Are You Wired More Like an Artist or Engineer in Corporate Worship?
“The engineer-type Christian often sees the sermon as the main event. They’ll tolerate the singing, but it’s the doctrine-rich, cross-referenced, bullet-pointed sermon that truly feeds them. Meanwhile, the artist might feel most alive during the music and quietly wish the sermon would get trimmed to fifteen minutes so they can get back to singing.” - 9 Marks
...not having a soul as I consider the notion that engineers will favor the sermon over the rest of the service. Are we nerd-Americans all effectively redheads?
OK, seriously, I would phrase things somewhat differently, noting that a fundamental distinction in literature is the difference between poetry and prose, a distinction that parallels general (not absolute) distinctions between how sermons are usually delivered, and how congregational singing ought to be. There are people who comprehend prose far better than poetry, and vice versa. As a nerd-American who loves the written word, I would suggest it's their loss that they do not comprehend both great divisions of literature, but I acknowledge the reality.
And going further, I might suggest that when much church music fails to engage, it is in part because the composers fail to appreciate the distinction of poetry and the use of poetic devices as engagement and mnemonic tools. If you think about it, you might from time to time think "this is like Executive Order 13423 put to music"--that is the infamous example of a Common Core recommendation to put "informational reading" ahead of Shakespeare.
Our society is largely a prose society, for better or worse, and there are times it shows in our church services. Let's bring back poetry.
Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.
I’m less of a poetry person than a prose person myself, but I do love singing, and great poetry makes for great hymns.
Our worship pastor/song leader just taught a class for pastors (which I unfortunately had to miss because it was during regular working hours) on why pastors and others learned in the scriptures need to learn poetry and how to write it, as many of the great hymns came from pastors and others who understood the doctrines and could put them down in poetic form. The reason many of the newer spiritual songs are lacking in his opinion is that our spiritual leaders have lost the art of poetic expression.
I agree that we should bring more of it back, even if I would have absolutely no idea how to do it myself.
Dave Barnhart
when much church music fails to engage, it is in part because the composers fail to appreciate the distinction of poetry and the use of poetic devices as engagement and mnemonic tools.
I’m not for dumbing down the songs. At the same time, I don’t hold that every song needs to be theologically or poetically rich. Similar to Bert’s point, music should be enjoyed, and there is nothing wrong with simple truth expressed in a simple way.
1 Cor 12 encourages us to appreciate the diversity of the body. An implication is that the singing should have a good variety in form, though within constraints.
What is the point of there being music in worship at all? I have to think part of it is to beautify truth. So poetry matters, and musical form matters.
It’s not mainly about mnemonics—just look at the Psalms—though it can help in that way.
Speaking of the Psalms, it’s not like we have no biblical examples of what congregational singing should be like. Granted, there is cultural complexity involved in transferring what we find there across settings. It’s also significant that in the NT church life, there is an expansion beyond “Psalms” (e.g. Col 3.16).
But what we find in the Psalms is significant. We find a lot of poetic imagery, not much catchy rhyming (as in, zero). There’s a lot of spiritual and emotional honesty. A lot. There is didactic lecture, calls for judgment, emotional outpourings, and of course, a whole lot of praise. And sometimes it is quite repetitive—so, some validation for the “7-11” song (seven words eleven times), even.
To me, the obvious takeaways are: Variety is good. Beauty is important. Truth is non-negotiable.
Views expressed are always my own and not my employer's, my church's, my family's, my neighbors', or my pets'. The house plants have authorized me to speak for them, however, and they always agree with me.
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