The Message in the Music: Studying Contemporary Praise and Worship - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0687645646 ISBN 13: 9780687645640

Verlag: Abingdon Press, 2007

Inhaltsangabe

The definitive guide to the meaning of today’s most popular praise and worship songs.Few things influence Christians’ understanding of the faith more than the songs they sing in worship. The explosion of praise and worship music in the last fifteen years has profoundly affected our experience of God. So what are those songs telling us about who God is? In what ways have they made us more faithful disciples of Jesus Christ? In what ways have they failed to embody the full message of the gospel?Working with the lists of the most frequently sung praise and worship songs from recent years, the authors of this book offer an objective but supportive assessment of the meaning and contribution of the Christian music that has been so important in the lives of contemporary believers.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Robert H. Woods Jr. is Associate Professor of Communication and Media at Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan.


Brian D. Walrath is Associate Professor of Music and Worship Arts at Spring Arbor University in Spring Arbor, Michigan.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

The Message in the Music

Studying Contemporary Praise and WorshipBy Brian D. Walrath

Abingdon Press

Copyright © 2007 The United Methodist Publishing House
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-687-64564-0

Chapter One

How Great Is Our God: The Trinity in Contemporary Christian Worship Music

Lester Ruth

Introduction

According to the Bible, every good and perfect gift is a heavenly one, coming from the Father of lights (James 1:17). Such gifts must include the fullness of the revelation of God unless we want to say that humans have their own power to conjure up a true vision of God. The witness of the apostles, recorded in their writings and crafted by subsequent Christians into a statement of faith, is that God exists and acts as three Persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) in one Godhead. This is the classic Christian faith.

If this is scriptural Christianity, then why should Christians settle for anything less in the content of worship than the fullness of this revelation of God, particularly when the revelation itself is a gift from God? Why should churches be happy with worship that is less than true to God?

Perhaps churches are satisfied with worship that does not reach for a full vision because a consumerist culture leads us to believe that the most critical thing is that worship be true to us. Perhaps some are scared that our worship will become cold if it becomes "theological."

But could not a fuller, richer vision of God actually stimulate love, not quench it? Could not a more complete vision of God lead to a deeper love, rather than away from it? Theology can give us more motives to love God, not fewer. And there is every reason why such theology could take lyrical form in songs. Christian history is full of outstanding examples of songwriters who offered up such lyrics for the church to adore the Triune God. It is not just the latest generation who knows passion for the God revealed in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

The Trinity is not just an abstract concept, some theological idea that Christians are supposed to take a test on or write a paper about. It is not some detached doctrine that we know we are supposed to agree with, checking it off a list of right beliefs like items on a packing list for vacation. "Okay, kids, let's make sure we have the first aid kit and the doctrine of the Trinity just in case something happens."

The doctrine of the Trinity is a vision not only of God but also of our greatest longings for salvation and our deepest hopes in worship. It liberates by affirming the blessed thought that salvation and worship do not depend upon me. Both are gifts of participating through the Holy Spirit in the incarnate Son's communion with God the Father. People as diverse as theologian James Torrance and songwriter Matt Redman delight in this truth. Thus, Trinitarian belief reminds us that God is not some passive bystander in worship or salvation, desperately hoping that we will work ourselves up before being happy with us.

And this doctrine is important to help us avoid pitfalls, perhaps even idolatry. As one person put it, "Believing right things about God is an essential component in honouring God appropriately." Worshiping the Trinity is a large part of what makes worship orthodox. ("Orthodox" comes from Greek words that mean "right glory.") Because how we relate to God is shaped by our worship experience of God, Trinitarian content in worship is very important. Long after the music has faded, worship songs have created in us a sense of how all this God and salvation stuff fits together. If we lose the Trinity, if we have worship that is less than true to God, we end up with a very different faith, a very different hope of salvation, and, ultimately, a very different God than the one revealed in Scripture.

In light of the foregoing, this chapter focuses on Trinitarian theological content by asking five questions about how the most-used contemporary worship songs lead Christian congregations to pray to and worship the Triune God. I conclude this chapter by discussing some possible reasons the core repertoire is minimally Trinitarian and whether future worship songs will become more adoring of the Trinity.

Throughout this chapter, I will argue that the theological content of the lyrics of the top 77 songs that constitute the heart of CWM between 1989 and 2005 reveals that this core repertoire has few explicit Trinitarian aspects. The Christians who write and use these songs expect them to express a relationship with God that must be rooted primarily in the heart, not in a common faith. This emphasis provides the focus of this chapter: lex amandi, lex orandi, that is, the rule of loving establishes the rule of praying. The classic maxim from the ancient church was lex orandi, lex credendi, that is, the rule of praying establishes the rule of believing.

Method of Analysis

There are five questions that govern the qualitative analysis presented in this chapter: 1. Do the songs name the Trinity or all three Persons of the Trinity? 2. Do the songs direct our worship toward the Trinity as a whole or toward one of the Persons of the Trinity? 3. Do the songs remember the activity of the Divine Persons among Themselves?

4. Do the songs see Christian worship as participation of believers in inter-Trinitarian dynamics or activity? 5. Do the songs use the character of inter-Trinitarian relationships to explore a desired character for relationship among Christians, for example, unity, love, sacrifice, or humility? These questions build upon each other. What they get at is an upward spiral of understanding how our salvation is communion with the Triune God. They try to point at dimensions of what theologians might call a Trinitarian economy of salvation, that is, how God has been revealed and acted on our behalf to bring us into fellowship with the Trinity. It assumes that redemption is a cooperative venture by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and that salvation involves being brought into the fellowship these Three have with each other. In some real way, we can experience this communion within the church, particularly as it worships.

Results

Do the Songs Name the Trinity or All Three Persons of the Trinity?

None of the 77 songs explicitly uses the word "Trinity" or "Triune," and only four songs explicitly refer to or name all three Persons of the Trinity: (1) Glorify Thy Name; (2) Father, I Adore You; (3) Shine, Jesus, Shine; and (4) How Great Is Our God. The first two songs are praise songs with three verses structured on the Trinity. The description of the Trinity in Shine, Jesus, Shine comes as the standard feature of the recurring chorus: "Shine, Jesus, shine, fill this land with the Father's glory / Blaze, Spirit, blaze, set our hearts on fire." How Great Is Our God is the truly exceptional song, both in this list of four and in the entire corpus of 77 songs. It alone worships the Triune nature of God ("Godhead Three in One / Father, Spirit, Son"). Only one song in addition to these four (How Can We Name a Love) speaks of God as "Father." In the handful of songs that refer to the Holy Spirit, seven refer to the "Spirit" (but none explicitly uses the name "Holy Spirit").

Beyond an explicit reference to the Father in the five songs above, seven more of the 77 songs make clear reference to the First Person of...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Abingdon Press
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2007
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0687645646
• ISBN 13: 9780687645640
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 220
• Herausgeber: Woods Robert
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland