As I waited to pick up my kids at Vacation Bible School, I was at once deeply grateful to those creative and committed adults who teach our children and incredulous at the continuing decline in the quality of church music.
VBS used to feature songs we outgrew, then found nostalgic when they were passed to the next generation. "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart..." "This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine." "Jesus loves the little children..."
Now it features songs leaders not only won't let go from their youth groups, but insist on dominating worship services.
Those who know (or should know) better seem more intent on assuaging or compromise than in valuing the quality and importance of song service as much as pulpit ministry.
Thirty years of Contemporary Christian/Christian Rock vs. centuries of church music which emerged from and endured through generations is not balance, as if balance were even a worthy goal. I would venture that many, if not most kids don't know the words to 'Amazing Grace,' 'How Great Thou Art,' or 'Peace in the Valley,' songs likely sung at their forebears’ funerals, but they can sure serenade God with how "awesome" and singular He is in dozens of repetitive, derivative and creatively stunted ways.
Even with Contemporary Christian/Christian Rock, I’m sure there are some quality songs, but certainly not the dominating percentage compared to the centuries which came before the 1980s.
For ages, church songs bridged and bonded generations. Today, many are led without reference to words or music, making those of us who don't know them (or choose not to) feel as though we're not part of a club we likely wouldn’t join anyway.
People are attracted to substance, quality and authenticity. Sacrificing those attributes in the name of appealing to the “contemporary” is misguided and ineffective.
When we joined our current congregation, the song service was one of the best I had ever experienced. Led by Jerome Williams, the music ministry was full of the Spirit, worshipful, energetic and diverse. He breathed new life into classic hymns and spirituals, chose and led contemporary offerings with a trained and discerning ear, and lifted every voice in song.
When he left, it was if Don McLean was singing about us. Spirit, worship, energy and diversity seemed to die with the music. Every verse of every song now ends in a ritard.
Like the baby with the bathwater, we've thrown out shaped notes for scooped notes. Church music has lost its soul, when it should be about the business of saving them.
"Don't you see you're not making Christianity any better, you're just making rock and roll worse?" – Hank Hill on Christian Rock.
Gary Newton (aka A Wretch Like Me)
