Lord help us be, a people of grace...

I don' t think they are going to post the letter I referenced online. So here is the response I sent in anyway. Hopefully it will be in the paper soon.

In response to Mr. Gilliam’s Community Letter on March 24th, I would like to gracefully and respectfully disagree with a few points and add some of my own observations about Worship and Worship music. I feel this is a situation where the baby is being thrown out with the bath water. I am a Worship Leader at a local church here in Kingsport and felt it appropriate to give my view on what I think, do and feel I am expected to do. I will do my best to be fair and thoughtful, and where I fail, may God and those reading grant grace and mercy.

First, it is important to remember that worship does not begin or end with music. Our entire life is to be presented as a living sacrifice. We should be seeking to worship God in every aspect of our lives, not just on Sunday morning when we gather and sing. We serve a God who is holy and yet while we were sinners, rebelling against him, he loved us enough to sacrifice his innocent and perfect Son so that we may enter into a relationship with him. That moves me to worship him in so many more ways than just singing or playing my guitar.

On the calling of Music Directors, or Worship Leaders, I can not disagree more with Mr. Gilliam’s ideas. He says that we should “get back to our original calling and give us (him) a decent worship experience again”. My calling has never been to give anyone their worship experience. That is between them and God. I do feel the Lord has led me to help lead others where I am going as a worshipper myself, but I would never presume that I can give anyone a worship experience. That would be the height of arrogance. In this, I find the term Lead Worshipper a much better description of what I do.

When he speaks of secular verses ‘sacred’ music, I am confused. If we strip away the lyrics, no style of music is inherently good or evil, secular or sacred, or Christian / Non-Christian. Much of the sacred music that Mr. Gilliam is talking about got their tunes from secular composers and bar songs. That makes them no less worthy of our attention, but it also gives some perspective across the centuries and generations. Using contemporary styles for our Worship music is nothing new.

Hymns and anthems do meet needs. They are wonderful. In fact the Bible, while not giving us specific musical scores, tells us we should sing hymns, psalms and spiritual songs. I grew up singing the songs of Wesley, Crosby, Martin Luther and many more. I love to sing those songs. They may not be my first preference, but they are still beautiful and speak great truths. I will not fall into the trap that newer is better. But the opposite is just as easy to fall into, that older is better. We have some great hymn and anthem writers springing up today. Stuart Townend, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, and Chris Tomlin are a few. If you doubt their skills in crafting songs for the body of Christ to sing, see “In Christ Alone” or “How Deep the Father’s Love for Us”. Both are hymns written by Stuart Townend in the last 10 years. If you would like to hear an inspiring and uplifting anthem, see Chris Tomlin’s “Indescribable” written with Laura Story in the past year.

Also, many of these new artists and songwriters are going back to the hymns of our past and giving them new arrangement. Again, this is nothing new. Many of the familiar hymns we sing were written in a way that different musical composers could fit different tunes to them. The tune we have been singing over the last few decades just happens to be the one most settled on. However, in some churches, you will still hear a hymn in an old tune that you are not familiar with.

I will agree that with worship music, like anything else in life, you will get a mixed bag. Yes, there are many songs being written that are shallow lyrically. However, I could show you hymns from over a century ago that on many levels are just as shallow. Also, as long as you have people involved, there will be those who make it about themselves. They will want everyone to look at them and see how good they are. But this could happen with an organ player or classical soloist as well as a drummer, bass player, or lead guitar. Whether ‘old’ and traditional or ‘new’ and different, we, as fallen creatures, can find a way to make it about us and lose the real focus.

I end with this. There is a place for both styles of music and many more. Some individuals and even church bodies will have a preference. The style of music and our preferences should not be a point of contention. It is important that the world see us loving each other and not tossing around insults because we do not prefer what someone else does. Mr. Gilliam, I would love to have you as my honored guest at church or even sit down for lunch on me and have a nice discussion. You can find me in the phonebook. I am quite sure we would find common ground. If we can not find it in music, we can in Christ.