An Open Letter to Praise Bands

Professor James Smith of Calvin College posted an http://forsclavigera.blogspot.com/2012/02/open-letter-to-praise-bands.h… open letter to praise bands and a http://forsclavigera.blogspot.com/2012/02/postscript-to-open-letter-to-… postscript .

In particular, my concern is that we, the church, have unwittingly encouraged you to simply import musical practices into Christian worship that—while they might be appropriate elsewhere—are detrimental to congregational worship… . I sometimes worry that we’ve unwittingly encouraged you to import certain forms of performance that are, in effect, “secular liturgies” and not just neutral “methods.” Without us realizing it, the dominant practices of performance train us to relate to music (and musicians) in a certain way: as something for our pleasure, as entertainment, as a largely passive experience. The function and goal of music in these “secular liturgies” is quite different from the function and goal of music in Christian worship.

I’m not convinced churches do this as “unwittingly” as he says. Also, he distinguishes “form” from “style” which is probably a whole other topic. Regardless, it is an interesting read.