Excellence in Music – the Role of the Church

We need to contemplate why it is that many would promote a "conservative" philosophy centered on the old hymns (say a lot of the Salvation Army songs that were defended in their day with "why should the devil have all the good songs?"?) instead of a Biblical theology of music that would be more ready to say "you know, we've pushed some very important themes and notions out of our church music, so let's reconsider."

Part of the issue, in my view, is that "pop culture" (a.k.a. modern music) actually has a lot of the things that the Psalms, especially the final two Psalms, seem to recommend. Perfect? Of course not. But reality is that music is to have an emotional component, and there are certain songs that ought to have one tugging one's feet against the nails that hold them to the floor.

Probably step one in my view is to ask ourselves why we have music in the church at all--and my first attempt at an answer is that if well done, it communicates the Word of God and the theology of God to the people of God in a way that prose does not. And if that's a reasonable answer, I think it clears away a lot of our mistakes. Weak lyrics (e.g. "In the Garden")? Doesn't communicate the Word of God to the people of God. Distracting or ineffective tune? Same thing.