That question bothered me for a long time, and even caused me to ditch Christian music altogether for a few years. My inability to provide a satisfactory answer caused me to question the purpose of what I got up on stage and did every Sunday. When I ultimately lost faith in Christian music and dropped out of the Worship Arts program at Liberty University, I wasn't sure I'd ever play worship music again.
My problem was that I just couldn't prove to myself that Christian music is worthwhile. I felt like the worship music industry spends a whole lot of time and money, and doesn't have much to show for it. It seemed to me that we desperately chase after contemporary relevance while rarely achieving anything more than unoriginality that sounds like a generic caricature of last year's pop music. I felt like we were stealing genuine musical styles from genuine musical genres, and repurposing them as neat, little carrying packages for Christian ideology. I kept asking myself why Christian music doesn't have its own sound instead of poorly copying everyone else's. Why is Christian music on the back-end of the music world instead of its cutting edge? We purport to have the answer to all the world's problems, and a personal relationship with the creator of the universe. You'd think our music would be its own type of original, beautiful expression; perhaps even the greatest music in the world.
And then I realized that it is.
Worship music is truly great music, and truly phenomenal art. Not only is it beautiful, but it is perhaps the greatest art that has ever been created in human history because it isn't only a raw, auditory expression of human experience; it is the raw, auditory expression of humans connecting with their creator. Every type of music expresses a different type of human experience in a unique way. For example, the style and lyrics of bluegrass music express the culture and history of Appalachia. The rock and roll of the 60's and 70's were the life and soul of social change, and expressed a fiery spirit of freedom in a way that nothing else ever has. Christian music is also powerful expression; just in a different way:
In its purest form, worship music is the actual experience of worshiping and praising the living God.
The answer to the question that bothered me for so long is really that simple. Praise and worship music channels worship; that's its purpose. It is music that is intended to facilitate experience, not just express it. In other words, worship music is an art form that transcends its medium, and is thereby one of the most uniquely gorgeous types of art that has ever existed! What I'm saying is that worship music isn't about music at all! It doesn't matter how good worship music sounds, or whether or not it has its own unique style. Worship music has nothing to do with music! In its truest form, worship music is the expression/facilitation of worship. Its channeling of worship makes it an incredibly powerful and pure form of expression. When we worry about how good it sounds, or concern ourselves with whether or not it achieves contemporary relevance, we not only completely miss the point of worship music, but also stifle its unique beauty. Worship music is not beautiful because of how it sounds. It is beautiful because of what it is: (hint, hint: it's in the name) WORSHIP! That's all it is, all it has ever been, and all it ever can be. It took me so long to fully realize that. At its core, worship music is the beautiful adoration of our loving savior Jesus Christ. Let's appreciate it as such!
Coleman
No comments:
Post a Comment