One of the reasons I’m in a Baptist church at present (one with a music rotation with a charismatic feel, however) is that I’m not a dance-in-the-aisles, everybody-raise-their-hands guy. I may lean towards the charismatic in theology, but am a Baptist stick-in-the-mud (well, a Methodist-raised-turned-Baptist) in temperment. You might be in a similar boat regarding high-octane worship.

LOL You remind me of Frasier Crane!

Thanks for this again. ‘Til next post.

I’ve certainly interviewed my share of CCM types and understood it was just a business, the people involved no different than those in any other genre. Just as tired, just as hard working, just as creative, just as driven, just as bottom line, a bit more subject to censure…

I’m terribly stuffy, I started classical music training when I was six, and grew up learning Bach et al, and didn’t have the time my peers had to immerse myself in contemporary influences. It caused me no end of embarrassment growing up.:^)

If you gave me a choice between Hillsong and The Prayer Cycle for contemporay religious listening choices, I’d last five minutes with Hillsong. I’d play The Prayer Cyle over several times, happily rapturous.
Complex harmonies require a group of people working as one.
That is part of worship to me.

Music choice is subjective, which is why being exposed to the widest variety possible is something to be encouraged.

Silence and stillness bring relationship for me, much like a musical rest is part of it’s whole.

Blog on!

Every Christian worships God in his or her own special way. It allows for our own individual experiences of and with God. Like you said, there will be persons who will enjoy ‘the season of the cheerleader,’ the rowdier types of praise music, and there will be persons who will move past that into… well, what you call the ‘tradition of the saints.’

I think that that participatory praise - i.e., the season of the cheerleader - can be healthy. A joyous praise celebration can be an opportunity to enjoy being part of a church coming together to worship. Cheerleader present or not, praise - the kind that led King David to dance the way he did - of God can be expressed in its most solemn and reverent or exuberantly unrestrained forms.

In the Philippines, it is interesting to note - and I am sure radio requests and sales figures will back me up 100% - that worship music for most evangelical Christians here equals Hillsong Music Australia. While there’s certainly nothing wrong with the music of Hillsong (and its louder spin-off, Hillsong United), there will be those of us in the industry who want to ask: “Don’t you want to hear something else?” (The one time I succeeded in getting “Total Praise” (Avalon) added to our worship roster was for a special number, but, boy, was it something! I praise God for that - the harmonies were straight from heaven.)

I personally am drawn to worship music that finds its excellence in soaring harmonies. Whether it is the Afro-American sound of groups led by Israel Houghton, Kirk Franklin, or Joe Pace, or the sweet vocal harmonies of the men and women of Avalon, Point of Grace, or Take 6, or even the angelic voices of many of the boy’s choirs out there, or the hallowed voices of the Benedictine Monks, as long as there are harmonies, that’s enough for me to focus on the Father. Silence doesn’t work for me; I’m just not at that point at which you are. Maybe I’ll get there in a few years, kinda like how I somehow drifted from Top 40 to Adult Contemporary to CCM Adult Contemporary in a short matter of time.

I guess at the end of the day, whatever music brings us into a state where we can give God, as you put it, ‘ardent or adoring esteem or devotion,’ that’s all that matters. Thanks for the thought-provoking piece and the opportunity to add to the discussion.

Be superblessed!

Barry