As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
In many conservative gospel-preaching churches, the only thing rarer than drums is Psalms singing. This seems particularly odd in view of the fact that most of these churches insist on musical worship that is biblical, that is deeply rooted in history, and that has stood the test of time. What songs are more biblical, more historically rooted, and more timeless than the 150 songs that God Himself breathed out more than 2,000 years ago?
Few words are as apt to elicit a passionate response as the words worship music. Churches, institutions, and homes have been rocked (pun intended) by debates over what is—and more 
often, what is not!—acceptable music. While I understand the debate and tend to land on the conservative side of it, the fact that the term worship is heard by many as a call to arms instead of a call to prayer grieves me.
When I came to Christ at age nineteen, my life was dramatically and irreversibly changed. Many of those changes were immediate. I stopped doing and selling dope. I cut my hair. I burned my rock albums (no CDs then!) and shaved my mustache, the final vestige of my worldly life, before going to Bob Jones University (Greenville, SC).
During the middle of the sixteenth century, there was intense debate about music in the church. Several issues were on the table:
by Greg Howlett
Music is a lightning rod for controversy on SharperIron, and I am hopeful that this article will lead to some thoughtful discussion and introspection. However, I have challenged myself to write about music in a way that is relevant to the average fundamentalist church while avoiding the normal debates about CCM and stylistic preferences.
Aaron Copland was a composer, not an aesthetician or theologian. But as the honorary “Dean of American Composers,” he was often called upon to discuss musical meaning, and his thoughts on the matter were well-informed, both by his study and experience. In the view of this writer (also an American composer, but of a much smaller order!), Copland’s ideas have great value for Christians who make aesthetic judgments in accordance with Scriptural revelation. In a 1951 speech at Harvard, Copland said,
Discussion