The World of Style

It wasn’t until 5th grade that I understood the importance of style. Prior to that I wore whatever my mom bought, which was generally Sears Toughskins jeans and a matching shirt that were the norm back in the 60s. But in 5th grade, I had a teacher that had been a Broadway dancer. He taught us how to dance for a school show and he thought I was very talented. The only thing negative that he ever said was that he felt I needed to learn how to dress more stylishly.

That was when I started noticing that none of my friends in our Rockville neighborhood wore clothes like me. We had moved to this middle class neighborhood from the inner city of Norfolk. I was still dressing like an inner city kid which did not match the style of the burbs. I was out-of-style. So it wasn’t long before I started wearing all of those wonderful styles of the 70s: oversized collars, patterned shirts, and bell-bottomed jeans.

Then the 80s came and brought in the Preppy look with IZOD button-up shirts, Members Only jackets, and Converse tennis shoes were the norm. We couldn’t afford these new styles, so my mom made us some shirts and sewed on a little alligator patch that she bought in Florida. I was able to live with this obvious fake, but when she bought me an off brand jacket I couldn’t bring myself to wear it around all my friends with their expensive Members Only brands. Thankfully, I could wear my letterman jacket instead.

Then in the 90s, when Wendy and I had been dating for a while, I asked her what clothes I should get rid of. The first thing she suggested was a sweater that I really liked. It was comfortable and I thought it looked really nice. I was hurt that she didn’t like my choice of style. I tried to convince her that she was wrong about the sweater and she played the “you asked for my opinion” card. So, I got rid of the sweater.

We continue our Pure Praise study today. So far we have learned that what worship includes both praise and thanksgiving, the we are to worship God only, that we can hear from God, ways we can express our worship, and the essentials for worship. Today we want to look at different styles of music.

Then he consulted with the people and appointed some to sing for the Lord and some to praise the splendor of His holiness. When they went out in front of the armed forces, they kept singing: 

Give thanks to the Lord, for His faithful love endures forever. (2 Chronicles 20:21)

The Bible only describes three styles of music: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. During the past 150 years these styles have been the source of debate among churches around the world. Why? Because for the first 1500 years after Christ we had relatively few new musical styles for the church or even in the world.

Until the 1600s the church was the leading force behind new musical styles. The church was one of the few places that employed musicians. Then something started to change. Royalty started to hire musicians to create music for the entertainment of the wealthy. Entertainment for the average crowds also became popular. Musicians started writing more music for entertainment than for the church. This led to schools of music being founded to train musicians. All of this new interest in music led to faster style changes among secular music.

A major change that happened in churches because of the Reformation is that music was no longer performed by professionals, but was written to be sung by everyone. This led to simpler, easier to sing songs that we know as hymns. Some of these hymns used only lyrics from the Psalms from newly translated Bibles in various languages.

The church, however, was no longer a leader in the area of music or art in general. There were many new religious denominations starting churches. These new churches were smaller and less able to pay professional musicians, so the music tended to be relatively simple. The organ, which was originally designed to mimic the sounds of other instruments, grew in popularity among the church because they could no longer afford to pay for a small ensemble of musicians. It was much cheaper to pay one organist than to pay 8 or more string and wind players. Some churches had no instruments at all, especially among the Calvinist churches that would only allow single line melodies using only lyrics from the psalms without instrumental accompaniment.

Hymns continued to be the most popular style of worship music for a few hundred years. Then in mid-1800s a new style of hymn known as Gospel Hymns became popular in the Methodist and Baptist churches. These Gospel Hymns included a new form of music: the refrain or chorus. A refrain was sung after each verse, and because the refrain repeated the same lyrics each time they became very well known. By the 1950s, many churches would use only the chorus of some hymns, especially those written by the new Christian recording artist William Gaither.

In the 1960s the Jesus Movement, led by college-aged Christians, brought rock-based choruses into the church. Then by the 1980s many of these new Mega churches started to include a new style of music known as praise and worship. Today we still have people and churches that debate about what style of music should be used for worship.

Styles Should Change

First thing we need to understand is that styles should change. God wants His people to be creative. That means we are to be constantly finding creative ways to worship Him, including with our music. But we do not have to throw everything old out just because styles should change.

Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)

Psalms are those songs that use lyrics directly from the Bible, especially from the Book of Psalms. Hymns would be the songs of our faith that are from the past. Many of the songs that are new today will one day become known as a hymn of the church. Spiritual songs are the new songs that are constantly being created to bring honor to Jesus. God wants to hear all of these being sung with gratitude in our hearts.

“Revelation 4 and 5 record the most powerful worship service in the entire Bible, and it’s what some might call a blended service of both the old and the new! Style is not the issue with God. He loves all kinds of music—as long as it honors him. What matters is not so much what we sing, but how we sing it. He wants to see that our music is flowing from hearts that truly worship him.” (Pure Praise by Dwayne Moore)

Jehoshaphat and Judah chose an old, familiar hymn (Psalm 136:1), however the style of the song probably had nothing to do with their choice. They repeated the chorus over and over because it elevated God, their merciful Protector. It was the message, the truth of the song that they were passionate about. And that’s the very same passion God looks for in us, regardless of our style of music. (This paragraph adapted from Pure Praise by Dwayne Moore)

Sensitivity Should Lead

Worship is all about God. It’s not about you. It’s not about me. However, we are supposed to be the ones who are worshipping. In order to worship God effectively, our worship needs to be done in a style and a fashion that fits the needs of our church.  There are cowboy churches where the worship is entirely country and western. There are urban churches where the worship might seem too lively and chaotic to some, but that’s fine. There are visual churches where visual art has more importance than the music. There are dramatic churches where the main emphasis is on Biblical portrayals and modern story telling. Nothing is wrong with any of these.

We must be sensitive to those that attend our church and to the skills and talents that God has given them to use for worship. If our church has a large number of artistic people, we should be using more visual worship styles. If our church is filled with great dancers, we should use dance more often. 

Substance Should Guide

We should allow the Holy Spirit to lead us as we consider the needs of our people and the talents that they have to offer. We also must make sure that our worship is birthed from a heart that is fully surrendered to God. When we take these two things into account, we will see that the substance of our worship is of the utmost importance.

If the substance of our worship is void of any spiritual value, then it really doesn’t matter what style or activity we include in worship. Comical skits, busting a move, beautiful banners, and poetically lyrical songs all can be used in worship. BUT, if they do nothing to help our people elevate Jesus, encourage us to grow spiritually, entice us to the very throne of God, or entomb us in His love and protection, they are nothing but noise and distractions. All of our worship must help us proclaim God for who He is and thank Him for what He has done.