On the Future of Church Music

I recently went to a youth basketball game to see some friends’ little guys dominate on the court. They won! As I sat there watching 8- and 9-year-old boys run up and down the court, I couldn’t help but notice their skill, timing, and precision. It was amazing seeing how they are learning to talk to one another, pass the ball, set up, settle themselves, and take shots. It was really impressive—especially considering how when I was their age, I took a shot, and made it…into the wrong basket!

According to USA Basketball's website, basketball is the most popular sport among youth. I have loved watching basketball since I was in middle school––the intense energy, the constant back-and-forth of the ball, the echo off the walls, the pep band and the pizza. (There’s nothing I enjoy more than going to an Emmanuel College basketball game to see our Lions guys and girls dominate on the court!) As I sat there watching those little guys playing basketball, I also could not help but think about what a great future the sport of basketball must have with all these boys running around learning how to play the sport at their young age.

A few years ago, I stumbled across this infamous meme that has circulated through social media.

With two pictures, one at the top and the other at the bottom, the meme draws a direct line between the development of young musicians and the success of adult musicians. The meme says, “If you want to have this… then you have to have this.” The picture on top is of an orchestra on some grand stage, and the picture on the bottom is of a youth orchestra with children playing cellos and violins. If the picture conveys any truth, and what we are doing today is any indication of what we will have tomorrow, then I wonder, “What does the future of music in the church look like?”

For centuries, the church was the “grand central station” of development in music and the arts. If you wanted to hear good music or see beautiful artwork, then you needed to look no further than the house of the Lord. The architecture of the building on the outside, the immaculate woodwork on the inside, the stained-glass windows, the frescos on the ceiling, and the singing from the chancel were all extraordinary expressions of the church’s high view of God. The high ceilings and spires reached up for the heavens and the cathedral was the place where heaven and earth met, where beings could do what human beings do best when they join with the Spirit to create in the spirit of their Creator. The early Pentecostals were known for playing new or unique instruments in church like the fiddle, banjo, trombone, and saxophone. These were not merely instruments for whorehouses; these were instruments for worship houses! Pentecostals have historically been some of the most intuitive and capable musicians. We gave the last century many of its greatest.

In the not-too-distant past, churches moved away from robust and sometimes, admittedly, complicated music programs. Fewer children were taking music lessons. Public schools became the primary place where kids would be introduced to singing or playing an instrument. This is not working so well anymore. Musical literacy has declined, and the capacity of many aspiring musicians is limited. Budgets to pay music teachers and resource their programs are being slashed so that grade schools may not be able to continue developing musical skills in the next generation. This is an opportunity for instruction and development in music and the arts to return to its origin in the house of God.

Many pastors are looking for competent musicians and anointed worship leaders to serve in the church. Now is the time to pick up the mantle once again of prioritizing the development of musicians for worship in a manner that is not unlike that of Chenaniah, Heman, Asaph, and Jeduthun, who were appointed by King David to train 4,000 Levites to become skilled musicians who would lead temple worship (1 Chron. 15). Perhaps the best place to our next worship pastors may very well be in our children’s churches.

We who are people of the Spirit believe that the Spirit is being poured out upon sons and daughters in these last days (according to Joel 2 and Acts 2). Indeed, the Spirit of God is empowering creative young men and women to be musical priests and Levites who serve the house of the Lord. I am seeing this in my day-to-day interactions with students called to the ministry of music and worship. If the church’s young kids can play football, basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer before they turn ten years old, then surely, they can learn to be like the young shepherd, David, whose heart for God compelled him to sing and play skillfully with God’s anointing, and to write many psalms of praise to the Lord. May the mandate to raise up the next generation of musical servants and lead worshippers in the house of God grip the people of the Spirit and propel us into greater dimensions of worship than we have ever known.

Things That Make You Say "AH"

I have a theory, and my theory is that so many of the issues we are having in our society today can be traced back to the steep rise in the emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and the declining value of the arts and humanities (emphasis on HUMANities) in education and society. Think of any major global, national, or local issue, and consider how a better education in the arts and humanities could improve [or could have improved] the conversation and the outcome of our big decisions. The arts and humanities (AH) help us learn to say, "AH," and I don't think we say, "AH," enough anymore. So I propose that we learn to say "AH" more often.

"Ah, wow!"

"Ah, that's beautiful!"

"Ah, I see what you mean."

"Ah, that makes sense now."

"Ah, yes."

When we don’t know how to think through issues, talk through issues, read well (and I don’t mean the ability to read words but the ability to understand ideas), participate in social activities that transcend the physical, then all we are left with is what STEM can manage, which is only physical, material, and temporal. So we do not understand the value of what it means to be human and to live. This can be traced to the rise of industrialization in the 1800s and to utilitarianism—basically the idea that something is only valuable if it can be useful. But this completely undermines the arts and humanities, which are what give life to STEM.

“What use is a book? What use is an education? What use is a song? All that fluff doesn’t help me put food on the table!”

Perhaps not, but it certainly helps us enjoy life with the people who sit at the table. It’s the difference between a baked potato and a loaded baked potato. You can eat a baked potato and fill your belly, but the “loaded” part makes it taste a lot better! That’s what the arts do for life: they make it taste better.

The arts and humanities lay the foundation and steady the ship for human flourishing—for finding meaning in life, connection and relationships, joy in the midst of sorrow. STEM alone is/are STErile. It's the difference between what helps us make a living and what helps us make a life. STEM can keep us alive, but the AH gives us a reason to live. STEM shows us what humans are capable of accomplishing, but they cannot show us why it matters. It takes the arts and humanities to do that.

Even in much of the music of today, the advancements of digital technology and audio engineering have allowed us to remove all the human qualities that made the music of the analog age so rich. We can master the human quality right out of anything—a song, a film, a piece of art. We need a revival of the arts and humanities, gifts that God gave us to infuse STEM with purpose—purpose without which STEM has no direction, focus, or ultimate meaning. The arts and humanities teach us to understand people, empathize, be compassionate, love, think of others, ask questions, listen, be still, and learn why. When we don’t learn to value history and we don’t learn to read to comprehend ideas and we don’t seek to understand what we don’t know, then we cannot have meaningful conversations about big ideas, we cannot effectively solve big problems, and we cannot prioritize human life and living within the context of science, systems, structures, equations, economics, engineering, ”Big Tech,” small tech, trigonometry, algebra, calculus, all the letters and numbers...

We must learn to listen to music again, read a book in addition to the blog, seek beauty in a finished product and not just a contract fulfilled, and understand history and its impact on life today. We must once again learn to value the things that make us say, "AH."

"The End" of the World: We Know It

In the last several weeks, the whole world has been watching events unfold in Russia and Ukraine as one wicked man seems to have become the central focus of collective international concern. The global economy has been disrupted. Alliances have been strengthened. Conventional war on a level not seen in decades has ensued. The prospect of nuclear war ominously looms. All of this has many people thinking about the “last days” and the “end of time.” Recently, one of my students requested prayer for the people being affected by the war in Ukraine. Sensing fear and worry in the room, my instinct was to open my Bible. Before we went to prayer, we went to Scripture. I turned to Revelation 22 and began reading:

The angel said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God who inspires the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place.”

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. But he said to me, “Don’t do that! …Worship God!” (Rev. 22:6, 8-9, NIV).

An apocalyptic awareness has manifested in the past two years as the world has experienced the devastating effects of COVID-19 and all its repercussions. The recent war in Ukraine has only heightened this apocalyptic awareness, bringing the book of Revelation once again to the forefront of our minds as we journey toward understanding the story of Scripture.

The book of Revelation belongs to a literary genre all its own–apocalyptic literature–which has led to much debate about its interpretation. Understanding the book of Revelation is less “black and white” than we like to admit, and it simply takes more time and space for wrestling than we often allow. Yet we cannot settle to either dogmatically oversimplify or otherwise leave the book untouched because its content matters greatly. It matters because of its historical context, the present reality, as well as what it says about our future with Christ. Much could be said about types and symbols––the beast and the Lamb, the whore and the Bride, the antichrist and the Christ, and more. We could deal with charts, maps, and timelines. But ultimately, at the end of all this, in the very last chapter of the Bible, what we find the Revelator doing is modeling for us what our end goal must be: worshipping God. So, I want to talk about the end.

When the world seems to be coming unhinged, we should be found worshipping God. We believe that Jesus is coming again and when he returns, he will be looking for those who were faithful to him in the good times as well as in the difficult times. What should we be doing when we don’t know what else to do? Worshipping God is always the right thing to do. He will be looking for those who take him at his word: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, NIV). He will be looking for those who to whom he can say, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord” (Matt. 25:23, NKJV). In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus says, “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come” (Matt. 24:6, NIV, emphasis added). Note also that Matthew’s gospel account closes with these comforting words from Jesus: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20, NIV, emphasis added). These references to the end are worth viewing in light of John’s vision.

Early in his vision, John witnesses the worshipping saints and elders recorded in chapters four, five, seven, and later in eleven. In the final moments of his vision, the theme of worship resurfaces when John hears the voice of Christ saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End” (Rev. 22:13, NIV, emphasis added). Indeed, it is not calamity or catastrophe, destruction or devastation that endures to the end. In the end, it is Christ who outlives and outlasts all the powers of darkness and evil, and reigns forever as the One who is faithful and true. It is with this in mind that our preaching must bring people the hope of the gospel, not despair in the failure of government. Indeed, the government rests on his shoulders and of the increase of his government there shall be no end). Our songs can become more than an escape from reality but a reminder of Christ’s victory over all the power of the enemy. Our gatherings for worship can become rehearsals for the day on which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the lordship of Christ Jesus.

Certainly, many of the events happening in the world today feel so ominous and so threatening, even so potentially catastrophic, that they strike dread and fear in our hearts, perhaps even to the point that we can become nearly desensitized to the negative news. But I want to suggest to you that our best response in times of crisis as well as in times of calm, in times of difficulty as well as in times of serenity, is to do like John and, when we see the unfolding of frightening events, we are compelled to not fear or worry but to bow down and worship God. Our response to the issues of our day must ultimately be follow John’s example from so many years ago: to fall down at the feet of Jesus and worship the King of kings who reigns forever. We worship until the end. We worship the One who is the End. In the end, all that is left is to worship.