Myth Alert! Silly Pro-CCM Arguements

Let's turn the tables for a minute and dispose of a few myths on the other side. Pro-Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) fanatics have their own share of half-truths, stereotypes, and down-right lies. As a former praise and worship leader, I know what I am talking about. I bought into all of these at one point or another.

Myth 1: Modern Christians, especially youth, universally prefer praise music to hymnody.

Fact: There are studies that show that a significant majority (I think that it is close 75%) of church-going Christians under the age of 25 believe that modern praise music has no place in church. The majority gets even higher (8 to 9 out of 10 respondents) when dealing with youth from conservative congregations and denominations. Most demographic evidence (including what has been done by many megachurches within the Praise and Worship movement) points to the fact that this style of music does not attract young people. It exclusively targets baby-boomers.

Myth 2: Hymnody, as a genre, does not sound as good as modern praise music. To do a hymn, it must be jazzed up to appeal to modern audiences.

Fact: The majority of people that I have talked to who believe this do not sing hymns properly in church. First, few congregations sing hymns the way that they are written: in SATB (four part harmony.) Not only is this an absolute tragedy, it does not present hymnody in its proper light. The CCM equivalent would be singing praise and worship music with only a piano (one part) or with just a guitar and a vocalist. While this works, it is far from impressive. The drums, guitar, bass, brass, etc are all a part of the CCM music. When you are missing part of that, people notice. Alto, Tenor, and Bass parts are the same way for hymnody. When hymnody is sung as it is written, it becomes complex, beautiful, and engaging. Rather than giving up on something, supporters of this argument should take the effort to perform the hymns correctly before they are abandoned or altered. Second, many congregations who complain about hymns perform a hatchet job on the verses. If you have an eight verse hymn and you only sing the first and seventh verses; do not be surprised if the seventh verse seems out of place. Third, most congregations do not play hymns at their proper tempo. They drone on at a painful pace. In summary, poorly executed music is bad no matter what the genre is. If your hymnody is dull, dusty, and boring, you should take the time to teach and sing it correctly: the way the author intended.

Myth 3: Early service, our hymn service, has only 70 people. Late service, our Praise and Worship service, has 300 people. Clearly our congregation prefers Praise and Worship to hymns.

Fact: This is the worst example of non sequitur logic and I hear it all too often. Even in churches that perform identical services, you will often find that the late service has more people. Since the music is constant, there is clearly another variable at work here: time. Young people typically go to later services. Older people tend to get up for earlier services. More people usually go to the later service as a rule. They go--not so much for the music style--but because they can sleep in. The causality between musical style and attendance is dubious at best. There are too many variables to make that kind of "evidence" scientific.

Myth 4: Worshipers are more actively engaged in Praise and Worship music.

Fact: I bought into this one for a long time. As a musician I saw how people reacted to the music and I was encouraged by the positive response. That is just a matter of perspective from a performer... not the congregation. Much later, I stood in the congregation and was surprised at how many mind-numbed robots I had overlooked. People space out in praise and worship music as well and I had never seen it. The truth is that people get distracted because of their short attention spans. The music has little to do with it.

Myth 5: Praise and Worship gets to the heart of Scripture.

Fact: While many Praise and Worship songs are taken directly out of Scripture, they do not hold a monopoly on Scriptural music. Hymns have a wealth of Scriptural references in themselves, but remember that the hymn is only part of the liturgy. The Introit, Gradual, Responaries, and Psalter are all direct passages of Scripture. In terms of Scriptural content, they usually outstrip even the most dedicated CCM service.

Myth 6: Hymns are too long.

Fact: The average four verse hymn runs about 3 to 4 minutes. After repeating choruses, verses, bridges, key changes, and tag lines, the average Praise and Worship song runs at least 3 minutes. If they are under that, they are usually combined with several others songs in a medley of... you guessed it 3 to 4 minutes. Most performances of "Heart of Worship" by Sonicflood are 3 to 4 minutes long. A good version of "He Is Here" runs close to 5 minutes. As a musician, I personally clocked our version of "Come Let Us Worship and Bow Down" at 6 minutes. With all of that in mind, remember that many Praise and Worship sessions are done in a medley format that blends seamlessly from song to song over the course of 10 to 30 minutes. In terms of length, the styles are comparable in length if not turned the other way around where hymns are often the shorter songs that offer the congregation more frequent (and longer) breaks from singing.

Myth Alert! A Popular (and Incorrect) Anti-CCM Argument

Myth: (A) The CCLI posts the top 25 most popular Praise and Worship songs. (B) The CCLI top 25 most popular songs are always worthless songs. (C) Therefore, they are the top 25 songs that are performed during services in church.

Fact: This argument uses non sequitur logic [A+B ≠ C]. This kind of point proves ignorance about how CCLI information is reported and gathered. As a person who has dealt with CCLI, I will present many of the mitigating circumnstances that make this assersion invalid:

1. CCLI gathers the Top 25 list using the following method. On their website they say, "For each survey period, we calculate which songs are the top 25 songs reported as being reproduced in that survey, for the Church Copyright License. The Top 25 Songs lists are updated after each royalty payout, paid on February 15 and August 15 every year." That means that it does not take into account churches who do not use CCLI or do not properly report to CCLI (which is more than you might think).

2. CCLI payouts include all non-worship oriented uses of the contemporary music including things like youth events, commercials, slide-show presentations, etc. Just because something is reported to CCLI does not mean that it was used in a worship service.

3. You do not have to report to CCLI if you have direct permission from the copyright holder through another provider. This means that if you perform an original piece written by a congregation member who grants permission, it will not be posted to CCLI. It means that if you have permission to perform the song from the artist, you do not have to post to CCLI. It means that if you do an original arrangement of a song in public domain, you do not have to post to CCLI. It means that if you report through your hymnal software (like the LSB Service Builder) you do not have to report to CCLI. With many CCM churches, that can reduce the CCLI requirement to less than half of the songs in any given service. At the very least, it points out that hymnal songs and all public domain pieces are not represented by the Top 25 (which is why Amazing Grace is never on the Top 25 even though almost everyone in the United States can hum the tune from memory.)

4. The Top 25 is based on number of reproductions and payouts, not per-capata usage. It is most popular by dollars and incidents of use not percentage of users or popularity of song.

5. There is no doctrinal test to get CCLI membership. A large percentage of the CCLI membership is made up of Oneness Pentacostals (who aren't even trinitarian) and other various heretical sects. These heterodox organizations skew the numbers in favor of their belief systems and artificially inflate the popularity of bad songs.

Gregorian Child Care

This morning, I found out that my 6 month old nephew loves to hear the Te Deum. He spent nearly an hour in my arms listening to me sing it. He would watch every phrase and then close his eyes and then open them at the start of the next phrase. He would stare intently at the words being formed and would smile each time that the melody swelled.

I am not one of those guys who is quick to read alot of spiritual meaning into these kinds of events, but I am going to go ahead and jump to the conclusion that this little tyke has good taste in music.

When watching other people's infants, I have found that Gregorian Chant is a valuable tool for men to use when calming and putting children to sleep. The deep tones that rumble in the chest when the melody plunges can be a very calming sensation for little children who are being held. I have yet to find a child that this does not help with. Parents are often quite amazed at how quickly their fussy babies go to sleep. They claim that I have some kind of gift.

Really it is just three things: plenty of body warmth, long and slow twisting motions, and a few Ambrosian hymns.

Of course this is all anecdotal evidence to support my theory, but I particularly recommend this hymn from the Brotherhood Prayer Book "Service of Compline" as a lullaby for fathers. This song even puts me in the mood to go to sleep.

Some of my fondest childhood memories are of my dad reading the Bible to me in bed. There is nothing that prevents bedtime from being a theological teaching moment... at any age.

My Favorite Advent Hymn

This year, I heard a beautiful hymn for the first time. It is now my favorite for Advent. The words are wonderful. The tune is haunting and well suited for the flow of each verse. At first, I wondered why this carol was not more popular. As a musician and singer, you would think that I would have heard this ancient song before. This song is superior in every way to many of the more popular Christmas carols. I couldn't figure out why this one fell into relative obscurity for those who are outside of the practices of the traditional western rite church.

After singing this hymn a few times, I realized the reason. There is pesky Real Presence language in verse 2 that would have make it unsuitable for memorialist Christians. They don't like to sing songs that remind them that they do not follow ancient teachings of the church. This would explain why my fundamentalist background never brought me near this piece.

If you have not heard someone sing this hymn, you have missed out on one of the treasures of Christianity. Here are the lyrics. You need to hear someone sing this hymn if you have never heard it!

Σιγησάτο παρα σαρξ βροτεία
[Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence]
Text: Liturgy of St James, 4th Century
Translated from Greek to English by Gerard Moultrie, 1864
Tune: 17th Century French Carol

Let all mortal flesh keep silence,
And with fear and trembling stand;
Ponder nothing earthly minded,
For with blessing in His hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
Our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary,
As of old on earth He stood,
Lord of lords, in human vesture,
In the body and the blood;
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heavenly food.

Rank on rank the host of heaven
Spreads its vanguard on the way,
As the Light of light descendeth
From the realms of endless day,
That the powers of hell may vanish
As the darkness clears away.

At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia
Alleluia, Lord Most High!

Equilibrium

It should be a good idea to apply the principles of "Just War" to the most common battle in American Christianity. Senseless violence is being done by all factions (there are more than just two) in the Worship Wars. By all means defend yourself from bad doctrine and practice, but it has just hit me that we have taken this label thing too far. In many cases, we have gone from proper discernment and humility into the land of being tyrannically judgemental. We have gone from defending the faith to legalistically squashing it. Here is my case in point:

Go listen to the sample of the CTS Kantorei singing a wonderful adaptation of the ancient hymn Te Deum Laudamus. Close your eyes and listen to this song as the goosebumps run up your arms. Imagine you are in the cathedral with this wonderful choir.

Some of you feel tempted to lift up your arms, don't you? Some of you want to open your palms and breathe deep, don't you? Some of you want to raise your head to heaven and bask in the heavenly beauty of this ancient, Ambrosian hymn, don't you? Some of you have to fight back tears, don't you? Some of you feel amazing feelings of peace and joy thanks to the Kantorei, don't you?

Well you can't do those things! You are not a charismatic. This is not a pentecostal church and you do not raise your hands in church, or tear up, or look to heaven with joy on your face. If you did display some kind of "outburst" while listening to this hymn live, you must be some kind of self-centered Pietist nut who wants to bring praise music into the service so you can break out the old tambourine and get slain in the spirit.

As a good orthodox Lutheran, you must guard yourself against what this 5th century hymn does to you. It is impossible to do these things in some liturgical churches. Feelings--all feelings--are the enemy. Welcome to the church of Equilibrium. Your feelings are dangerous. They lead everyone to error. Take your Prozium. Fight those evil feelings and forget your humanity.

As I listened to that hymn, I wanted to raise my hands and praise Almighty God. I am thankful for those wonderful men, for the Te Deum, and for the opportunity to hear holy music. I love and appreciate beautiful music. How can we express that appreciation? Here at my desk, none of my well-intentioned brothers would judge me... but what about on Sunday?

I get chills when I walk up to the alter during the Sacrament. My faith is not a monocrhomatic experience of concrete and iron. It is a living, feeling faith of light; adorned in gold and silver. Sometimes (not all the time) I feel things. Should I just dismiss that?

Now that I have admitted my liturgical defect, it should be noted that no one can accuse me of being a crazy praise band guy. I fled that life years ago for good reason. My tastes are now ultra-traditional. I am conservative and liturgical. Most of the stuff that came in after old form Gregorian Chant is too new for my liking. As far as the Te Deum goes, I don't like that we have translated it into the modern music signature. I think that it robs the song of its archaic tempo, form, and inflection. I love censors, incense, and processionals. I like it when acolytes, elders, or associate pastors physically hold the gospel for the reading. I long for real candles in church. I like everything chanted. I want a chalice and I want the bread placed in my mouth. I make the sign of the cross during the service. I declare "amen" loudly when it is called for... even at the rail. A Bach chorale will usually bring me to tears. I think a church that lacks a kantor is really missing out. I consider myself a liturgist's liturgist.

I may be conservative and liturgical... but stoic? I cannot do stoic. All of this very old stuff builds strong feelings in me. Emotions that want to burst out. I struggle to contain them.

I am afraid that the ancient liturgy makes me behave charismatically... is that wrong? Does that make me a Pietist? Would you call me a charismatic? Would you judge me if I stood next to you in church? Some of my pastor's sermons are so convicting that I cannot even look at him. Does that make me an enthusiast? Have my feelings forced me away from confessional orthodoxy?

Who is at fault for this mess? Is it me? Does the blame lie with those stoic traidtionalists who want a sterile church? Does the blame lie with those hypocrictical charismatics who have twisted innocent acts of adoration into self-serving-look-at-me behavior?

Is it always bad to feel in church or is it just bad to let strong feelings show? What is the correct way to express these overwhelming feelings?

Infertility and Miscarriage

Being confronted with various forms of infertility is a struggle that was recently brought to everyone’s attention as a secondary subject during some interesting blog debates about Birth Control. While the issue du jour appears to have cooled somewhat, those of us who live with infertility have continued to talk privately about our experiences. This is a constructive online discussion because many of us have difficulty expressing ourselves face to face about such a heart-wrenching and difficult matter. Here is a consolidation of the parts of my personal story that I have already shared with others:

Many of you now know that my wife and I carry this cross. In our first two years of marriage, we have seen many miscarriages. Many of these occurred after several months of desperately trying to hold on to the child, but ended in weeks of physically debilitating agony. Each miscarriage takes my wife one step closer to the threat of total sterility.

I have seen pictures of my children knowing that I will never meet them in this life. I have sat in ICU wards and desperately listened for heartbeats that no longer can be heard. I have seen the look on my wife’s face every time she gets a chance to be around someone else’s kid. I have to prayerfully fight the rage and envy that overcomes me whenever I come across someone who treats their child like an unwanted obligation or secondary concern. Children are a gift that not everyone receives. The opportunity to have children is an equally precious gift.

Miscarriage is a different kind of loss. Those of us who struggle with it have a heavier burden than even those who cannot conceive. There are the medical struggles of failed pregnancy and the funerary feelings that come with losing a child. These are added to the daunting difficulties that face all infertile couples. For me, this is a second generation of fertility issues for my family. I am adopted because my mother is sterile. My wife’s family has been struck hard by these problems as well. It seems that children do not come easily to this family. That is what makes them so precious.

For my wife and I this may be a doubly hard burden, but it is not too much. What I have shared so far sounds pretty bleak, but it is only part of the story. It is important for us to see the whole picture.

In the face of this suffering, our faith in Christ and our love for each other is as strong as it has ever been. We have a mutual dedication and resilience most couples never experience. After all that we have experienced and worked through during our marriage so far, what is there to shake us apart? What is there to face? We know that God will lead us through those problems just like He has through this one. It is very easy to walk off of the narrow path in times like this. It is easy to be tempted to embrace doubt, be crushed by grief, or fall into error. It is easy to be overwhelmed.

But God is faithful and good to us. We do not feel neglected or unduly punished by Him. We hold fast to the promises of Scripture when Paul writes:

"Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." 1 Cor 10:12-13

The great witnesses who have gone before us (and experienced these same trials and temptations) have set the example of living through suffering. We can look to Job's patience and faithful resilience in the face of tragedy; Gideon's leadership and courage in the face of great physical danger and risk; St. Paul's dedication to the truth through affliction and imprisonment; St. Stephen's humility and forgiveness as the stones flew toward him. What a powerful testimony in times like this! Our struggles seem to pale in comparison, but we draw our strength from the same source: the life changing power of a living faith in Christ Jesus. In the Son, God has provided "the way of escape" from all temptation. We partake of that mercy every time we receive the Means of Grace through the Word and His sacraments. With such gifts, we can endure any burden.

Those who struggle with suffering should read the historical accounts of the proud saints of the early church who were put to death by Rome on account of Christ. We have much to learn from those who glorify God amid such agony and wear such burdens as badges of honor. They embraced all suffering as participation in the suffering of Christ [Mark 8:34-35]. Is not all torment and temptation really the weapon of our enemy? For a Christian, is not all suffering a tempering fire that shapes us and refines our faith?

Seeing the faithful witness of the saints and martyrs, we do not need to wait to see how we will be blessed by this experience at some future date. Sure future blessings await us all, but not all of the gifts of God are delayed ones. We always want to comfort people by saying that blessings come in God's timing. The truth is that God's timing is always now. God's nature is one of constant blessing. Sure it is nice to know when there will be light at the end of the tunnel, but don't forget that there is also light right here in the tunnel. Like all of God's people, we are blessed today: amid the darkness; during the suffering [Psalm 23:4-6]. All death directs our attention to eternal life. All loss reveals what we should truly value. I consider those lessons priceless heavenly treasures. Suffering shows us how truly blessed man is at all times.

By faith, Christians can praise God in foresight, not just hindsight. We can walk by faith in the moment because God is with us with His rod and staff as comfort. God has blessed us before this suffering, He blesses us now in this suffering, and He promises that He will continue to bless us long after the suffering has passed away. With an eternity of bliss ahead, when the passing of any one suffering will occur becomes irrelevant. For Reformation Sunday, we sang (along with the rest of the synod for sure) "A Mighty Fortress". I have always considered it a powerful Spiritual Warfare hymn, but it has taken on new meaning for me. As we sang it, what I can only call a direct reference to Job in the last several lines of the fourth verse jumped out at me:

The Word they still shall let remain
Nor any thanks have for it;
He's by our side upon the plain
With His good gifts and Spirit.
And take they our life,
Goods, fame, child and wife,
Let these all be gone,
They yet have nothing won;
The Kingdom our remaineth.

Try as the devil may to shake this family, He is already doomed to fail. His persecutions achieve nothing. The things that he can take away do not touch my faith. They are just the temporal blessings, and not the eternal ones. He may scowl and rage and take my children from me in this life, but I will see them eventually despite his efforts. The devil may attempt to divide us and take our loved ones away, but what does that achieve? He cannot divide the body of Christ. Eventually, we will all join the Church Triumphant in the heaven. More importantly, these attempts by Satan to wrestle me out of God's grasp will not succeed. The Word stands on my side and His Kingdom remains. Christ shall triumph on my behalf. Even in times like this, we are not defeated.

The day of our first miscarriage, I left my wife at the hospital after she was admitted into surgery and drove straight to the church. I was enraged and crying inconsolably. Even now, more than a year later, my eyes still get red with tears when I think about it. The doors were unlocked but the members of the church staff were in other parts of the building. To be honest, I didn't want to talk to people anyway. I staggered up the isle and knelt at the rail and prayed as best I could. I don't have to tell you what that prayer was like because I am sure that you can imagine. It was filled with all of my why demands and my doubts. It was filled with pleading and complaining and petitions to convince God to start doing things the way I thought they should be done in this one situation... just this one situation. I cried and blubbered all over that communion rail. It was not my most dignified moment.

When I ran out of things to say, I found myself in one of those uncomfortable pauses and listened to the silence. I happened to look up and my eyes met the gold and silver crucifix on the alter where the Lord's Supper is prepared for me every week.

The irony of where I was kneeling hit me like a ton of bricks and it silenced all of the bargaining, pity, and doubt. As I looked at the broken body of my Savior hanging there, it dawned on me that I was praying to a God who knew just a little bit about losing a child. For whom did His Son hang there on that cross? Me. The Father willingly sent His Son to die for me and cleanse my transgressions. I was given an unending fountain of blessing and that was not enough for me? This sinful beggar had returned to the alter of blessing to complain and vent about a situation that carries no eternal consequence. How did that make any sense at all?

I suddenly felt like a self-centered jerk. I got up from the rail and knelt at the alter with a spirit that had been totally prostrated by how blessed I truly was. In the gravity of the situation, I had lost my heavenly perspective. By comparison, was I really suffering at all? No. Who was I to teach God about sacrifice and torment? Looking at God's plan of salvation that had existed from eternity, who was I to doubt God's will or timing?

I had cracked under pressure, but the Holy Spirit jerked me back to the cross where I belong. "Thy will be done," I declared. I got up and left. My suffering was in no way minimized. The situation was still just as fresh, but now the promises of God's goodness and mercy were so amplified that it drowned everything else out. I mourned every miscarriage after that, but with a grateful heart that holds fast to God's promises [Rom 8:28].