Hey mo and I had a stimulating discussion about the contents of music
We talked about how narrow a theology has been transmitted to us through the songs we sing together. Mo is a good guy to talk to about this cause he is pretty committed and gifted in the whole worship/music thing. - thats his job.
dirksen told us that music makes our theology. Not even just the words of the music but the sounds themselves. Soft chords for contemplation and response. Loud for declaration and praise and joy. hmmm
I think he's right and I am scared that the theology we have created through our music is REALLY thin.
4 comments:
I would agree that music forms our theology, unfortunately I would say that is a key indicator to the ineffectiveness of the church. The solution to such "thin" theology does not come from writing better songs, rather from gathering better disciples.
As much as music forms our theology it reflects our theology. We need to raise the power of God's Word to form our theology and the persistent guidance of spiritual directors. Then maybe those gifted in song writing can start writing something of substance.
One final note - In my humble estimation, the reason why music has taken prominence in theology forming is because we have been too lazy to burn into new disciples the Word of God.
Shame on us.
Well, I'm not sure
What is interesting is that the songs we sing come from the supposed pillars in our faith communities. We don't have that many songs in our collective consciousness that are written by new followers. I think it is right to throw the responsibility for 'thin' theology at the feet of music. After all it's music pastors and musicians that choose what songs to sing at our gathering times - if there was a desire for a thicker theology the people who do music would have demanded it by now. it's all about the consumer.
Isn't the fact that we have music pastors and youth pastors a result of a consumeristic church. What I was trying to communicate is that we have put music in the highest place of theology forming - and have thus forced it to do something that it does so poorly. Give me a song, any song, and my guess we would find a point of division in its theology. We can criticize songs all day and all night - the answer lies in getting to know God Almighty who makes the song real.
sorry i must of mis-interpretted your original comments. I've ben know to do that...
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