Day 29: Contemporary Music in Worship P.2
Yesterday I began exploring the idea of contemporary music as worship. I complimented the song writing skills of Paramore, Five Iron Frenzy and Family Force 5, had a bit of a rant and posted some thoughts on where we’re at with worship in our churches and a lack of passion (does this lack of passion extend beyond our worship?).
So today I’m going to continue those thoughts but hopefully in a way that ponders how we can actually use contemporary music in worship.
Firstly I think we need to remember that worship isn’t always singing and so I see no reason why contemporary songs couldn’t be used as reflections (even screamy reflections…although we may need to display lyrics in such cases).
Secondly I don’t think worship music needs to be written by a Christian! – Surely it’s the lyrics and the place our heart is in as we express, pray, sing or ponder those lyrics to God. Our worship shouldn’t be about the song writer but about the sentiment we’re trying to express to God in doing so.
Thirdly I believe contemporary music may see church growth - Let’s face it, anyone coming into a church for the first time may find church a strange place and more to the point the singing of a lambs blood probably doesn’t help matters. So how would their experience differ if they came in and found songs they knew being used in a different way? Would they feel more at home hearing something familiar?
Finally I think contemporary music could be icing on the emerging church cake! It’s great doing Cafe church, pub church or whatever form of church a place is trying out but if music is going to be used then contemporary music would be more appropriate and fitting. I remember a youth worker telling me he did a series of acoustic songs in a youth cafe all of which were contemporary songs but used in a Christian setting…I even heard one of my lecturers at uni talk about using Last Resort by Papa Roach as a song in church!
I whole-heartily believe there is a place for contemporary music in church and I think if we use it well it could deeply enrich our worship…yes it may isolate different generations…for example a Green Day song may not be as helpful in worship to some as a Beatles song but surely this is no different to our organ/worship band or Redman/Townsend divides we already have?
A couple of years ago I post some stuff on the lack of lament in our worship using the picture to the left and once again in recent weeks as I’ve pondered worship and varying the music we use to worship (see 
Last night I was leading worship at church and in order to try something that little bit different I decided to try an ‘unplugged’ worship set.