powerful message. It makes me think of a story my worship pastor told us at church one Sunday about his experiences at a prison. He had brought his own music to sing at a prison with the inmates, but he realized when he got there that he had forgotten his powerpoint with the words. He only had time to make one with the choruses, but he realized that when it actually came time to sing, everyone sang the entire time. He said he didn't realize they were singing right away and then wondered what in the world they were singing. Some were singing the chorus the entire time, some were probably singing their own words. To a musician, it probably would have been viewed as a disaster. But our worship leader said that it was one of the most beautiful things he has ever experienced, because whatever they were singing, they meant it. I think that once we get off of our high-class American horse, we can really see what church music is really about. Its about communicating to God, whatever is on our heart, whatever is on our mind. And sometimes its about a hearing a message from God. There are definitely standards that we should evaluate, but when we get caught up in trivial matters, I think that it is easy to lose sight of the point. The point being that as long as our heart is in the right place, whatever we offer God is beautiful, even if it is ugly to the world's standards or even to our own standards. I believe that the best song for a service may be a song that does not meet your standards, or even my standards, but is a song that is the most beneficial medium for worshiping God. There are definitely standards we should never throw out-- we should never sing a song that is untrue. But I think that we need to evaluate and reevaluate our standards, especially if they are trivial. There are billions of people in the world and billions of ways to communicate with God, and we should definitely not limit ourselves to what we are familiar with.

I'd like to say, finally, that I hope that because I tended to disagree with you on everything, that I did not participate in the ideas that were presented in class. I definitely thought through and evaluated everything-- I just hardly ever agreed with it. But it has really shaped how I view music and how I will lead a congregation if God ever calls me to do that, giving me a better grasp of different views that I had hardly considered before. I'd also like to say that I don't just accept things as they are. I don't go to the church I go to or believe the things I believe because its been handed down to me. I have evaluated and reevaluated everything, and have switched churches and have thought through many issues and struggled with my faith. I do not just settle. I have just found myself in a different place than you find yourself, with different views and stances. But I hope you can respect that it is a thought out stance, at least. :) And I'm grateful for the issues that were brought up in class, they have definitely helped me in my growth as a musician and a Christian. God bless.