You Say Potato...

It finally happened:  we offended someone with our music.  Don’t get me wrong – it’s not like we’ve been trying to offend.  But someone finally lodged a complaint.  Not with us, of course, with the pastor.  According to the complainant, we are singing the devil’s music and the pastor is doing the devil’s work by letting us lead worship with “that” music.  Yikes!

The devilish ditty was the 100-plus year old, “Heavenly Sunlight.”  We used the original lyrics and melody of this much-loved, much-sung hymn, but gave the arrangement a much-needed style makeover.  And clearly that’s where we went wrong.  Although God loved the hymn in its original state, apparently He is offended by a Caribbean beat, and He considers steel drums Satan’s tool (I always thought the accordion was Satan’s tool, but what did I know?). 

I know, it sounds ridiculous when put like that.  But clearly it wasn’t ridiculous to at least one person.  Thankfully this complaint did not faze the pastor.  He told the offended person that our music brought joy to the congregation and encouraged them in their worship.  And most importantly, he believed that God found it acceptable and so the music was staying, steel drums and all.

While I’m glad the pastor backed us up, the situation disturbed me.  We don’t want to offend anyone; quite the opposite.  Our goal, our calling, is to help people worship, love, and glorify God in song.  To that end, in addition to writing our own songs, we like to take some of the old favorite hymns and give them a little musical facelift.  We do this to make them more accessible to modern congregations.  There are so many wonderful hymns but, much like my living room, after so many years they need a bit of sprucing up.  Is that wrong? 

I know there are lots of folks who think contemporary Christian music is the devil’s handiwork.  And truthfully, listening to some of the stuff that’s out there, there may be something to that.  But there is a lot of good music, too.  You just have to look for it.  It’s the same with the traditional hymns.  There are some great ones, but there are some sure fire stinkers in the old hymnals, too. 

But do we really believe that God sanctifies a particular beat and a specific instrument, and finds all the rest, if not offensive, at least unworthy?  Do pipe organs and handbells have the only heavenly okey dokey?  Are an electric guitar, steel drums and a backbeat gonna boogie us straight to hell? 

That’s ultimately what the contemporary vs traditional music argument comes down to.  I mean, leaving out the bad music (and there’s plenty of bad music on both sides of that argument), the difference between the two amounts to style.  I like a backbeat, someone else likes a Bach beat.  Neither of us are right, and more importantly, neither is wrong.  We’re just different.  You say potato, I say French fry. 

I am sad to see the division in the Christian world over, of all things, music.  That seems ridiculous to me.  Of all the things that can divide us, we're going to go down over music?  Oy.  Can't we all just get along?  Or at least sing along?