Apr 12 2008
A Unique Church Culture?
I have often thought that one of the greatest hindrances in the current debates over music and worship in the church is a lack of understanding of culture. Before the topic is ever debated, some very foundational questions must be answered or the two parties will just be speaking over each other (which is what is happening so many times in Evangelical/Fundamental circles). Questions such as: “What is culture (definition)?” Are all cultures equal or are some superior/inferior? And now (and perhaps more importantly), on what basis do you make that claim? And then a little more tangentially…Does music derive its morality from within itself or from culture around us (culturally determined morality)? Or both? A failure to answer these all-important questions about culture will often result in confusion and frustration. The debate must be framed in useful terminology.
Terry Johnson, a Presbyterian pastor in Georgia and former student of both J.I. Packer and David Wells, attempts to frame the debate in a short article entitled “Worship in Spirit and Truth.” But he does so in a rather unique way. I am quite a novice on this topic, but in what reading I have done I don’t believe I have ever heard this kind of reasoning. Here’s what Johnson says: (emphasis is mine)
Be church-centered in your worship. The church consists of the whole people of God, young and old, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile. The truth church transcends all of the world’s division based on culture, race, ethnicity, and age (Galatians 3:28). So should its worship. I know that the whole trend and direction of things is contrary to this. The theory today is that each sub-culture needs its own worship expressed in its own style of format, music, and speech. Think through with me where this will leave us. Inevitably the church will divide into thousands of affinity groups, each one demanding its own worship in its own preferred cultural style-services presumably for black, white, brown, yellow, and red; for teens, singles, gen-xers, boomers, and of course, the “greatest generations”; for those who prefer jazz, rock, swing, classical, country, rap, etc, etc, etc. That which ought to be the time when we all become one in Christ will become that moment in the week when we are the most divided. This is a dead end. Don’t go there.
Instead consider that the church has its own culture. It has its own treasury of music which includes contributions from Bach, Handel, Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Mendelssohn. It has a treasury of lyrics that includes contributions by Watts, Wesley, Newton, Havergal, Luther, Calvin, St. Bernard, St. Francis, and so on. Gradually additions are made to the treasury over time. A bare handful of the hundreds of songs that have appealed to any single generation are still around a hundred years later. Those that endure are added to the treasury. Essentially the treasury consists of the songs and words that have appealed across class, race, culture and generation. They have appeared for Welsh, French, German, Spanish, Greek, Latin and Hebrew sources. Yet they have transcended local taste and instead appealed universally. They have stood the test of time. Who doesn’t love “Amazing Grace”? Who doesn’t delight to sing “Joy to the World”? What I am saying is, do not select a format, a style of language or style of music that appeals to one group’s peculiar tastes and thereby excludes all the others. Rather, stick to the church’s own transcendent culture, which no one group can claim as it’s own, which boasts a universal aesthetic appeal, and so is owned by all. Don’t be deflected by the claim that the issue is communication, as though the gospel can’t be understood unless it’s wrapped up in each individual’s cultural preferences. It’s not.”
I am formulating an opinion, but would be interested in your feedback. What do you think of this idea that the church has its own unique, transcendent culture made up primarily by the contributors he listed?
7 responses so far
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Very true, David. Use the music that has stood the test of time and that crosses the cultural barrier of race, taste, etc. and has down through the centuries warmed the hearts of all Christians — “Church Culture.” I understand what Johnson means by being “church centered in your worship,” and I don’t want to be super critical, but one guideline I have used personally is to be Christ centered in my worship. In other words, if the music I hear points to Christ, focuses my attention on Him, exalts Him in my mind and heart, then it is music that I want to use in my worship. But I do understand that Johnson was trying to make a point by calling the worship by these words.
[...] So ist das leben wrote an interesting post today on A Unique Church Culture?Here’s a quick excerptWhat I am saying is, do not select a format, a style of language or style of music that appeals to one group’s … Don’t be deflected by the claim that the issue is communication, as though the gospel can’t… [...]
I’m not sure that I buy that argument. It certainly is unique–I’ll grant him that–but it suffers from exactly the same problem that you mention in your first paragraph: What is the definition of this transcendent church culture?
Here are a few questions that need answering before this argument can carry weight:
1. Did “Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, and Mendelssohn” intend to contribute to church culture? I suspect that a brief look through any Baptist hymnal would show that Christians have adopted the secular music of these classical composers.
2. Why are the people mentioned above contributors to the universal church culture and not others? We sing John Newton’s “Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoke” to Haydn’s tune, so that’s a part of the universal church culture. But other people sing “I’ll Fly Away” to bluegrass tunes, and some sing other songs to rock tunes. Undoubtedly many of those people are sincere Christians, so why don’t their songs fit into the universal church culture?
3. Why is the universal church culture so decidedly not universal? Almost all the examples listed above are by sixteenth- to nineteenth-century European Protestants, with the odd late-medieval Catholic monk thrown in. Where are the ancient hymns, or the Asian and African tunes?
4. What prohibits additions to the universal church culture? Must the church culture cease to grow at a certain time?
I hope you understand that I am probably in agreement with Johnson’s position on music, but I think this is a poor argument to get to that conclusion. It gives the impression that one is merely crafting a definition of culture that fits conservative Christian music rather than finding a valid definition and the judging music by whether it fits that standard. If my questions can be answered, and if this proves to be a wonderful argument, then I shall be grateful for it.
I’ve been meaning for some time now to leave a quick comment in regards to Lincoln’s post. I wholeheartedly agree with him. He asked some insightful and penetrating questions. My purpose in posting was to hopefully expose the idea that, in arguing for a conservative music ethic, some will use faulty logic, or just plain bad reasoning that will never hold up to scutiny or ultimately win the day (in my opinion, it is entirely indefensible). I think it is reasoning like Johnson’s in this article that is detrimental to a conservative philosophy of worship.
Lincoln has pointed out key flaws in Johnson’s argument, but although his thesis is full of holes I still sympathize with him.
There is something disatisfying about making my subjective personal lens the standard for what AJ calls “Christ-centered” music. What is Christ-centered to AJ is probably not the same as what is Christ-centered to all sorts of good folks. The difference between, say, my parents and AJ is their personal culture, the sum of their experiences, exposures, and their personality.
Both approaches make me uneasy, but I don’t have a positive solution. So far I lean more towards the same philosophical approach as AJ. Then again, my “philosophical approach,” if I’m truly honest, mostly consists of Christian music that I like. It just sounds so much more intellectual to call it philosophical and all…(-;
To explain the reasoning behind “Christ-centered” music a little better, that is, the music that directs my attentiion and focus on Christ and exalts Him on the throne of my heart, let me elaborate. I failed to mention that many people today tend to separate their decisions on music from the relationship they have with Christ. Yes, I’m sure there is a definite difference between my personal culture, the sum of my experiences, exposures, personality, and of Paul’s folks. But there probably is one thing we have in common. Our relationship with Christ and the presence of His Holy Spirit. Our relationship and what we do with it is paramount. Do we spend time in the Word of God every day and in prayer continually? Are we surrendering to the Holy Spirit in our lives? If this is true of us, we need not “labor” over what music is to be used in our worship. The Holy Spirit will direct. We have to remember that man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart — and if our heart is humble and submissive, ready to obey, then we will know the right music. I believe we must do what God’s Spirit is prompting us to do in the area of music, (and we can only know it is His Spirit as we are in His Word and in Prayer every day, yielding to Him) and we must not be judges of what everybody else is doing. Leave that up to God. Of course I would feel compelled to warn someone of something that was obviously, blatently against God’s Word. Someone told me yesterday that there are 3 types of ways we communicate:
Our words, our tone of voice, and our body language. You can only see one of these forms in this reply. I want you to know that the other two I am attempting to show humility, love, and kindness. This is probably one of the biggest issues facing young people today, and my heart and my prayers really go out to you, the future leaders for Christ. If the leaders fail to make the right decision, the people will too.
[...] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can also subscribe by e-mail. Thanks for visiting!David Crabb posts a quote from Terry Johnson. [...]