I heard a story from another Church of Christ youth minister who was driving a van load of teens to a church event. One of the moms sat in the passenger seat joining him as a chaperone. One of the teens was playing (rather loudly) some rap music that all the teens knew and sang along to. It was not the worst music, but it was not the best either. The content certainly lacked a Christianly tone. The trip moved right along.
Then one of the teen girls wanted to play a CD, a contemporary Christian CD. A contemporary Christian worship CD, with lyrics that honored God. When the mom who was chaperoning realized what the lyrics were saying, and of all things, set to musical instruments, she was fit to be tied. Finally in frustration, she said to the youth minister, “How long are you going to let this go on? This music has instruments you know.”
18 comments:
Those stories break my heart, especially since I know they could be told in my home congregation. How did "we" get so messed up?
excuse my denominational ignorance...but really? there is a ban on instruments for worship?
how do they read the Psalms then?
you know..the Praise Him with tambourines...lyre...praise him with the cymbals and whatnot...
how do they justify the holiness of no instruments when one of the biggest praise leaders of all time spent hours each day with his instruments out in the field with his sheep?
inquiring minds want to know....
Well, who wants to answer MaryAnn? I could but it would be kind of like explaining why my crazy Aunt Pearl wears aluminum foil on her head.
And if you fellow RM children think I am being funny. I am not. She does wear aluminum foil and neither explination is very pleasant. At least you are not (like me) named Thomas Campbell.
;-)
to keep the aliens from accessing her brain waves?
TCS, good analogy.
Maryann, it's like this: Once upon a time someone said, "Speak where the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent." And someone else said, "The only thing you can do is what the Bible commands, or has an example of or infers." Some one else said, "Only the New Testament applies." Then a whole bunch of people agreed with these people. Then they formed a bunch of churches. Then they all agreed that since there are no commands in the New Testament to worship with instruments, and no examples and no inferences AND since we cannot speak where the Bible does not speak, then our psalms, hymns and spiritual songs must not include instruments.
Yeah, I shouldn't have even tried to explain. That really sounded like explaining aluminum foil on the head.
i love my drum playing husband!
I guess i can see...
but..just as i will not adorn my head with foil, i will stick to my inclination to praise Him in all ways.
thanks...
Mary Ann,
My wife (raised baptist) asked me the question once and I could only answer "it's not in the bible". I also was pretty sure Billy Graham was going to hell and would be meeting up with Mother Teresa. I have only recently begun to grasp the rationale, but it goes something like:
1) there is no New testament authority for IM
2) we are not under OT law
3) we are not to add to or take away from the Word - doing so is disobedience and can open the door to anything.
There is this whole "silence of the scriptures" argument and some of the traditional cofC'ers are quite proficient at making the argument against IM.
My opinion is that, somewhere along the way, it became more important for the restoration movement to prove they're RIGHT than to be a light.....(hmmm, could there be a song in there?)
thanks...
i guess i can see where you are coming from...
just agree to disagree on the matter.
:-)
It's about a tradition that had good motivation behind it in the beginning (first century), then became a law, therefore became a test for fellowship, which became something to be prideful about, which is the sin that infuriated our Jesus more than any other sin.
Just one person's perspective.
Well, I didn't realize how good an analogy I stumbled on. From my seat those expinations that I know so well.... well they sound like expaining the aluminum foil on the head. You can explain it, but it still looks the same.
poor Aunt Pearl...
...Yeah, I decided to write more about her over at my place.
I've heard this sort of thing my whole life. I agreed with it until I left home. Still have nagging feelings that maybe "they" are right and I'm just a rebel. But when you're rebellious in order to honor God, that's okay, right? Man. Rough stuff for me.
I can see how stupid it seems when presented this way. But I can also spout out the arguments against instruments as I've heard them -- passionate, intense, out of love and concern for the salvation of those who err.
These things are not argued casually in my family's heritage, nor out of a desire to prove themselves right. They're argued, rather, out of fear of the consequences of being wrong.
You just rang another one of my bells. Questionable lyrics running around kids' heads or Jesus-praising lyrics? It's just not a hard decision for me. JB
The interesting thing is that the no instruments thing has happened in churches before -- in THe Church of early church history, the Roman Catholic church -- and is happening in churches now. But NOT for the traditional c of C reasons. It heppens because people start to realize that sometimes the music becomes more important than the worship. People were going to church to hear a Bach cantata, not to worship God through the cantata. It's something that one always needs to be aware of, but it's always easier to legislate than it is to examine one's own hear -- and to trust others to do so as well. The ironic thing, is that some a capella arrangements can pull away from the meaning of the words and worship as well as any instrumental arrangement can.
happens, not heppens; and heart, not hear. I really need to hit the preview button before publishing!
i love my drum playing husband!
I guess i can see...
but..just as i will not adorn my head with foil, i will stick to my inclination to praise Him in all ways.
thanks...
thanks...
i guess i can see where you are coming from...
just agree to disagree on the matter.
:-)
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