83 Sermon Illustrations on Music

According to a newly released study, the typical Protestant church service in the United States has become increasingly modernized and diversified in recent years as more churches incorporate non-traditional music, diverse styles of worship, and modern technologies into their worship experience.

A report on a new study being released in the March/April edition of Facts and Trends magazine shows that there has been a significant increase in contemporary worship styles in America’s Protestant churches over the last five years. The study was conducted by Ellison Research among a representative sample of pastors of Protestant churches throughout the U.S.

The participating ministers were asked about changes in the overall worship style of their churches over the past five years. While 44 percent reported no significant change, 15 percent said their churches had moved in much more contemporary direction, while another 36 percent said their worship had become a little more contemporary. Only 5 percent said their worship had become more traditional during the time period in question.

In general, the study found that churches moving toward more contemporary worship outpaced those churches moving in a more traditional direction by a margin of eleven to one. Larger churches and churches led by younger ministers were most likely to have made a significant shift toward more contemporary styles, and Pentecostal churches were more than twice as likely to move in that direction (31 percent to 12 percent).

Ministers were also asked about specific worship elements used in churches today, as compared with those they employed five years ago. One of the biggest changes found was in the use of electronic media. Five years ago, only 5 percent of all Protestant churches used PowerPoint or similar computer graphics presentations at least once a month. Today 36 percent of churches use projected computer graphics. And similar figures are reported for the use of video such as clips of movies, music videos, or well-known speakers, during worship services. Five years ago only 4 percent of churches used video clips during services, but today that number has risen to 29 percent.

The proportion of Protestant churches using praise and worship choruses during worship rose from 38 percent in 1999 to 74 percent today. The use of drama skits or sketches has risen from 23 percent to 42 percent. And the use of Christian rock, pop, or country music in worship rose from 9 percent five years ago to 25 percent today.

Ron Sellers, president of Ellison research, notes that the greatest growth found was in worship elements that nevertheless are used by fewer than half of the churches. “Drama, video clips, computer graphics, and pop music were among the fast-growing elements, with still a lot of room for growth,” he says.

The study revealed that the most popular elements of worship continue to be the some of the most time-honored and widely used ones: 95 percent of churches pass an offering basket, plate, or bag to take up offerings; 88 percent sing traditional hymns; 89 percent celebrate communion; 85 percent use a printed bulletin or order of service; and 78 percent use hymnals at least once a month.

Even among these elements there were increases. For instance, use of printed bulletins rose from 68 percent five years ago to 85 percent today. “Even traditional elements such as hymns, altar calls, and communion celebrations have become more common as churches diversify what they offer to worshipers,” Sellers says.

Although Ellison Research’s study indicates that much has changed about Protestant worship over the past five years, it appears one thing has remained fairly uniform — the length of the pastor’s sermon. Today the average minister preaches for about 31 minutes, approximately the same as five years ago, with Pentecostals preaching the longest sermons (about 40 minutes on average) and Lutherans and Methodists preaching the shortest ones — around 20 minutes.

Mrs. Retallack, aided by Prof. Francis Broman, conducted scientifically controlled experiments with music and plants. She placed several groups of five assorted potted plants in closed portable cabinets in which light, temperature, and air could all be regulated automatically. Each cabinet had a sound speaker secured to one side.

One group was exposed to Denver's rock music station (KIMN) and another to a semi-classical station (KLIR). “The petunias listening' to rock refused to bloom. Those on KLIR developed six beautiful blooms.” After two weeks, the KIMN flowers were all leaning away from the speaker and showed erratic growth. They were all dead in a month. The KLIR flowers in two weeks were all leaning toward their speaker.

In another experiment she had beans, squash, corn, morning glories, and coleus “listening” to rock. In three weeks the plants were dying. The squash had almost fallen over. The morning glory, instead of crawling up, had stretched out over four pots away from the music. The corn was bent in the middle, and the beans were dwarfed and tilted away from the speaker. All but the coleus had browning leaves. Roots were also stunted. Plants that “listened” to nothing were all growing normally. Those that “heard” calm sacred music grew two inches higher than those in “silence.” More than that, they leaned toward the speaker or source of sound.

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Source: Stop, Look and Listen by Eileen E. and Jay H. Lantry, Copyright(c)1976 by Review and Herald Publishing Association.

”Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16

Music is second only to television in influencing and shaping the values of our children. How can you help your kids recognize the subtle seduction to evil in some contemporary music and encourage them to make wise choices about what they listen to? Here are some practical suggestions:

1. Avoid the “do as I say, not as I do” syndrome. Before you can help your child evaluate his music, you’d better evaluate your own (Matthew 7:4, 5). The lyrics of some soft rock, easy listening, and country-western tunes are as suggestive and immoral as those performed by heavy metal groups. One of the best ways to teach your child to avoid harmful lyrics is by modeling the same behavior.

2. Be willing to find middle ground. Your personal taste in music should not be the determining factor for what you allow your children to listen to. Nor should your child’s taste determine what you listen to. Try to find some middle ground with your child when it comes to the kinds of music you will allow in your home. The key is to teach your child to be moderate and discerning, just as you are.

3. Stay informed and involved. When was the last time you looked through your child’s music collection or sat down with him to listen to and discuss the lyrics of his favorite songs? You won’t be able to understand the impact of the music in his life unless you are aware of it and what he thinks about it. I love dctalk, the Supertones and the W’s just to name a few of the popular bands of today. Yes, me, old Pastor Jeff. Do you?

4. Take time to listen to your children’s emotional struggles and notice how the music they listen to influences their behavior. Be as encouraging about their good choices of music as you are corrective of the bad choices. Someday they will thank you for the harmony you helped bring to their lives.

During recent decades, many a church has found itself foundering on the rocks when it comes to what kind of music to use in worship. Cultural change, like a fast moving tide, has left church vessels ravaged, split open, usually along contemporary and traditional divides, with the grey hairs and the pony tails parting ways. It's a shame.

In yesterday's commentary, I alluded to what old hymns have to offer the Church. I was also careful to mention that I'm no despiser of contemporary music so long as it has good theological content. But after the outpouring of e-mails and letters I received when I aired the first commentary on worship music back in February, I can only imagine the ones I'll receive now. Maybe I should learn to keep my mouth shut; my wife, Patty, who has heard me sing, would agree. But the truth is music matters. It has always mattered.

U2's lead singer, Bono, puts it this way: “Music is worship: whether it's worship of women or their designer, the world or its destroyer ... the smoke goes upwards ... to God or something you replace God with ... usually yourself.” So while I lament that some Christian radio stations have taken away programs for biblical teaching, that does not mean I discount the ways in which music itself teaches us and the way it moves us.

Dr. Reggie Kidd, a professor at Reformed Theological Seminary and a worship leader for nearly twenty-five years, has written a book, WITH ONE VOICE, that truly transcends the “worship wars.” Dr. Kidd talks about how music, or more precisely a community of Christians gathered in true worship, is a scaffolding for faith in a culture that has lost its ability to imagine.

Believing in a Jesus whose bones cannot be found in a tomb seems to be just a little too radical for this generation; so, Kidd argues, “in the face of the deconstruction of the Christian view of reality, the great cultural task of Christians is the reclamation of the imagination. This needs to be worked out on a broad front,” Kidd continues, “from the way Christians conduct themselves in the marketplace and in politics to the way ... they engage the arts ... and, of course music ... Music opens the imagination to the possibility that what we see is not all there is.”

For example, Kidd relates the story of writer Anne Lamott, who was first drawn into a church by the sounds of a singing congregation wafting out into the street as she walked by. Lamott, who was then still a seeker, said: “Somehow the singing wore down all the boundaries and distinctions that kept me so isolated ... standing with them to sing ... I felt bigger than myself, like I was being taken care of, tricked into coming back to life.”

Truth set to music, embodied in a singing community, can sometimes seep into the soul and convince us when spoken words fall short. Remember that it was the fiction stories of George MacDonald that moved a skeptical C. S. Lewis to faith; so it's no surprise that music could also be a way to enlarge our narrow view of reality.

So, okay, we have our differences. You might choose the guitar and praise music. Others prefer the pipe organ and old favorites. What we can agree on, however, is that the music we sing must open the imagination to the reality of God.

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Copyright (c) 2006 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint with Chuck Colson" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

"I was born with music in my system. I knew musical scores instinctively before I knew my ABC's. It was a gift of Providence. I did not acquire it. So I do not even deserve thanks for music. Music is too sacred to be sold. And the outrageous prices the musical celebrities charge today truly are a crime against society. I never look upon the money I earn as my own. It is public money. It is only a fund entrusted to my care for proper disbursement. I am constantly endeavoring to reduce my needs to the minimum. I feel morally guilty in ordering a costly meal, for it deprives someone else of a slice of bread-some child, perhaps, of a bottle of milk. My beloved wife feels exactly the same way about these things as I do. You know what I eat; you know what I wear. In all these years of my so-called success in music, we have not built a home for ourselves. Between it and us stand all the homeless in the world."

-- Fritz Kreisler

Teenagers who listen to sexually degrading music including some forms of popular rap music are more likely to be sexually active than are other teens, a new study says.

The study by RAND Corporation surveyed 1,461 adolescents ages 12-17 and followed them for three years, conducting interviews in 2001, 2002 and 2004. At each interval, they asked the teens about their music and sexual habits.

The teens who listened to sexually degrading music -- by such artists as rappers Lil' Kim and Ja Rule -- were “more likely ... to initiate intercourse and other sexual activities,” a RAND news release said. (The study included sample lyrics from Lil' Kim and Ja Rule that cannot be printed here.)

Although the study looked at all types of music -- including hard rock, country and pop -- it found that rap and rap-metal typically had the highest frequency of sexually degrading lyrics. The study found that the degrading lyrics negatively impacted both boys and girls, whites and non-whites.

Unlike music of decades past, the language in many of today's songs that is “used to describe sex has become increasingly direct,” the study said.

“These portrayals objectify and degrade women in ways that are clear, but they do the same to men by depicting them as sex-driven studs,” Steven Martino, a RAND psychologist who led the study, said in a statement. “Musicians who use this type of sexual imagery are communicating something very specific about what sexual roles are appropriate, and teen listeners may act on these messages.”

Sexually degrading music and music videos, the study said, depict “sex-driven males competing with one another for females who are viewed as sexual objects” and whose “value is based on their physical appearance.”

The RAND study confirms what Focus on the Family and other Christian conservatives have been saying “for years,” said Bob Waliszewski, media specialist with Focus on the Family.

“I'm very very happy that the RAND corporation did this study, because some people seem to just overlook the obvious,” Waliszewski told Baptist Press. “And until there's a study out there, it just doesn't resonate.”

The average teen listens to music 1.5 to 2.5 hours a day -- not counting the time he or she may spend watching music videos, the study said. One-fourth of teens listen to more than three hours of music a day, it said.

Listening to degrading music can have a significant negative impact on teens, the study said. Girls, it said, may come to expect to be treated with disrespect by boys.

“If so, these expectations may have lasting effects on their relationship choices, a possibility that warrants further investigation,” the study said. “Boys, on the other hand, may come to interpret reckless male sexual behavior as 'boys being boys' and dismiss girls' sexual preferences and desires as inconsequential.”

The study suggested that parents “monitor the type of music to which their children are exposed.” Waliszewski agreed, saying that too many parents believe they “don't have time to figure out what bands [their children] are into.” Parents should have the “sex talk” but also should have the “entertainment talk,” he added.

“This is a crucial issue, because [entertainment choices] lead to some of the bigger issues you're worried about,” Waliszewski said. “You're concerned about the 'sex talk' ... but do you realize that if you don't have the 'entertainment talk' you may dealing with the 'pregnancy talk'?”

The “very private world” of iPods has allowed teens to download and listen to music that they once may have avoided. With iPods, Waliszewski noted, there is no CD case lying around.

“Now, more and more, the young person is in the car, a foot away from their parents, and their parents ... couldn't list two of the 120 songs on the iPod,” he said.

Waliszewski, who once was the music reviewer for Focus and reviewed approximately 800-900 CDs, said today's music is significantly more sexually degrading and suggestive than was the music that parents listened to when they were young.

Roughly 750,000 teens become pregnant each year and 4 million contract sexually transmitted diseases, according to federal statistics quoted in the RAND news release.

Two years ago RAND released a similar study showing that teens who watch television with sexual content are more likely to become sexually active.

The telling and beholding of stories bears a certain responsibility. There is a temptation in narrating biographies and even autobiographies to reduce the story to one theory or setting, to one secret that unlocks the mystery of a life. We want to solve the puzzle that is Emily Dickinson, resolve the curiosities of John Wesley, and know the essential meaning behind our own winding roads. But while the mode of storytelling may require certain parameters, life is not usually so neatly containable.

Roger Lundin, himself a biographer, suggests the necessity of awe in any telling of human story (a task in which we are all, on some level, engaged). “To be able to recognize the competing claims and the intricate complexity of human motivation is a gift and a necessity for writing a good biography, just as it is a necessity for understanding fairly and creatively and justly another human life.” The task of putting a life into words is surely larger than we often admit. How will you come to describe a deceased loved one to children who have never met him? How will you come to articulate the lives of family members, historical figures, biblical characters, and neighbors? The charge is all around us, vying for a sense of awe.

I have always appreciated the terminology employed by Dietrich Bonhoeffer as he described life to his friend. He spoke in musical terms, and in so doing ushered in the idea that life cannot be reduced to one note or a monotone. The CANTUS FIRMUS, which means “fixed song,” is a pre-existing melody that forms the basis of a polyphonic composition. Though the song introduces twists in pitch and style, counterpoint and refrain, the CANTUS FIRMUS is the enduring melody not always in the forefront, but always playing somewhere within the composition. For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, life was a great work of sounds and symphonic directions, and the CANTUS FIRMUS was the essence, the soul of the concerto.

With these terms, he wrote: “God wants us to love him eternally with our whole hearts, not in such a way as to injure or weaken earthly life, but to provide a kind of CANTUS FIRMUS to which the other melodies of life provide the counterpoint. One of these contrapuntal themes (which have their own complete independence but are yet related to the CANTUS FIRMUS) is earthly affection.... Where the CANTUS FIRMUS is clear and plain, the counterpoint can be developed to its limits.”(1)

As he penned these lines, Bonhoeffer, who was facing execution and the looming end of his life, confessed life to be an awe-inspiring symphony, a melody to behold with attention and appreciation for a great array of intricate choruses. In this intricacy, there is no better song composed than one that finds as its ground bass a wholehearted love of God. Where the enduring melody of life itself is a tune written and played for God, the composition can resound unto the heavens. It is this type of melody that endures even beyond the chorister who sang it.

When Jesus spoke of life, he spoke of multiple realms, of life as it is on earth and in heaven. Like a great composition, there are layers to faith and belief, Communion and the Kingdom, story and song. There is a sense in which all of our stories are the same, written by the great composer of music and sound. And yet each song is also uniquely our own. For me, as no doubt for you, there have been minor sounds when God seems absent or life seems removed from any chorus of hope. Then again, there have also been moments when the CANTUS FIRMUS of truth and love resounds in major tones and God comes near in the doxology.

So how do we tell the story of a human life? How do we put into words counterpoints and melodies and tempos? Like the one after God’s own heart, perhaps we start with the song at the center of our own souls, as we listen for the arrangement in our neighbors’:

“By day the LORD directs his love,

at night his song is with me-

a prayer to the God of my life” (Psalm 42:8).

His presence is the CANTUS FIRMUS, set in the deepest center of a life, discovered and held over a lifetime. His love is the enduring melody that puts our stories to song.

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1. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, LETTERS AND PAPERS FROM PRISON (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997), 303.

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Copyright © 2007 Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM). Reprinted with permission. "A Slice of Infinity" is a radio ministry of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries.

My parents knew I would be musical — I was born with ear DRUMS!

Many years ago in a former church there was one man who felt that music in a worship service was wasted time. At another church, we had a pastor who felt that an organ offertory was “down time,” so he deleted it and gave announcements during the offering. Don’t you feel sorry for both people? How can you possibly read the Psalms and not be turned on to music?

I love Psalm 92. It starts (nlt), “It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to the Most High. It is good to proclaim your unfailing love in the morning, your faithfulness in the evening… You thrill me Lord, with all you have done for me! I sing for joy because of what you have done.”

Even if you are a monotone, doesn’t that make you want to praise God in song? How can a Christian be so callous as to not want to glorify God with music?

Surely, you are grateful, as am I, that God gave us the miracle of music. It is mathematically precise, and why shouldn’t it be — God put it together. He also put you together. You may not like the way he configured the parts, but I’m sure it pleased Him, so be grateful and praise Him — with your life and your song.

There is a big controversy in my church over what kind of music is acceptable to use in our services. Some are objecting to certain kinds of Contemporary Christian Music as sounding too “secular” for church. How do you determine the difference between “secular” and “sacred” music? Where do you draw the line between what is profane and holy? Does the Bible give any specific guidance on this subject?

Music Minister

Dear Music Minister:

The Bible simply says, “Let everything that has breath, praise the Lord.” The Psalms are full of encouragement to use all kinds of brass, woodwinds, strings, and percussion instruments to offer praise. The fact that these instruments were used rhythmically to get the body to move and feel the joy of being alive is obvious: “Praise him with tambourine and dancing.” (Psalm 150: 4)

The Hebrews were normally quite phobic about adopting the customs of their “pagan” neighbors. The Mosaic laws had 613 rules, many of which spelled out in exact detail how NOT to behave like the nations surrounding them. Rules about diet and dress codes and all kinds of things. But when it came to music, absolutely nothing is forbidden. They used the same musical instruments and styles as anyone else. The only difference is that they used their music to worship the one true God and to celebrate life.

Music is the language of the heart. The language itself is neither holy or unholy. If the heart is profane, then what comes out of the heart is profane. If the heart is pure, then what comes out of the heart is pure. (Matthew 15: 18,19) It’s not the sound of words that makes them holy. It’s the intention and motive behind the communication. We now have historical evidence that the Hebrew language grew out of Canaanite dialects. So did their music. They borrowed from their contemporary culture and made it their own.

Though we have no record of music being a source of controversy in the Old Testament (or the New Testament for that matter), the history of the Christian church has been full of controversy over this issue. At one point only unison chant was considered “sacred”. Harmony was considered too sensual. Worship was perceived at that time as being only contemplative and sober and the music of the church reflected that.

This controversy runs like a sticky thread through the entire history of the institutional church. It has no basis in Scripture whatsoever but in tradition and culture. Calvin condemned the pipe organ as being profane. Luther loved it. Today we all consider Handel’s “Messiah” as being one of the greatest works of sacred music of all time. But when he composed this masterpiece he was roundly condemned in conservative pulpits all over London. How dare he profane the Word of God by using the same musical motifs employed in Italian operettas? And to make matters worse, he premiered this work NOT in the church but in the theater–a house of secular entertainment. To many Christians this was shocking and offensive.

Luther’s music was just as scandalous. His most famous lyric “A Mighty Fortress” was set to a beer-drinking tune straight out of the pub. Today it’s considered traditional “sacred” music of the finest order. Charles Wesley had the same mindset that Luther had. Make church music singable, hummable, simple and melodic–but with profound theological lyrics.

Move forward to the last century and we see the emergence of gospel song writers who hijacked popular music and did the same thing. Songs like “In The Garden” were considered too romantic and sentimental to be sacred for some. John Peterson’s gospel songs like “It Took A Miracle” even landed on the hit parade in the fifties. Stuart Hamblen combined Country Western and pop musical motifs during that period to write such standards as “Until Then”. His best known song, “This Ol’ House”, became a chart-busting hit.

During the sixties, Ralph Carmichael scandalized the evangelical church by using the same sensuous orchestrations with gospel songs that he used when arranging for Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Roger Williams, and other pop artists. He had his feet in both worlds and the church didn’t like that much either. How dare he use the rich sensorial harmonies of jazz and pop music to interpret sacred themes? And he didn’t stop there. While scoring the Billy Graham movie, “The Restless Ones”, he was pretty much the first Christian musician to push the envelope further into using rock motifs. “He’s Everything To Me” comes from that movie. Today that song is a standard and most of Carmichael’s music from that period would be considered classic and traditional now.

Everyone knows Bill Gaither’s enormous legacy in gospel music. His premier song, “He Touched Me” was roundly criticized in the late sixties as being too sentimental, too pop, too country, too simple. Today you can’t buy a hymnal without it being full of Bill and Gloria Gaither’s rich repertoire of gospel music. They have changed the way the church sings. And it just doesn’t get much better than “Because He Lives.” If you can’t feel the gospel thrill you right down to your bones with that anthem then you might as well fold your cards and go home.

The seventies witnessed another shift as Contemporary Christian Music created a genre all it’s own that paralleled all the styles and sounds of the popular culture. Lots of controversy once again. But as Larry Norman put it: “Why should the devil have all the good music?” At last the pseudo-boundaries of sacred vs. secular music came tumbling down as artist after artist claimed their own unique voice. That genie will never go back into the bottle. It’s taken us this long to get back to what the Hebrews knew millenniums ago. “Whatever has breath, praise the Lord!”

I have an observation about all this. Christian music today employs all the sounds and rhythms of virtually every cultural expression. Personally, I think that’s a triumph for the gospel. No other religion can claim that. How many Grammy categories do you see for Moslem music? Buddhist music? Hindu music? It just isn’t there. It is the gospel that has universal appeal. It is the gospel that speaks to young people and old people. Conservative people. Progressive people. Red and yellow, black or white. All are precious in his sight. There isn’t a single style of music today that isn’t giving praise to God. That’s something to celebrate, not condemn.

To those who still hold on to the presupposition that there is a difference in the sound of sacred vs. secular music, I would ask this question: Is there a different vocabulary you use to describe your everyday life from your faith? Are some words holier than others? Words are neither secular or sacred. The New Testament was not written in classical Greek, but street language Greek. There are no sacred words in the Bible that weren’t also used by pagans throughout the Mediterranean world. It’s not the words themselves that are sacred. It’s the message that is sacred. It’s all about the intent behind the words.

Christians have always seemed to have an uneasy time with percussion and rhythm. But rhythm is nothing more than mathematics. With today’s musical technology you can program virtually any beat or rhythm into a computer simply by entering numbers. It’s nothing more than numbers. Are some numbers more holy than other numbers? How ridiculous is that? The body was constructed by God to enjoy the feeling of rhythm. The heart beats in rhythm. The universe pulsates and moves in rhythm. The seven day cycle of activity and rest is all about rhythm. The more rhythm you feel in your body the more alive you are. To not feel rhythm is to be dead.

You can also graph and edit virtually any sound or combinations of sounds on a computer. All the audible colors of musical harmony and expression are nothing more than vibrations. Sound waves. Is a vibration of sound either secular or sacred? Of course not. Sound is all about physics. Physics can’t be subdivided into sacred vs. profane categories.

Even in the somber monotone of a sacred chant there are harmonic vibrations that the ear can’t hear. If those monks from the Medieval period could have heard them they would have freaked out. But they’re there. They’re just not audible. The universe if filled with the vibrations of sound that reflect the mind and diversity of its original Creator. No wonder the Bible says “Let everything… praise the Lord.” It all points back to him.

What makes music profane or holy is not the subdivision of numbers between the beats. It’s not in the sound waves. It’s all in the intent behind the communication–the spirit of the music. All music is sacred if it glorifies God and celebrates his creation. A good love song is sacred if it honors the kind of devotional and sacrificial love that harmonizes with the character of God. The Song of Songs in the Old Testament even celebrates human sexuality as a sacred gift from God. The Hebrews were not afraid of the body the way Christians are.

In today’s musical culture we are bombarded with musical expression that is indeed profane. It’s profane because the message degrades human dignity. It’s profane because it ignores God entirely and celebrates self-indulgence. The images and lyrics regularly portrayed on MTV are truly disturbing. The message of popular rap artists like Eminem are beyond deplorable. They incite misogyny and bigotry. The only good that can be squeezed out of this kind of material is the wake-up call it signals to the rest of society. It’s really a scream for help.

The mission of “sacred” music should always be concerned with addressing the human condition with hope. The ministry of grace. The ministry of reconciliation. The ministry of healing and mutual respect. Lyrically you can accomplish that with good theology that lifts the spirit and inspires faith. Sonically you can accomplish that with instrumental beauty that resonates with the soul. Music is God’s gift to reconstruct the human spirit, not tear it apart. That’s the best way I know how to evaluate what is holy or unholy. But this criteria is subjective and personal. What might edify and inspire me might not inspire you.

A music minister has the thankless task of pleasing a whole range of musical tastes in a diverse community. Many churches have solved this problem by splitting the services into traditional and contemporary services. The goal should be to service the cultural diversity within the congregation. And if there isn’t any cultural diversity I don’t think that church is doing its job very well. The gospel unites all cultures together by its message of inclusion, not exclusion. The Kingdom of Heaven is made of up “every nation, tribe, tongue, and people.” The church should reflect that. The music should reflect that. The key word here is “tongue”. It’s talking about communication. And music is a form of communication.

God is the Creator of variety and diversity. There’s nothing boring or monolithic about his creation. It’s full of surprises. He brings order out of chaos. That is what the artistic impulse is. And good music is full of surprises. Like good humor it employs that “ah-ha” moment when the lightbulb goes on and you “get it.” A great musical artist knows how to achieve that goal. The worst thing that happens in a lot of “sacred” music is that it is predictable and boring. God is neither. Sacred music should expand the soul and fill it with grace and insight and the delight of discovery. Nothing crosses boundaries and melts walls quite as powerfully as music. It’s our most powerful tool of communication, rightly used.

The gospel embraces humanity with all of it’s emotional colors. The Word becomes flesh. The gospel is incarnational. If music is truly “sacred” it will be fully incarnational as well. It should speak to every human emotion and yearning. If it doesn’t do that then it isn’t very Christian. It should be both vertical and horizontal in its scope. Why? Because the gospel is. The gospel isn’t afraid to dig it’s fingers into the soil. It unites heaven with earth. And when music does that it is truly sacred.

The word “holy” literally means “other”. It doesn’t mean stiff, pious, and aloof. When the angels sing “Holy, Holy, Holy” they are marveling at the character of God–whose heart is fully focused on the “other” and not on himself. That’s what separates him from false gods. God is not narcissistic. Jesus came to serve. (Luke 22: 27) That is what holiness looks like. That is what charity looks like. That is what a Christian is supposed to look like.

So let us not be “unholy” by demanding that all sacred music must serve our own tastes. I don’t like every kind of music in the world. I’ve traveled around the world and I’ve heard some things that make my ears bleed. But I am fascinated by what the human emotion is behind the artistic expression. It enlarges my world to make the effort to understand. I think that’s all that God requires of us. Be respectful of others and try to understand what they hear. You don’t have to like it. But by enlarging your understanding of others you tap into a “holy” impulse that makes you more fully human in the image of God.

There won’t be any music police in heaven. So why develop that skill on earth? Aren’t there more important issues to invest our time in? Like maybe calming the storm in other people’s lives, rather than creating new ones. So much time and energy has been wasted over debating issues like these. So many unnecessary bruises inflicted. Just think of how much good could be done in the world if Christians had their priorities focused on what really matters most.

“To every thing there is a season,” the Bible says. “A time to mourn and a time to dance.” Why is that Christians are more comfortable with mourning than dancing? Odd, isn’t it? We have so much to celebrate and communicate. I think the real question regarding music is: what is the appropriate “season” for this or that kind of music. And that is primarily a question of taste and good judgment… and a sensitivity to the needs of the community being ministered to. There’s no “one size fits all” rule of thumb. The Scriptures haven’t given us any.

Let everything that can breathe… praise the Lord! That’s as specific as the Bible gets. It’s very broad and inclusive. The gospel challenges us to have hearts that are generous and inclusive. I think if we’re truly filled with the Spirit our appreciation of all kinds of cultural and artistic expression will naturally be expansive. Not restrictive. Of all people on earth, Christians should be the most eager to expand and grow. In doing so we harmonize with the expansive, innovative Spirit of God.

Did Jesus ever experience a “secular” moment? He was God in the flesh, wasn’t he? How can God have a “secular” moment? It’s an oxymoron. The Incarnation demolishes all boundaries of secular and sacred. The “Word made flesh” confirms that all of life is sacred. To be fully human, as Jesus was, is to live for the “other” and to discover our true self in the presence of others. Anything short of that is profane.

A true artist gives his soul away to others. That is his or her gift to the world. It is a sacred impulse. A holy impulse. That impulse should not be contained and restricted but encouraged to flower and flourish. Christians, of all people, should be the first to facilitate that artistic impulse. During the Renaissance period the church got it right. That period produced the greatest art the world has ever seen. What happened? We’ve lost a lot of ground since then. It’s time to face the music and claim it back!

Today, January 13, 2023, we remember the Hussites who, on this day in 1501, published the first hymnal in history written in the language of the common people. The descendants of the Hussites are known as the Moravian Brethren, who carry on the rich tradition of hymns and church music today.

Christians have good reason to commemorate this event. After all, ours, like Judaism, has always been a singing faith. The longest book in the Bible, and the one at its center, is the Psalms, a word that means “songs.” David’s plans for the Temple included clans of Levites whose entire job was music. Choirs, soloists, orchestras, and antiphonal singing were prescribed parts of Temple life and practice, and an entire class of Psalms, the Songs of Ascent, were sung by the people as they traveled to Jerusalem for the annual pilgrimage festivals.

Throughout the biblical texts, music is also connected to prophecy and to dealing with evil spirits. Jesus and the apostles sang a hymn after the Last Supper, according to two of the Gospels. The Apostle Paul specifically associates singing with being filled with the Spirit in his epistle to the church at Ephesus. And, in John’s Revelation of what is constantly happening around the throne of God, there is lots of singing, sometimes accompanied by harps.

Music also is part of the culmination of the creation story. When Eve is taken from Adam’s side, Adam awakes and exclaims, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Many scholars believe this to essentially be a celebratory song.

Eliminating the musical element from the text of Scripture would be to gut them and the practices that have emerged from them. Monks chanted the Psalms daily, in some cases covering the entire Psalter in a week. Medieval thinkers thought of the human heartbeat, respiration, and daily cycle of sleeping and waking as “music.” They also believed the motion of the heavenly bodies was regulated by the “music of the spheres.” To the medieval mind, music was a glue holding the universe together. These ideas shaped the imaginations of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who used music as the agent of creation in their respective tales of Narnia and Middle Earth.

In the Reformation, Martin Luther reintroduced congregational singing to the liturgy, an idea that spread through all the branches of Protestantism and, eventually, returned to the Roman Catholic Church. Reformed Christians focused on singing the Psalms and other songs from Scripture, though some also incorporated hymns in their worship.

All of this points to a central truth of a Christian worldview, that God loves music. Because music has been so central to Church worship and the Christian imagination, the first common-language hymnal is a milestone to remember and an opportunity to reflect on how music serves Christian worship today.

While I have no desire to reignite the “worship wars” of recent decades, Christians should not think of music as mere decoration to services that are really about teaching and preaching. The essential question, even as music styles change and new music is created and incorporated is, what is music in worship services for?

The Psalms offer essential guidance. Some are songs of praise, others are confessions, but the largest category of Psalms are laments. In other words, the Psalms cover the full range of human emotions, bringing the totality of human experience into corporate worship.

And yet, the Psalms always direct our attention to God. Even when talking about their own experiences and hardships, they always turn attention outward and upward, from self and toward God. And often, this is done by remembering what God has done and who He has revealed Himself to be.

Too often, music utilized in churches fails to take us past expressing our own thoughts and feelings about God and, too often, only songs that elicit positive and happy emotions are sung. This does not follow the model of Scripture, a model that helps God’s people see trouble and sorrow in light of God’s faithfulness and character. This also misses what music is for. Music instructs. It is a tool of catechetical instruction, not merely a time of self-expression. In the end, songs centered on the subjective experience of Christians quickly become sources of bad theology.

Another consideration is that music is for the entire congregation. When music in the church is primarily about the performance of professional musicians, the songs are unsingable to much of the congregation. This is not an issue of style or preference. I thank God for modern writers of hymns and songs, committed to producing music that is true and excellent for the glory of God and the people of God.

Music is a gift of God, a unique way of connecting His revelation with our hearts and minds. St. Augustine is thought to have said, “he who sings, prays twice.” The Church must recover a more robust understanding and practice of music.

________

Copyright (c) 2023 Prison Fellowship Ministries. Reprinted with permission. "BreakPoint" is a radio ministry of Prison Fellowship Ministries.

The little sketch of Beethoven's last moments given in The Evangelist of November 11th, so interested me that I desire to give you a little different account of the same incident. It gives the same facts, with the different view of another writer. It is from Harper's Monthly, July, 1854, by an unknown author. The story is full of deepest pathos connected with one of the greatest of musical genii the world has ever known. I hope you will give it a place in your Music Department. -- J. H. Vance, Erie, Pa.

He had but one happy moment in his life and that killed him! He lived in poverty, driven into solitude by the contempt of the world and by the natural bent of a disposition rendered almost savage, by the injustice of his contemporaries. But he wrought the sublimest music of which man or angel ever dreamed!

Beethoven had but one friend and that was Hummel. But he had quarreled with him, and for a long time they had ceased to meet. To crown his misfortunes he became completely deaf. Then Beethoven retired to Baden, where he lived isolated and sad, in a small house that hardly sufficed for his necessities ... In the midst of his solitude a letter arrived, which brought him back, despite himself, to the affairs of the world, where new griefs awaited him. A nephew whom he had brought up and to whom he was attached by the good offices he had performed for the youth, wrote to implore his uncle's presence in Vienna. He had become implicated in some disastrous business from which his elder relative alone could release him.

Beethoven set off upon the journey and, compelled by the economy of necessity, accomplished a part of the journey on foot. One evening he stopped before the gate of a small mean-looking house and solicited shelter. He had already several leagues to traverse before reaching Vienna, and his strength would not allow him to continue any longer on the road. They received him with hospitality, and after partaking of their simple supper he was installed in the master's chair by the fire-place.

When the table was cleared, the father of the family arose and opened an old claverin (the primitive piano mentioned in The Evangelist). The three sons each took a violin and the mother and daughter each occupied themselves with some domestic work. The father gave the key note, and all four began playing with that unity and precision, that innate genius which is peculiar only to the German people. It seemed that they were deeply interested in what they played, for their whole souls were in their instruments. The two women desisted from their occupation to listen, and their gentle countenances impressed the emotions of their hearts. To observe all this was the only share that Beethoven could take in all that was passing, for he could not hear a single note. He could only judge of their performance by the movements of the executants, and the fire that animated their features. When they had finished they shook each other's hands, as if to congratulate each other on a community of happiness, and the young girl threw herself weeping into her mother's arms! Then they appeared to consult together, and resumed their instruments. This time their enthusiasm reached its height, their eyes were filled with tears, and the color mounted to their cheeks!

"My friends," said Beethoven, "I am very unhappy that I can take no part in the delight which you experience, for I also love music. But as you see, I am so deaf I cannot hear any sound. Let me read this music which produces in you such sweet and lively emotions."

He took the music in his hand; his eyes grew dim, his breath came short and fast, then he dropped the music and burst into tears! Those peasants had been playing the Allegretto of Beethoven's Symphony in A!

The whole family surrounded him with signs of curiosity and surprise. For some moments his convulsive sobs impeded his utterance. Then he raised his hand and said: "I am Beethoven;" and they uncovered their heads and bowed before him in respectful silence! Beethoven extended his hands to them, and they clasped them, kissed, wept over them! (Imagine that scene!) For they knew that they had among them a man who was greater than a king! Beethoven held out his arms and embraced them all, father mother, young girl and her three brothers!

All at once he arose, and sitting down to the claverin signed to the young men to take up their violins and himself performed the piano part of this chef d'auvre. The performers were alike inspired! Never was music more divine or better executed! Half the night passed away thus and the peasants listened. Those were the last notes of the man!

The father compelled him to accept his own bed, but during the night Beethoven was restless and fevered. He arose; he needed air, he went forth with naked feet into the country. All nature was inhaling a majestic harmony, the winds sighed through the branches of the trees, and moaned along the avenues, and glades of the wood. He remained some time wandering in the cool dews of the morning, but when he returned to the house he was seized with an icy-chill. They sent to Vienna for a physician. Dropsy of the chest was found to have declared itself, and in two days despite every care and skill, the doctor said Beethoven must die. And in truth life was every instant fast ebbing away.

As he lay upon his bed pale and suffering, a man entered. It was Hummel, his old and only friend. He had heard of the illness of Beethoven, and came to him with money and succor. But it was too late. Beethoven was speechless and a grateful smile was all he had to bestow upon his friend. Hummel, by means of an acoustic instrument, enabled Beethoven to hear a few words of his compassion and regret.

Beethoven seemed reanimated, his eyes shone, he struggled for utterance and gasped: "Is it not true, Hummel, that I have some talent after all?"

Those were his last words. His eyes grew fixed, his mouth fell open and his spirit passed away. They buried him in the little cemetery of Doblin.

-- From "Present Day Parables" by J. Wilbur Chapman

Mall managers all over the world are concerned about teens who use their centers as hangouts. In some malls, hundreds of teens are present at the same time for no other reason than that "There's nothing to do." How do you keep them from congregating in annoying packs?

The Warrawong Westfield mall in Wollongong (yes, there is really a place by this name south of Sydney, Australia) arrived at this original solution: they play Bing Crosby music, loudly, over the mall's public address system. And it works (or at least we're told it works).

Being good business people they have a Plan B in the event Plan A doesn't work: lighting that amplifies facial blemishes will be installed.

APPLICATION: Fortunately, God doesn't need or want a Plan B. His Plan A has always been certain of success, it has always been to seek and to save that which was lost [Luke 19:10]. When all has been said and done, there will be no one in Hell who can wag his finger at Heaven and proclaim, "There's been a mistake, I don't belong here!"

________

Source/Attribution: John Gillmartin

Barry Posner did some research that revealed an interesting result of quality. People were 6 times as likely to talk about a business that they considered a 5 on a scale of one to 5 than they were to talk about businesses they rate as a 4. This is the power of WOW!(1)

There is a reason Jesus taught us to shock people with above and beyond, "second mile" service. It is in the second mile that we get people's attention. It is in the second mile that people pay attention. It is in the second mile that people ask, "What does this guy have that I don't?" All the results come in the second mile. This is where people say, "WOW!"

I worked as an assistant manger for a while at a Wendys. One of my favorite moments was when a cranky customer came to complain that we had not prepared her hamburger just so. We were trained to handle this in a very particular and dramatic fashion. We would apologize politely for the mistake, whether or not it was our fault. Then, we would take the hamburger that was prepared wrong and lift it above a trash can. In plain view of the customer, we would drop it ceremoniously into the trash can. Without saying a word, we would grab a fresh bun, hold it in our left hand, look the customer in the eye and say, "Tell me how I can prepare this hamburger for your satisfaction." In shocked disbelief they would stutter out their order. Often they would try to stop us from throwing it away. "No... no... no... I only needed you to add pickles." "Plop." They would insist that it was their fault. No matter. We wanted to get their attention. We wanted to watch their mouth open as we dropped the hamburger into the trash in front of them. We wanted to impress on them that we were serious about customer service. We wanted to make a story they could go and tell their friends about. We wanted them to say, "WOW!"

The interesting thing about this approach is how calculated it was to the customer's response. You see, what I was taught to do at Wendy's is not so different than what many restaurants, stores and fast food places do. Many products and services routinely come with a money back guarantee. Whether it is stated or not, if you bring a hamburger back at McDonalds or Joe Bob's Grill they will generally take it back and fix you what they want. The difference is in THE WAY we did it. Normally THEY take it to the back room and you, the customer, never really knows what happens. Do they salvage all they can and give you back the same meat but with a new bun? Do they just pull off the pickles and hope you won't notice the pickle juice? Do they take your sandwich and serve it to someone else? Do they put the preparation of your hamburger in line behind everyone else's order? What happens in that magic transforming back room? No one knows. What we did was remove all doubt.

We wanted to leave nothing to the imagination. We wanted to send a strong message to our customers that we were really sorry we had messed up their order. We wanted to visibly display to them that the were far more important to us than anything we might salvage from their sandwich in the back room. We wanted them to know that we were going to stop everything to get their order right. We were going to do it now, for all the world to see. We wanted them to say, "WOW, these people made a mistake, but they sure went the second mile to get it fixed. WOW!"

Churches ought to adopt the goal of causing people to say, "WOW!" We ought to do our advertising, our outreach, our preaching, our music, our childcare, our everything to make them say, "WOW!" The goal of Christian ministry is nothing less than to drop open jaws and hear people say, "WOW!" That is how Jesus ministered. When people saw Jesus, they said, "Wow!"

Glory is about saying "WOW!" When something was glorious, you would just look at it in stunned disbelief and say, "WOW!" "Little Kittel" defines glory as, "that which makes God impressive.(2) When churches accurately display the glory of God, they make God impressive. They show his glory. They cause people to say, "WOW!" Too many churches make people yawn.

Churches that cause people to say "WOW!" don't have attendance problems. They have parking problems, space problems, administrative growth problems and all kinds of other problems. But they do not have attendance problems. If you aspire to double your church every five years or less, it is not enough to be a pretty good church. We must make people's jaws drop to the floor. We must cause them to say, "WOW!" When was the last time someone walked out of your church and said, "WOW! I had no idea church could be that way. I had no idea church music could be like that. The people, were so, well, just different. WOW!"

Not "WOW!" at us. Of course not. "WOW! Isn't God incredible! This is all far different than I imagined!"

WOW! PREACHING

===============

Jesus in generally considered the greatest teacher that has ever lived. I agree. Jesus' teaching has been analyzed, dissected, inspected, and scrutinized. A number of books profess to show the reader how to teach as Jesus taught. Few teachers actually teach as Jesus did, however. A full exploration of the teaching style of Jesus is beyond the scope of this volume. However, I would like to make a couple of observations.

One notable distinction of Jesus teaching was its brevity. If the modern preacher were to preach the Sermon on the Mount as it he would be accused of sloughing on the job. The whole thing can be read in ** just a few minutes. Not nearly long enough to be considered a real sermon. A sermonette for Christianette maybe, but not a real sermon. How can we grow true disciples without giving them forty five minutes of meat? Following this feature of Jesus teaching could well cause people to say, "WOW!"

Another notable distinction of Jesus teaching was his lack of clarity. Yes, you read it right, I said lack of clarity. If we will be perfectly honest, we must admit that in many cases we STILL don't have a clue what Jesus meant by some of his teachings. Oh, sure, we have some theories. But, at times, honest teachers look at the parables and say, "Not a clue. Not a clue." We needn't feel bad. Jesus disciples clearly felt this way. They didn't have a clue either. That is why they asked him on several occasions what in the world he was getting at. If they disciples had not asked for an explanation, we would probably be in the dark on even more parables.

Take the brief teaching of the treasure hidden in the field (Matthew 13:44). Commentators disagree as to the meaning of the parable. Is it teaching us that we must give up everything to get the treasure of the gospel? (Luke 14:33) Or are we the treasure that God gave up everything to possess? Or, did he intend a double meaning? The best of Christian teachers and thinkers and theologians are split down the middle.

What about the teaching of the mustard seed growing to be the largest of trees. (Matthew 13:31 - 32) Most commentators say this is speaking of the tremendous growth of the church. I have heard others, however, point out that the mustard seed is not, technically speaking, the largest of trees, as Jesus said. Jesus was predicting the growth of the organized church (read Roman Catholic Church) beyond what was natural and normal. This large mustard seed plant was to be an aberration, an abnormality. This is a completely different spin from the first interpretation. Which one is right?

I know what your are thinking. You know what these parables mean. You have a clue. Yes, and more than a clue. You know for sure. Some of us are not sure. Some of us wonder why Jesus left so much up for grabs. Why make the trip from heaven to planet earth and not be Windex clear about everything you say? Why not speak in language that a lawyer could not see in more than one way? The goal is communication, isn't it? What does this lack of clarity teach us about Jesus communication style?

The teachings of Jesus beg explanation. They beg for discussion. They make you want to say, "Yeah, but... " or, "Go on." or, "Would you run that by me one more time?" Jesus doesn't run it by one more time. He doesn't go on. Jesus is so brief the listener begs him to go on. Now, that is a switch. He goes on to the next subject and is likely to leave the audience dangling again.

This feature of Jesus' teaching has always puzzled me and even, (may I say it?) bothered me a bit. I love clarity. Why wasn't Jesus more clear in some of his teachings? It seemed to me that in light of the importance of the message he was delivering that he would leave nothing to the imagination.

The genius behind Jesus' approach was not clear to me until I read Garrett Soden's treatise on communication entitled HOOK SPIN BUZZ: HOW TO COMMAND ATTENTION, CHANGE MINDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE. In the last section, Soden discusses the idea of BUZZ: "an idea, a rumor or trend that is on everyone's mind."(3) We use the word as he does when we say, "The buzz at the convention was all about cell groups." The question Soden grapples with are:

How is buzz created?

What keeps buzz moving?

How can we take advantage of the current buzz?

How can we create our own buzz?

As I read, I thought of Jesus. Whatever else he was, Jesus was a master of buzz. He was the talk. He was it. He was the hot topic. People loved him, hated him, delighted in him or were angered by him. But they did not ignore him. Jesus told people to hush the buzz. They would not. Seemingly, they could not. He created buzz like no one before or since. How did he do it? Soden offers some insight:

THE IDEAS IN BUZZ CAN BE DESCRIBED, BUT NOT DEFINED. PART OF WHAT MAKES BUZZ VIBRATE IS THE FRICTION BETWEEN DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF WHAT THE BUZZ IS REALLY ABOUT.(4) (italics added)

"That's it!" I thought as I read. That is exactly what Jesus did. He created buzz by leaving some things up for discussion. I want to leave nothing to the imagination. Jesus wanted to get the imagination buzzing. The basics were clear. The essentials were plain. But, in many of Jesus teachings, he choose to leave some things up to discussion. He knew people would be talking. He knew they would be asking, "What do you think he meant by that?" He wanted them to ask. He wanted to create a buzz, and he was a master at it.

Next, I would like to explain exactly, precisely, so that there is no misunderstanding, why varying interpretations create a friction that causes the buzz to vibrate. Then we will explore exactly, precisely, specifically how to do it so that it is perfectly clear.

Not.

Teaching that makes people say "WOW!" creates a buzz. How loud is the buzz about your preaching?

WOW! MUSIC

===========

Music has the ability to make my soul cry "WOW!" quicker than just about anything else. I will confess I have looked at my watch a lot more often during the preaching than I have during the music. I have heard many sermons that went way too long. I hardly ever tire of GOOD music. One of the easiest ways to make a worship service better is to make the music ten minutes longer and the sermon ten minutes shorter. Both will be improved.

Good music, that is the key. What is good? Simple. Good is the stuff that I like. It is true for you too. Good is the stuff that you like. Bad is the stuff that you don't like. Beauty in music is in the ear of the listener.

I grew up on the mission field and tend to think somewhat intuitively like a missionary. I have often asked myself, "If Korean missionaries were to come here to evangelize America, how would they do it?" This question has plenty of implications, but for now, let me explore only those having to do with music. Would they. . .

Use a pipe organ and a choir? (Remember, the question is, how would Korean missionaries coming to America do it, not what do I think about pipe organs and choir.)

Use 16th century hymns?

Use hard driving, heavy metal, rock?

Use rap or hip hop?

Use contemporary Christian?

If you have your missionary thinking cap on, this question is a slam dunk no brainer. You would use the music of the people you are trying to reach. People like to become Christians without having to change their taste in music. Becoming a Christian does not change one's taste in music.

People who become Spirit filled believers who used to listen to country music still tend to like country music. People who used to like contemporary top 40 and become fully mature followers of Christ tend to still like contemporary top 40 music.

Here is some good news. It does not require expensive, sophisticated demographic study to determine a culture's taste in music. We can discover the taste in music for any population group using a simple instrument found in every home and every car. It is called a radio.

Try this little experiment. Hit the seek button on your FM radio and describe each type of music you hear. Skip the talk radio. When you have done this, you will have a pretty good idea what people like to listen to your community. You have now discovered what will cause them to say "WOW!" If you were a Korean missionary who came to the United States to penetrate the culture with the gospel you would start a congregation employing every one of the types of music on your list.

This list needs to be prioritized. We need to start congregations first that employ the music enjoyed by the most people. What kind of music is this? For main street America it is middle of the road contemporary pop rock. For some places it is rap. For others it is county. (Country music has had a huge revival in recent years by moving closer to the style of contemporary pop-rock.) Different kind of music for different kinds of people. By far and away the most popular music in America is contemporary pop rock. This is the music they sell Pontiacs and Coca cola with for good reason. The marketing experts have done their home work. The sound on the streets is the middle of the road stuff of Whitney Houston and Kenny G. This is the style of music we would have if we were thinking like Korean missionaries.

The easiest way to get started on making our music more like the people we are trying to reach is to start an alternative congregations targeted toward reaching this group. Leave the existing congregation alone. They like to worship God without changing the music they enjoy. Let them. Draw a big red circle around their service and promise them you will not mess with their service. Then keep your promise. But get permission to start something else for someone else. I discuss this idea fully in my previous book, LET IT GROW!

Look at the different types of services as two tracts to lead people to experience God. One is not better than the other. People who have been in church a long time have embraced a musical culture all of its own. This is fine. Do not try to transition them. Lead them to God within the musical culture that you find them. All you need from them is permission to be a missionary and start something else designed to reach someone else.

As you think about a contemporary service, I would invite you to consider three things: instrumentation, musical selection, and feel.

You cannot sound like contemporary music without using the instruments of the contemporary culture. Most important is drums. Nothing will change the sound of music quicker than adding drums. It has always been curious to see churches miss this. They throw in "This is the day" just after "Count your many blessings," and without changing any of the instruments and call it a contemporary service.

To make a service contemporary, you have to use contemporary instruments. It is the instruments that create the sound and music is about sound. If you don't change the instruments, you have not changed the sound and it is not contemporary music. I don't care what it says on the top of the bulletin. It may be slightly more contemporary than the same instruments playing 200 year old hymns, but it is not nearly contemporary enough.

The most "visible" instrument are the drums. Nothing will change the sound of a service quicker than adding drums.

I was rather slow to accept this truth. It was six weeks after we had started a contemporary service that a drummer approached me, "Have you ever considered using drums in the service?" "You gotta be kidding," I thought, "Drums in church? Have you gone stark raving berserk mad?" I replied in a more polite way. After all, I was interested, just afraid. "What did you have in mind?" "Well, I play drums, and I was wondering if I could play with you guys?" We decided to roll the dice. The first week he played I told him, "Now, I want you to play sort of quietly. Maybe you can just use your brushes." He cooperated as best he could, but before the service was over, I was directing him to turn loose. I wanted to say to him "PRAISE HIM WITH THE CLASH OF CYMBALS, PRAISE HIM WITH RESOUNDING CYMBALS." (Psalms 150:5) Most churches are flatly disobedient to that verse. Obedience to Psalm 150 could dramatically change most churches.

I could not believe how much drums changed the sound of the worship service. I never looked back on the decision to let Terry play his drums in worship. A time or two when he was out of town we failed to get a replacement. The music went from "WOW!" to wearisome in one fell swoop. Contemporary music needs drums.

You simply will not find any contemporary songs that don't have drums. Period. The American ear is not used to listing to music that does not have drums. One of the few places in American culture that we find music without drums is in church. Contemporary music employs drums. Country music uses drums. Bands that play at half time use drums. Easy listening music has drums. Quiet drums, but drums, still. The Koreans missionaries would get this right every single time. Why do we struggle with it?

We struggle with it because we have never done it that way before and we are all a little afraid of the unknown. You may think I am making a lot of noise about something that is just a "clanging cymbal." (See 1 Corinthians 13:1) I double dog dare you try it. If you have a contemporary service, and do not have drums, try it. If you have a "blended" service and think you can pull this off without loosing your job, try it. If you are skeptical of how much difference it will make, try it. Try it, you'll like it. If you don't have a drummer, get a good key board player to play drums from his keyboard. It can be done and sound very tasteful. The nice thing about electronic drums is that you can control the volume and balance them with the rest of the instruments and voices. In other words, you can turn down the volume.

The other instruments that comprise a contemporary ensemble are synthesizer -- which can sound like virtually anything -- guitar, bass guitar and any brass that are available. If brass are not available, synthesizers can be a good substitute. Nothing can reproduce the ambiance of a live trumpet, but a synthesizer can sure come close. It is nice to have several synthesizers to add maximum flexibility. Contemporary services need a variety of instrumentation in the same way that traditional services have a piano, organ and choir.

There are some that put too much hope in MIDI. If you don't know what MIDI is, skip to the next paragraph. Although sequenced songs can add a nice touch at times, they never deliver all that they promise. It never sounds as good as all those instruments jamming down live on the stage. Any audience will prefer live musicians to a recording, which is essentially what MIDI offers. The flexibility to alter, in real time, the nuances of the tempo is lost with MIDI. (By the way, would someone explain to me what time is that is not real.) The ability to do something as simple as singing the last verse again with just the strings is lost with MIDI. In short, the ability to direct the band to do anything other than what was laid down in the MIDI file is out the window. I am not saying there are not times when MIDI is you best choice. It may be better than just one instrument. It may be better than nothing if your keyboardist is home taking care of a child with an ear ache. But it is not the goal to be aspired to. It is not, ultimately, going to cause people to say, "WOW!"

The first component of contemporary music is the instrumentation. The second is the selection of music. No song that is older than Elvis Presley and the Beatles ought to every be sung in a contemporary service. Are their exceptions? A few, but not the ones you are probably thinking about.

Some will argue that we ought to at least acquaint this younger generation with the great old hymns of the faith. I 10% agree. There are a few old hymns of the faith that are that good. But, can I be honest? There are many old hymns of the faith that could just as well be replaced by their modern equivalents. There are certain hymns that if I never heard again, it would be OK. There are some hymns that I have already heard way too many times. My list would be different from yours, which is my point.

The notion that there is a specific body of Christian hymnody that every believer ought to be acquainted with is simply not tenable.

Hundreds of thousands of Christians songs have been written by Christians of thousands of culture world wide down through the centuries. To suggest that a couple of hundred songs written in Europe and America over the past two to three hundred years are more sacred than others is just not true. Korean missionaries would never get confused about this, but we do. The important thing is to make people say "WOW!" To do this, we need to lead them to see God within the context of American culture in this century, not Europe in the last century.

Beauty is in the ear of the listener. No song or style of music is inherently better or worse than any other song or style. Bach is not better than rock. The opposite is also true.

Occasionally I will run across a zealous contemporary musician who is on a campaign to transition a congregation toward contemporary music. This is sad. People like to worship God without changing the style of music they enjoy. Let them alone. Start anther congregation if you must, but lead these people to God in the music style they enjoy.

Music written in the last 20 years -- and especially the last 10 years -- has a distinctly different sound to it. When you draw from this music, people will tend to say, "WOW!" When you don't, the yawn and look at their watches. They usually don't come back. We have lost out chance to reach them with the gospel. Seven percent of the unchurched population will sample a church this year.(5) When we do, we need to let the music drop their jaw open and say, "WOW!"

The third component of contemporary music is more subjective. It is what can only be called "feel". You cannot define it. You can hardly describe it. Everyone knows it when they hear it. You either have it or you don't. It is very difficult for this to be educated into you if you basically don't have it. If a musician has what it takes, training will make him better. If he does not have what it takes, understand that the key of E flat has 3 flats will not help very much.

Good music has a flow to it. It moves from celebrative music that reaches out and grabs the congregation from their depression or boredom or distraction or whatever state they found themselves in when the came. Slowly by slowly it moves them into the presence of God so that they loose them selves in the presence and wonder and glory of God. They sing out, "This is holy ground," and they feel as Moses felt before the burning bush. The sing, "Holy, holy, holy," and they feel as Isaiah felt in Isaiah 6. They sing the songs; their soul sees into the unseen world of heaven itself. They lift their hands; they do not know they are lifting their hands. They are not wondering what people think. They are hardly aware of anything around them. They are captivated by the presence and the wonder of God. Their soul says, "WOW!"

Worship leaders, this is your job description: you are to lead people to this experience each and every week. No exceptions. The soul longs for this kind of closeness with God. Church is about giving people the gift of this kind of experience with God. Yet, 61% of people who attend church regularly say they experience God seldom or never.(6) The world needs, more than anything else, to experience the presence of God. We must give it to them. We must cause their soul to see God and say, "WOW!"

Some may object that this is all too experiential, too emotional. I would argue that worship is about feeling because love is about feeling. I am utterly convinced that God is weary of commitment with no feeling. God wants to be enjoyed AND obeyed. God wants us to feel about him. He wants us to experience him in real time. This is what worship is all about. This is what Christianity is all about. If we are not experiencing God, if we don't have a real heart for God, we are nothing but very good Pharisees.

WOW! PASTORAL CARE

===================

In seminary they taught us how to do weddings and funerals. We learned how to do hospital visitation and help people through crises situations. We learned our lessons well. What they did not tell us is that people will hardly ever remember what is said at a wedding or a funeral. At the risk of offending the pastors who are reading, let me break it to you: you and I who officiate at weddings are not the most important thing going on. We are not the picture. I am not even sure we are the frame. We are not supporting actors. We are more like the extras -- the thousands of locals the movie producers hire to create a crowd effect. Nobody ever remembers funeral or wedding messages. So when they come up to you and say, "Oh pastor, that was perfect." don't believe it. Smile and say thank you, but don't start thinking that you did anything really extraordinary

There is something, however, really extraordinary you CAN DO in helping people through pivot points in life. It isn't difficult or time consuming, but it will mean the world to people. It will cause them to say "WOW!" these people really care around here. This simple practice, if effectively executed, will mean more to people than anything else you do as pastor. Over time, your people will develop an irresistible love and gratitude toward you. They will follow you anywhere because you have loved them well. You have "taken care of my lambs," and been obedient to Jesus' teaching in John 21. Here is how it works.

As soon as the funeral or wedding is over, plan out your follow up strategy. This is where the battle will be won. You may want to do this on your own calendar, or have your secretary keep up with it for you, or use a computer to remind you. In one ten minute session, plan out a dozen ways to remind the family that you care.

Here is an example. Suppose you do a funeral on Friday, November 26th. A 58 year old man named Bob died suddenly of a heart attack leaving a widow, Jean, and three children. They had been married 32 years. When you get back to the office, write down the following dates:

December 15: write a note acknowledging that you are understand the Christmas season may be hard with out Bob.

February 10: write a note acknowledging this is the first Valentines day in 32 years Jean has not had a date. You know it is hard. You are sorry. You are thinking of her. You are praying for her. If you want to go the extra mile, send one long stem rose. Sign the card with your wife in order to avoid any misunderstanding.

June 15: Write a letter to each of the children acknowledging their grief in Father's day without dad.

August 22: Bob's birthday. This day will come and go with a great cloud over it. To everyone else, it is just another day. Jean will be touched that you remembered.

September 15: "Jean and Bob's anniversary. Thirty three years ago she slept with Bob for the first time. Tonight, she crawls in bed alone. She is so alone. The letter she got from her pastor made her day." WOW! It is sure good to have people who care.

November 20: Write a note acknowledging the anniversary of Bob's death.

The following year you may write half as many cards and then decrease from there.

If you serve anything other than a very small church, keeping up with all these contacts will become daunting. I have some good news. The bigger the church, the more money you have to pay secretaries and support staff. Turn your secretary loose. Ask her to be creative and be an extension of you in showing care to the congregation.

Modern contact management software that salesmen use can be adapted to track this kind of thing. In ten minutes you can mark each date you want to be reminded to do something, along with a note describing what you need to do. If you turn on your computer every day it will keep you on top of these things.

Buy your cards in bulk, but don't buy cheap cards. Purchase some cards that look like you picked them out just for this person. Again, let your secretary help you.

Variety is the key. Send a card this month, call next. Send a flower next month and a gift the next. Once in a while, on a Wednesday night, ask the group to remember a beloved member of the congregation who is passing the first anniversary of their spouses death. Everyone will say, "WOW! I feel cared for."

Don't just acknowledge sad things. Acknowledge the one month anniversary of that new born child. Acknowledge the six month anniversary of a wedding.

This is pastoral care that makes helps people. This is pastoral care that makes people say WOW!

WOW! FACILITIES

================

Churches ought to be at least as nice as the malls, banks, schools and Burger Kings in the community.

In yester-years believers built great cathedrals to lift the spirit of man to God. They understood that the size and shape of the building influenced a person's soul. They asked different questions than we do. They asked, 'How can we construct this building so that it lifts the soul of man to God?" We ask, "How can we reduce the dollar per square foot figures so that it comes in under budget?" Different kinds of questions result in different kinds of answers.

I am not saying that buildings have to be opulent. Certainly not gaudy. We don't want to distract people from thinking about God to thinking about brick and mortar. Church buildings need not be the most lavish buildings in society. They should not send a symbol of wastefulness to society. They should not be an expression of materialism. Buildings need not be the nicest in society, just about the same as the schools and banks and, well, Burger Kings.

Having traveled some and having been in a number of church buildings, I would offer an observation. Being opulent with our church buildings is not our problem. Many church buildings are down right shoddy. They are far worse than the banks, the schools and the Burger Kings in the community. We really ought to do better than that.

It is often argued that home groups have an advantage over Sunday School type groups because of the building. The home atmosphere gives them a warmer feel. I have another argument. Church buildings ought to be homier. How much can wall paper cost? If we can afford comfortable chairs to sit in at home, why can't we afford comfortable chairs to sit in our Sunday Schools?

One difference between church buildings and buildings used for business is that business men generally understand that buildings deteriorate over time. One of the things investors look for when people go to buy a business is differed maintenance. This means that the previous owner beefed up his bottom line by putting off things that really ought to be fixed. This is seen in the business world as cheating. The normal and customary way to do it is to spend a little money -- perhaps in the neighborhood of 5% of gross -- on maintenance each year. This way there is no deferred maintenance that will accrue.

How differently churches think about these things. They have no plan whatever for setting a side a certain percentage of their income for maintenance. They seem to see maintenance as an unusual thing. They seem to be surprised that the roof needs to be repaired, that the painting needs to be redone, that the carpet is wearing out. It often takes and act of congress and some great special action to get these things taken care of. In order for buildings to cause people to say, "WOW!" we need to set aside a little money each year to keep them looking nice.

Another difference between Burger King and most Sunday School class rooms. Most Sunday School class rooms have a little pile of junk in the corner, whereas most Burger Kings don't. If there is a little pile of junk, it is generally not the same pile of junk as the last week you were there. Many Sunday School class rooms have the same pile of junk in the corner for years. It consists of precious things -- old Sunday School quarterlies, unused questionnaires, maps from last quarter's study of the temple, and a few prospects names that no one got around to contacting. For some reason, no one has the courage to pick up this pile of junk and drop it in the trash. At Burger King, this is fairly simple: if a pile of junk ends up the corner of a Burger King, the manager just asks someone to through it away. There are some things we could learn from Burger King.

WOW! CHILDCARE, CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS AND YOUTH WORK

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There is a way to get parents to come to church and make them stick like Velcro. We have a means at our disposal a method so effective it will keep parents coming back every single week. If executed properly, parents are nearly defenseless against the approach. They cannot resist. They are stuck. Captured by their own children. Here is how it works.

A family gets up on a Sunday morning resolved to turn over a new leaf. They are going to get the family in church. Perhaps they used to attend church. Perhaps they want their kids to have a well rounded upbringing (one day of church; six days of soccer; that's balance). For whatever reason, they lay hold of the stuff to get the family to church one time. The children go, quite literally, kicking and screaming. The parents have an OK time. Not great; not awful. OK. Then they pick their kids up from Sunday School and the kids are beaming. You would think that they just got to go to Disneyland. They got to eat some cookies, play some games, watch a really cool video and generally have a great time. The amazing thing is they seemed to have learned something. This is almost enough to snag the parents. Almost. One more thing is needed to set the hook:

"And we have to go back next week, because next week we are going to. . .

have a Christmas party, or

complete the project we are working on, or

have a special guest in the class, or

take a special field trip, or

make something really cool, or

have a contest

If any of these things happens and the kids start begging their parents to attend church the next week, the parents should send up the white flag early. They will not be able to resist. NO PARENT CAN EVER RESIST THE INSISTENCE FROM THEIR OWN CHILD THAT THEY ATTEND CHURCH. EVER. Few churches fully capitalize on this dynamic. One of the quickest ways to become a Velcro church instead of a Teflon church is to have a children's program so irresistible that kids will want to come back. It doesn't mean they feel OK about coming back. I mean they pull Mom's skirt. I mean they pound the floor. I mean they ask, "How many more days till Sunday?" I mean the walk into Mom and Dad's room thirty minutes after bed time and ask, (for the eighth time) "Can we go back to that church?" When this happens, it is over. The fat lady has gotten up, sung, gotten down and driven home. It is over. That family will be in church each and every Sunday from then on -- no exceptions.

You say it can't be done? Kids are brats? How can you plan a program around the finicky whims of kids? We planned something really special for them and they turned up their nose? Is that what I heard?

Listen. Disney does it. Peter Piper does it. McDonalds does it. Nickelodeon does it. Businesses do it all the time. And churches must learn to do it too. Businesses don't do it because they love Jesus. I am not sure they do it because they love kids. They might just do it for money. We can do it for Jesus. We can do it for kids. Jesus taught if we make a kid stumble spiritually, we are in deep weeds. I think the rewards will be pretty handsome for the people who make the gospel attractive to kids. If you want to be a Velcro church, make church attractive to kids.

"But, but, but, we shouldn't make this into Disneyland. We are not trying to entertain these kids, we are trying to teach them." No. We shouldn't make this Disneyland. It should be better. Every businessman knows you have to be better than the competition to beat them. And if we do not beat the competition we will loose our kids. That is a price I am not willing to pay. If it is not interesting we won't have the opportunity to teach them because they won't come back. And where does it say learning has to be boring?

Besides, we have an enormous advantage over Disney and Nickelodeon. We have teachers who actually love kids; Disney just wants their money. We have teachers that actually care for our kids. Let's show how much we care by being more attractive than Disney, Nickelodeon and Discovery Zone. Our caring for kids ought to show in our facilities. Our caring for kids ought to show in our programming. Our caring for kids ought to show in our activities. Our caring for kids ought to show in the most interesting, active, involved teaching that kids have ever seen. Our caring for kids ought to really show up during the week when we pray for kids and call them and send them cards. Here is a sure fire Velcro strategy: have your children's Sunday school workers send cards to their kids. Kids don't get much mail. They will love it. And mom and dad will bring them back to church every single time. Guaranteed.

We ought to do things like take them to the river and say, "Imagine what Moses felt like. . ." When we teach about the loaves and the fishes, pass out some bread. Kids like teaching they can touch and smell and hold and feel. Kids like to laugh and be amazed and cry and get involved.

Kids know something instinctively that we adults some times forget: learning ought to be fun. If you want to double your church really really fast, concentrate on doing things that make kids say "WOW!"

WOW! MULTIMEDIA

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We are all amphibious beings, with one foot in the spiritual world and one foot in the physical world. These two worlds are connected. It is hard to feel spiritual when I hit my thumb with a hammer or when I haven't slept for 28 hours. My body affects my soul.

There is also an abundance of evidence that the soul effects the body. Happy, optimistic people tend to live longer and fight disease better.Proverbs 13:12 is really true, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

Sometimes spiritual leaders are so spiritual they are no earthly good. They forget we have a foot in both worlds.

Here is the point: the stuff that I see and hear and taste and touch touches my soul. Here are some examples:

My soul is affected when I see full motion video of the Grand Canyon and Mount Rainier as I sing, "When I look down, from lofty mountain splendor, and see the brook and feel the gentle breeze... Then sings my soul, my Savior God to thee, How great thou art, How great thou art!

My soul is affected when I walk into church and the paint on the door is chipping and pealing.

My soul is affected when someone hands me a piece of bread and says, "This is my body. . ."

My soul is affected when I hear crisp clear high sounds and warm, deep, rich low sounds. My soul is also affected by a squawking PA system and especially by the obnoxious squall of feedback.

My soul is affected when the sound man pushes a button that sets the lights into to a 120 second dim. This is so slow as to be imperceptible to the human eye. Yet, but the end of the song, the mood is completely different. My soul is quieted by the dimming of the lights. It is lifted when the lights are lifted.

My soul is touched by seeing slides of my Savior on the cross as I hear a beautiful tenor voices sing, "It was my sin that nailed him there." Sometimes someone will tell me to "just listen to the words." I cannot. My soul is affected by the words and the music and whether the singer sings on pitch and the slides and everything.

Physical stuff, the stuff of earth matters. It should cause people to say, "WOW!" Multimedia seems like an extra, something in the, "nice to have," category. It will not be true in the next century. Multimedia with full motion video on most of our songs as well as dramatic on screen illustration to our sermons will be standard fare for the growing churches of the next century. This is true, not because technology will make this all more inexpensive and do-able, but because of the basic nature of man. Our souls are affected by what we see, taste and touch.

WOW! HOW YOU TREAT GUESTS

==========================

Guest want it all. They want to be given space and distance. They want friendly people who reach out to them and sense of anonymity. They want it both ways and we must give it to them.

Ultimately, guests are impressed with us to the degree that they feel we are impressed with them. While we are busy thinking about what we do, they are busy thinking of themselves. They wonder if they matter to us. They wonder if they matter to anyone. They wonder if anyone notices them or cares. They have a deep need to stand out without sticking out.

I have some ideas about this. Why don't we set up a video camera and tape everyone who comes in? Tape the greeters introducing themselves and see how many people volunteer their names. Why don't we see if we can get their addresses off a CD ROM and have a team of people run out to their houses to leave them some small gift -- have it waiting there when they get home. That might make them say "WOW!"

Why don't we review the tapes on Monday morning, like a football team reviews films of Sunday's games? Why don't we, the staff, learn as many names as we can. If each staff member can pick up a couple of new ones a weekend, and share those with the rest of the staff each week, it would become very difficult to attend more than a couple of times without all of the staff knowing your names. I think if I attended a church twice and the pastor came up to me and said, "Hi, Josh," I would say, "WOW!" The key to impressing people is being impressed with them.

Of course there is the plan described in DOUBLE YOUR CLASS called giving Friday nights to Jesus. We can quantify how effective this is. Ninety percent of the people we have in our homes on Friday night join the church. It just makes them sit up and say, "WOW!"

Even if we can't make visitors say, "WOW!" let's not make them say "Ugh!" Like the time I visited a church in another part of my state. I arrived late because I assumed the service started at 11:00 instead of 10:45. I missed the instructions to the guests about filling out cards. Boy, was I ever glad. At the end of the service the pastor took the cards and called out every visitor by name, asking them to stand up and introduce themselves. Ugh. I was glad I hadn't filled out a visitor's card.

I had a friend who visited a church and was very impressed. He like the music, the preaching and the people. They brought a little gift to his home. He said "WOW!" The pastor called him personally and seemed very personable and warm. The attended a number of times and liked it better and better. He was starting to feel at home. One day, they attended and the pastor came up to greet him, "Haven't I seen you before? Have you visited before? What was your name?" Ugh. He thought he mattered to the pastor. Unless you have a photographic memory, I think the idea of studying the game films is a good one. By the way, he never went back. Ugh.

How well we treat our guests is one of the most easily quantifiable things in this list. The ratio of how many people visit verses how many people join tells you how well you are doing with guests. The goal is to become a Velcro church where people stick rather than a Teflon church where people slide on out the door.

This is important because if people are in the mood to get back into church the probably won't try very many. We might be tempted to think that if they don't like our church they will move on to another church where they will feel more comfortable. This is often not the case. They will try one or two churches. If these experiences are negative, you can color them gone for another ten years. Ugh. Trying to get back into church is a huge hassle, especially if you have kids. If one or two experiences are negative, they may be the last for a long, long time.

On the other hand, if we take good care of our visitors, growing a church can be easy. Most churches have over three fourths of their visitors kick tires and walk away. In many, many situations all we have to do to be the fastest growing church in town is to take good care of our visitors. WOW!

WOW! SUNDAY SCHOOL

===================

Nothing will make people say "WOW!" any quicker than love. Love is the commodity of the church, and especially of the Small Group or Sunday School class. We are in the business of loving people. How is business?

The Bible is very clear about the importance of love. Love is the shibboleth by which we can tell who are and who are not Christians: "THIS IS HOW WE KNOW WHO THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE AND WHO THE CHILDREN OF THE DEVIL ARE: ANYONE WHO DOES NOT DO WHAT IS RIGHT IS NOT A CHILD OF GOD; NOR IS ANYONE WHO DOES NOT LOVE HIS BROTHER." (I John 3:10) It is impossible to love God and not love people. In fact, the Bible calls us a liar if we try: "IF ANYONE SAYS, 'I LOVE GOD,' YET HATES HIS BROTHER, HE IS A LIAR. FOR ANYONE WHO DOES NOT LOVE HIS BROTHER, WHOM HE HAS SEEN, CANNOT LOVE GOD, WHOM HE HAS NOT SEEN. (I John 4:20) We are flat out commanded to be people of love: "AND HE HAS GIVEN US THIS COMMAND: WHOEVER LOVES GOD MUST ALSO LOVE HIS BROTHER." (I John 4:21)

If a church can become a place where people find love it will attract people like Velcro. People will stick. People will not be able to leave. That church will not be able to start enough services. That church will not be able to build buildings fast enough. That church will grow explosively. That church will enjoy the smile of God.

The number one need in society is love. It is true in your community and it is true in mine. It was true in the sixties and it is more true today. What the world needs now is love, sweet love.

People go to bars to find it. They have affairs to find it. They drown themselves in alcohol and drugs because they can't find it.

We have violence today because people cannot find love. Loving people are not violent people. Loving people are peacemakers. Our children get in gangs because they are looking for love.

Why is the church failing to provide this need? Because we have an inadequate theology of love. What we say about love is true. We simply don't tell the whole story.

What we emphasize in the evangelical community about love is simply incongruent with what the Bible teaches about love. Again, what we say is true; we just don't say enough. We say love is something you do. It is commitment. This is true. It is just not the whole story.

The teaching of the evangelical church about love is stated in juxtaposition of our perception of the world's view of love. We perceive the world's view of world as being solely feeling based. In the world, love is simply an emotion. It means I feel good about you. I like you. I like being with you. You make me happy. I am not promising anything about tomorrow. I am not committing. I am just enjoying being with you.

The church looks at this kind of love and says, "No." This is not what love is about. Love is about commitment. It is about action. Jesus loved so much that he went to the cross. He did something. He sacrificed. He followed through. He served. That is love. Love is not a feeling. It is action. It is commitment. It is doing. Consider that description of love in light of these verses:

IT IS RIGHT FOR ME TO FEEL THIS WAY ABOUT ALL OF YOU, SINCE I HAVE YOU IN MY HEART; FOR WHETHER I AM IN CHAINS OR DEFENDING AND CONFIRMING THE GOSPEL, ALL OF YOU SHARE IN GOD'S GRACE WITH ME. GOD CAN TESTIFY HOW I LONG FOR ALL OF YOU WITH THE AFFECTION OF CHRIST JESUS. (PHILIPPIANS 1:7 - 8)

Do these sound like the words of someone who has simply made a commitment to some people and is faithfully, dutifully living out that commitment? Read the passage again. Do you see any emotion there? Do you see some heart there? Listen to Paul as he speaks of "Longing with the affection of Christ Jesus."

Obviously, the church does not preach against emotional love. We never say that love should not be a matter of emotion. We only say that that is secondary. The really important thing about love is that it is a commitment. I remember a little chorus that was popular in the seventies that went,

Love is something you do.

Love is something you do.

Not just something you talk about.

Love is something you do.

What is your call? Is that true to the Biblical teaching on love? I don't think so. I don't think it tells the whole story. It think it would be just as valid to add a second verse:

Love is something you feel.

Love is something you feel.

Not just something you talk about.

Love is something you feel.

People crave heart love. They crave a love that is felt. They want to feel and they want people to feel toward them. Not just commit to them; feel toward them. People crave heart love because we are created in the image of God and God craves heart love. Jesus rebuked people for saying the right words but not having the right heart: "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." (Matthew 15:8) Notice that the problem was not the incongruity between their words and their actions. The problem was the incongruity between their words and their heart. The problem was they didn't feel anything. Jesus never got onto the Pharisees for not doing the right things. He got on to them because their hearts were not in it. He knew that a heartless love did not satisfy God.

A heartless love does not satisfy God. It does not satisfy people very much either. No one wants to be someone else's project. We want to be loved from the heart. We wanted to be loved with feeling. We want someone to feel about us. We want someone to enjoy us.

Love, at its best is a little bit selfish. I want someone to love me for what they get out of it. I want them to gain from loving me. I don't want them to gain at my expense. I don't want them to gain some mere financial advantage. I want them to enjoy being with me. Of course, what we often say is also true. I don't want this to be all there is too it. I want them to care about me. I want them to care how I feel. I don't want a love that is completely selfish. But I do want a love that is enjoying me, benefiting from me. I am not interested in a love that is only trying to help me. That is pity, not love. I don't want to be pitied. I want to be loved.

I feel strongly about this because this kind of teaching nearly killed my marriage. For years I thought I was fulfilling the obligation of my marriage vows by honoring my commitment to Sharon. I was dutiful. I was honorable. I did what was right. Sharon's heart nearly shriveled like a raisin in the sun. She didn't want my duty. She wasn't helped by my commitment. She wanted my heart. She wanted my emotion. She wanted me home talking to her because I wanted to be home talking to her, not because I was faithfully fulfilling my commitment. She wanted me to enjoy her. She wanted a love that was a little bit selfish. She wanted to know that I was savoring each moment.

When we think in terms of loving the world, we must think in practical, as well as emotional terms. Love means having people into my home and laughing with them and playing Balderdash with them and sipping coffee together. Sure, it means being there through the thick and the thin and all that, but love is also much more mundane than that. Love is not always dramatic. Most of the time, love is composed of much more ordinary stuff.

If you are honest, you may find yourself saying, "I don't like people like that. Some people, I don't like at all. I don't want to have them in my home. I don't want to go out to dinner with them. I don't wish ill on them. I just want them away from me." I have two responses. First, it may be that you don't have to like them. You need to care that some does. There are a lot of weird people in this world. People who are weird tend to like people who are weird. This is because of the principle of rapport, discussed in a later chapter. (Weird, in this context, of course, means someone who is not like me. I am the definition of normal.) As long as weird people are loved by weird people, all is well.

The second response is this: you and I need to take our non-accepting self to the cross and let it be crucified again. We need to say to God, "If you could love someone like me, surely I could love someone like him." Loving people, at its core a spiritual issue. Church growth, at its core, is a spiritual issue.

This is what Sunday School work is all about: creating these kind of relationships. When we create hot houses of love in our Sunday School classes and small group, we will make people say "WOW!" Sometimes, with tears in their eyes they will say, "WOW!" "WOW! I didn't know I could be love like this. I didn't know this kind of warmth existed. WOW! WOW! WOW!"

Churches are in the business of reflecting the glory of God, which means making people say, "WOW, ain't God good!!" How is business at your church?

In the next chapter, we will look at the most important area of all that we should cause people to say, "WOW!" The Bible teaches that it is the divinely appointed means of attracting people to the gospel. (1 Corinthians 1:21) God warns us that many should teach because they will be judged more strictly. The work of preaching and teaching is absolutely crucial to all we are doing in evangelism an discipleship.

20 QUESTIONS

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1. What one thing does your church do that causes people to say, "WOW!" Don't be bashful. Let me hear you brag a little. What does your church do well?

2. Consider the theology of "WOW!" Should we be trying to make people say, "WOW!" ?

3. Let's look at a list of the seven areas discussed in this chapter on "WOW!" Which ones do you think we are doing pretty well in, and which ones need vast improvement. Here are the seven areas:

WOW! Music

WOW! Pastoral care

WOW! Facilities

WOW! Childcare, children's programs and youth work

WOW! Multimedia

WOW! How you treat guests

WOW! Sunday School

4. If you were writing this book, what areas would you have added to this list? Would you have left any of these areas off the list?

5. Describe a really moving music experience for you? What are the elements that cause it to come together?

6. Have you considered starting a contemporary service?

7. What benefits would there for you to start a contemporary service?

8. What price would you have to pay?

9. In what ways have you implemented Josh's plan of following up on pastoral care? What did it mean to your people?

10. Specifically, how could you organize and implements such a plan?

11. What is the most glaring deficiency in your facilities?

12. What improvements have you made in the past 6 months in your facilities?

13. How would you evaluate your children's ministry?

14. Do you think church ought to be fun for kids?

15. If you could wave a magic wand over your children's ministry, what would you change?

16. Have you dabbled in multimedia any? Tell us about it.

17. How do you make your guests feel special without making them feel on the spot?

18. What is the ratio in your church of number of guests to the number who join?

19. Do you agree with the idea that emotion has a valid and important place in biblical love?

20. What could you do to help your Sunday School to be a more loving place?

NOTES

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1. Barry Posner, from a tape series entitled CREDIBILITY.

2. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich, Editors, THEOLOGICAL DICTIONARY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, ABRIDGED IN ONE VOLUME, Abridgement by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, (Grand Rapids Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1985) p. 178.

3. Garrett Soden, HOOK SPIN BUZZ: HOW TO COMMAND ATTENTION, CHANGE MINDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE. (Princeton, New Jersey: Peterson's/ Pacesetter Books, 1996) p. 169.

4. Garrett Soden, HOOK SPIN BUZZ: HOW TO COMMAND ATTENTION, CHANGE MINDS & INFLUENCE PEOPLE. (Princeton, New Jersey: Peterson's/ Pacesetter Books, 1996) p. 174.

5. George Barna, EVANGELISM THAT WORKS, (Ventura, California; Regal books, 1996), p. 68.

6. George Barna, EVANGELISM THAT WORKS, (Ventura, California: Regal, 1996) p. 58.

Josh Hunt, 2744 Crown Point, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88011 (505) 532 9693.

*

Each week, music ministers of all denominations face the same dilemma: trying to select the music for Sunday's church service.

It's a problem that requires careful attention, but one that can be solved by asking a simple question, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary professor Tom Nettles believes.

"Is the music we're singing worthy of teaching?" Nettles asked a group of seminary students during a special discussion on corporate worship. "Is it something that you could turn to your neighbor and sing and think you're instructing them in truth? This is something we need to look at carefully."

Joining Nettles at the symposium was Carl Stam, associate professor of church music and worship. Stam contended that the entire church service -- including the sermon -- should be viewed as a form of worship. Too often, Stam said, pastors try to split the service into two parts -- worship and preaching.

"What they mean by worship is everything that happened on Sunday morning except the sermon," he said. "They'll say, 'In our worship this morning, we did this.'"

Both men contended that the average church service omits certain elements that should be included, such as the reading of Scripture and the reciting of historical confessions.

"We're specifically told [in the Bible] to read Scripture," said Nettles, professor of historical theology. "One of the things that is so absent in so many of our services is just plain reading of Scripture. I think we should start worship services with the reading of Scripture [so that the church can] set the focus on the authority right from the beginning."

The reading of Scripture, Nettles said, would cut down on "the necessity of [the pastor] being a talk-show host and trying to entertain people to try to gain their attention" at the beginning of the worship service.

Stam said that ministers should embrace their "faith heritage" by teaching the congregation historical confessions. This, he argued, would serve as a form of education for the church members. Stam said that ministers should not ignore all of the teachings of a particular group in church history -- such as the Puritans -- simply because its members went astray in one particular doctrine.

"What is it that we believe?" Stam asked. "Do we despise the work of the desert fathers, the Reformers and the early Puritans -- who had so much of it right? Do we despise what our grandfathers and grandmothers were doing in worship a hundred years ago? ... We should embrace it. We should embrace what is good and true."

Nettles mentioned a few statements of belief that can be confessed, such as the Nicene Creed, the London Confessions and the Baptist Faith and Message. Too many modern churches have omitted confessions simply because they don't view them as entertaining, he said.

"Lift out of them things that the church can confess together," he said. "Preach on these things, and then also go into the literature of the church, get out hymns and songs and contemporary music that focus on these doctrines."

Nettles contended that a pastor and a music minister should plan church services with the education of the congregation in mind. He said they should choose various doctrines -- such as justification and glorification -- and have a goal of teaching the members. The songs and the sermon should then reflect the particular doctrine.

Nettles list four goals for planning a corporate worship service, that it should be spiritual, simple, clear and Christ-centered.

By spiritual, Nettles said, "We're not to consider our church successful if we have simply imposed the program on the church. The church [may be] functioning very well, but we have no knowledge of what is going on in the hearts of people."

Pointing to 1 Corinthians 3:1-2, Nettles said simplicity also should be a goal.

"Sometimes we hear language like, 'We have to do something to make the gospel exciting,'" he said. "There's not anything you have to do to make the gospel exciting. Anything you try to add to the gospel is a distraction from it. The gospel is transcendently powerful and beautiful."

Nettles added that "there's nothing we can do to jolt [the lost] into that in which the truth itself will not do under the power of the Spirit."

The goal of clarity in worship is one reflected in 2 Corinthians 4:1-3, Nettles said. In that passage, the apostle Paul says the focus should not be on him, but on Christ. Likewise, Nettles said, the focus of worship should never be on the music minister or on those who are singing.

"People must know exactly what we're saying [and] why we're saying it," he said. "The focus must be on the Lord Jesus Christ and the gospel."

By Christ-centeredness, Nettles said he meant that "we must recognize that our knowledge of the triune God is mediated through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why I do not think it's wrong to speak of Christ-centeredness in worship, as long as we recognize that we are not somehow thinking that there is great ambiguity about the person and work of the Father and the Spirit."

In summarizing his view on corporate worship, Stam used a tent and its stakes as an allegory. Many elements of worship act as stakes -- among them being prayers, baptisms, songs and the celebration of the Lord's Supper -- but all of them should be focused on bringing glory to God in Christ Jesus. Christ, Stam said, is the tent's center stake.

Stam argued that any form of worship can be inappropriate if Christ is not at the center. Examples of this, Stam said, are denominations that have abandoned biblical doctrine but have put their social ministries -- serving food to the poor, clothing the needy -- at the center of their worship.

"I contend that the only appropriate focus for all of these is the glory of God in Christ," he said.

*

Last time, we discussed how hymns are sometimes used in worship merely for sentimental reasons - and why that approach is wrong. Does this mean hymns have no place in a church seeking to attract and reach unbelievers? Let's see...

I recently received this insightful email from someone who reads Worship Matters:

"I think the problem with [the whole question of hymns vs. praise choruses] is that people in each camp tend to think the other group is not worshiping if they don't sing their particular style. While I prefer hymns, I do not think they are a prerequisite for worship. What happens the week before the worship service has more to do with worship on Sunday than the style of music in the service. If we are not right with God we cannot worship him whatever we may do in the 'service.'"

Did you catch that last sentence? In other words, if church members are in conflict with one another over musical style, it's unlikely God is going to be honored in the way He desires. God uses more than musical style to draw people. He uses our lives, attitudes, and relationships, too!

To sing worship music from more than one generation is, in part, to communicate our larger identity as the people of God. We hail from many backgrounds, families, races, and tastes, but now we are joined together through the blood of Jesus Christ, who has reconciled us to the Father AND each other. Christian faith is not about being a certain age or liking certain music or living in a particular time and place. Christians are part of a magnificent legacy that began unfolding thousands of years ago, and will continue throughout eternity. To narrow our vision exclusively to a small, culture-bound slice of that history is to embrace a kind of spiritual poverty.

Author Marva Dawn comments, "Not only is the idea of taste as an entry point [into the church] wrong biblically, but also it is extremely destructive of genuine community, fosters an independent view of the local congregation, and reduces worship simply to a matter of preferences instead of an entering into God's presence in the company of the church throughout space and time" (Reformation and Revival, Vol. 9, No. 2, pg. 71).

Building on those thoughts, here are three reasons for using hymns in congregational worship.

1. To serve older Christians.

Familiar hymns can enable more mature saints to worship God in spirit and truth. It gives them opportunities to worship without struggling through music and words they have difficulty understanding or relating to.

2. To help Christians and non-Christians grow in their perspective.

All Christians, and certainly unbelievers as well, need to know that God is bigger than their current understanding of Him. Wise leaders will use words, phrases, and images from older hymns as jumping-off points for further explanation or discussion. For example, addressing God in 17th century English (Thee, Thou, etc.), while initially foreign, can also communicate God's transcendence and "otherness."

3. To promote an attitude of honor and deference.

In a true community, everyone makes sacrifices. No one's preferences are met ALL the time. God's Word commands us to "accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God" (Ro 15:7). Jesus taught that in laying down our lives for the gospel, we find true life. Yielding our preferences is a gateway to the joy of loving others like ourselves. So, including hymns in an otherwise "contemporary" worship service communicates the importance of honoring others, and expresses a culture of respect and appreciation that few people experience outside the church.

These issues are not always easy to work through in the context of a local church with a specific history (and perhaps some unresolved offenses). But God WILL be glorified in His Church. He is eager to produce a people "who with one heart and mouth [will] glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ro 15:6).

In the next column we'll look at whether or not using hymns quenches the moving of the Holy Spirit.

Until then, may every breath you take be a fresh reminder of God's mercy.

"I was born with music in my system. I knew musical scores instinctively before I knew my ABC's. It was a gift of Providence. I did not acquire it. So I do not even deserve thanks for music. Music is too sacred to be sold. And the outrageous prices the musical celebrities charge today truly are a crime against society. I never look upon the money I earn as my own. It is public money. It is only a fund entrusted to my care for proper disbursement. I am constantly endeavoring to reduce my needs to the minimum. I feel morally guilty in ordering a costly meal, for it deprives someone else of a slice of bread-some child, perhaps, of a bottle of milk. My beloved wife feels exactly the same way about these things as I do. You know what I eat; you know what I wear. In all these years of my so-called success in music, we have not built a home for ourselves. Between it and us stand all the homeless in the world."

-- Fritz Kreisler

"I was born with music in my system. I knew musical scores instinctively before I knew my ABC's. It was a gift of Providence. I did not acquire it. So I do not even deserve thanks for music. Music is too sacred to be sold. And the outrageous prices the musical celebrities charge today truly are a crime against society. I never look upon the money I earn as my own. It is public money. It is only a fund entrusted to my care for proper disbursement. I am constantly endeavoring to reduce my needs to the minimum. I feel morally guilty in ordering a costly meal, for it deprives someone else of a slice of bread-some child, perhaps, of a bottle of milk. My beloved wife feels exactly the same way about these things as I do. You know what I eat; you know what I wear. In all these years of my so-called success in music, we have not built a home for ourselves. Between it and us stand all the homeless in the world."

-- Fritz Kreisler