googlef5df56a28f2e4c4f.html Harps and the Heart of God: The risks of using instruments in worship

Friday, February 22, 2008

The risks of using instruments in worship

Many of the great reformers like John Calvin and Alexander Campbell warned of the dangers of using instrumental music in worship.[1] “Yet we should be very careful that our ears be not more attentive to the melody than our minds to the spiritual meaning of the words.”[2] John Calvin’s concern is reflected in 1 Cor 14:15: I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind.” The spiritual dangers of using instruments can be summarized in three arguments covered briefly at the beginning of this paper:

#1 The objective of worship is dialogue with God; to have a spiritual time of communication between God the Father and his children. We are to approach him with sincere hearts (Heb 10:22). Unfortunately, entertainment has become the worship goal for many faith groups. Concertizing is one of the major dangers of using instruments of any type in worship.[3] A common measure of entertainment is the clap test. If you feel the need to clap after the presentation is over, it was entertainment. The performing group, One Time Blind, for example, will ask the audience not to clap after each skit.

It is very interesting that musicians and pastors from other faith groups are quick to affirm that the musicians are in fact not performing.[4] They argue that playing an instrument in church is an act of service. Most strongly agree with the clap principle. Paul S. Jones is the organist and music director at Tenth Street Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. He has written an entire chapter (#4) in his book defending the use of instruments in worship. His position is as follows: “On the basis of Scripture, it appears that instruments can be employed in worship so long as they contribute appropriately and do not detract from the service and its purposes.” He acknowledges the same risks churches of Christ have with concertizing but believes the risks of a service becoming a performance is minimal.

The churches of Christ also do not have a chorus or solo performances for this reason. We don’t build elaborate sanctuaries or hang ornate paintings on the walls. We try to keep the focus entirely on God. The question is how can a church keep the use of instruments that accompany human singing from becoming a performance? The performance aspect probably cannot be totally eliminated; therefore, for the sake of the musician, it can be argued that they should not be used in worship. This is a much different argument than saying that it is a sin to sing a godly song on a guitar.[5]

#2 We are to worship in spirit and truth (John 4:23ff; Phil 3:3; Heb 8:2).[6] Instruments have no spirit (1 Cor 14:7) and therefore cannot worship God. They can be extensions of ourselves but there is the ever-present danger that we think the instrument can do the praising for us. Alfred Edersheim, NT scholar and Messianic Jew, puts it, “Properly speaking, the real service of praise in the temple was only with the voice.”[7] It is so easy for a musician to get into the music and forget the purpose for which it is being played. The danger is that we sin by worshipping the music that God created instead of God himself (Rom 1:25). For the proper motives of the musician who loves to perform the song, instruments should be omitted from the service.

#3 We are a priesthood of believers (Heb 10:19). The churches of Christ do not have a clergy. We believe that we are all equal before God, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28). God wants all of us to sing and be happy in our singing (Jas 5:13). Yet within the body there are special gifts and special callings. In the list of spiritual gifts in 1 Cor 12:8-11 or in the list of functions 1 Cor 12:28, musicians are not mentioned. Music, it seems, is to be everyone’s gift from God regardless of talent, and therefore, all of the voices should be heard. God is a wordy God and it is the fruit of our lips that God wants. There is the danger that the instrument will cover the voices and the words. This is historically the source of the strong opposition to the organ - it detracts from the human voices. Followers of John Calvin were so concerned that the organ would mask the human voices that they had the organs removed and burned. John Calvin was also opposed to having a choir for the same reason.[8] All the voices of the congregation are to be heard. Calvin believed that our songs are acts of prayer, something the entire congregation must do.



[1] F. LaGard Smith, The Cultural Church (Nashville: 20th Century Christian, 1992), 200-01. “Reformers like John Calvin, John Knox, Ulric Zwingle and Cotton Mather.” (Martin Luther was a notable exception.)

[2] Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion, trans. by Ford Lewis Battles, Westminster Press, 1975, page 895 (Book III, Chapter XX, #32, Church Singing).

[3] Andy T. Ritchie, Jr., Thou Shalt Worship the Lord Thy God (Austin, Tx.: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1969), 113.

[4] Jones, Paul. Singing and make music, Issues in church music today, P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg, N.J., 2006, page 18

[5] The performance aspect of worship cannot be totally eliminated. For example, this is precisely why churches hire interesting and exciting preachers – we do not want to be bored. We tend to seek those preachers who are most proficient at speaking, have good stage presence, and can use technology in creative ways. We are curious about such sure-fire rejection of this performance aspect in worship. It is best to humbly and honestly admit that it is a part of our worship. It is the degree to which it is present that becomes problematic.

[6] Fletcher has a narrative view of John 4:23 rather than a specific mode of worship interpretation. The passage in context is aimed at deconstructing worship wars not promoting them further.

[7] Edersheim, Temple, 50.

[8] Donald K. McKim, Major Themes in the Reformed Tradition (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992), 308-09. Calvin’s views on the place of music in worship are stated in the prefaces to the 1542 and 1545 Psalters.

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