On the side of "No and Yes" is the typically measured and balanced Rob Smith, a lecturer at Sydney Missionary and Bible College. He points out that only Jesus can bring us closer to God: 'if as a resul tof the Holy Spirit's work in us we have come to put our faith in Christ, then we have already come to God and cannot come any closer in this age'. He draws our attention to Rom 5:1-2, 1Pet 3:18, Heb 12:22-24, Eph 2:13 and Eph 3:11-12. The once for all sacrifice made by Jesus when he sacrificed his own body for us is not to be repeated. On the other hand, once we have experienced this incredible grace, we are freed to continually 'draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb 10:21-22). To the extent that our singing involves the word of Christ dwelling in us richly (Col 3:16), we find a means of being filled by the Spirit with the fullness of God. He uses the analogy of a married couple having dinner together - it doesn't make them married, but does bring them closer.
Ben Fielding is a songwriter and worship pastor at Hillsong Church in Sydney. In the past I have had the benefit of Ben's generosity in sharing his insights on songwriting with a group of church music directors, and I was hugely impressed by his concern for good teaching through music. He takes a different angle to Rob. While Rob starts with the atonement and works backwards, Ben starts with creation and works forward through redemption to show how God uses creation, and music in particular, to draw people to himself in repentance and faith: 'God does use music to draw people unto Himself, to tell His story and beckon repentance.' He is talking, first, about music in general not just church music. It's a rich place to begin a theology of music. Yet he is working towards the same point as Rob - the two meet in the middle, at the Cross of Jesus:
Though music can be a wonderful, spiritual and powerful expression of God-given creativity, its importance must be held in the perspective of Jesus. It is Jesus who overcomes sin and makes a way to the Father. Nothing takes the place of Jesus - not the apostles, not the prophets, and not music. However, they are not in competition. Through Jesus we can boldly enter God's presence with worship and singing.Music, then, can be a means by which the 'character of our faithful God' is declared. 'We should concern ourselves with presenting biblical truth that necessarily points towards Jesus.' The emotional expreiene of music should not, according to Fielding, be confused with the presence of God. It is the work of the Spirit that brings about repentance and change. 'Music enables us to turn to the Lord in agreement with one another as we sing the same words and melodies, powerfully depicting the unity that is taking place.' Music is used 'by God to draw us closer' - closer, he means, in the sense of drawing our gaze to the cross of Christ.
What a fascinating study in two able songwriters from different traditions arriving at the Cross together.
Great post AJ. I was worried for a sec when you mentioned Hillsong :) :) Ahh my prejudices coming out in full force!
ReplyDeleteI'll hunt down those two articles, but before I do that here's my uninformed 2 cents worth opinion!
In my mind it comes down to your definition of the word "closer". If you were to take the literal meaning of the word, physically moving closer to God is impossible, if God is omnipresent! So of course we don't mean literally, we mean figuratively. So then what do we mean by moving "closer" to God? Becoming "more" holy? By "feeling" God's presence? By more closely aligning our will with God's? If you define church music as having Christian lyrics and therefore God's word, then the ultimate answer has to be yes.
But if you're talking about instrumental music then the answer would have to be "possibly". God can choose to use anything for His glory. Or He might choose to not use something for his glory. Personally I find that instrumental music can definitely bring me closer to God - the more that I listen to music the more it amazes me that God could invent such a thing!
And yes, confusing the presence of God with the emotional experience of music is definitely a dangerous thing. Music is extremely powerful and we have a duty to make sure what is affecting people is the lyrical content, not the chord progression :)
Well said, Lach!
DeleteThat's encouraging Andy. Some will be surprised that we have this much affinity with our brothers and sisters from Hillsong. I'm not one of them.
ReplyDeleteBased on my experience with music leaders such as Fielding, Zschech, JD and Jad, they are godly, faithful servants who genuinely seek to honour the Lord and support the wider church (of ANY denomination).
And while we should always be on guard against false teaching and/or loose doctrine, it is edifying to recognise that we have a lot (more than many evangelicals would like to admit) in common with that mega-church known as Hillsong :-)
#UNITY
Thanks for your perspective, Bren. It is illuminating that the Anglican church most directly under Hillsong's shadow is one of the most positive towards their ministry! Thanks for your ten cents, Bren.
DeleteFielding also writes:
ReplyDelete"I can remember so many of the songs I grew up singing, though only very few of the wonderful sermons, hence the need for God-seeking and God-fearing songwriters in the local church. With great opportunity comes great responsibility. As church songwriters, we are contributing to the shaping of theology within our churches. It is imperative that our lyrics are true and tested. We should concern ourselves with presenting biblical truth that necessarily points towards Jesus."
It is at this point that I find myself (a reformed conservative evangelical) most in agreement. In fact, this is one of the best things I’ve ever read regarding Christian song writing. Given that huge amounts of people show up at Hillsong every week, it’s great to see that their songwriters take their responsibility very seriously.
But I also have some genuine confusion on account of Fielding’s words here.
Fielding seems to imply that the scriptures are authoritative and need to be the measure by which songs are tried and tested. He sees it as necessary that they point to Jesus. And he recognizes the inherent power in songs to shape the theology of the church.
But what is the theology of Hillsong? From what I can gather it has been changing and evolving for the past 3 decades, although the prosperity gospel, broadly speaking, has remained a constant, as is evidenced by the fact that Joyce Meyer was the keynote speaker at this year's conference. I've just been listening to one of her talks, and I think her theology is vague at best, and unbiblical and false at worst.
Either there is a great and uncanny divide between the songwriting method and the theology of the preachers, or else both have been expressed in ways that apply different meanings to theological terms with which evangelicals are more familiar.
If it's the former, then I'll pray that the preachers start listening to the songwriters. But if it's the latter (as I suspect it is), then Bren, I'll have to disagree that we evangelicals have as much affinity with Hillsong as you make out.
(to be continued...)
(Continued...)
ReplyDeleteDespite the fact that Fielding speaks in a way that sounds very consonant with Smith, I can't help but notice a certain ambiguity in some of his expressions. Fielding writes:
"But we must be clear about this: it is the presence of God that brings lasting change. In musical worship we can experience change, be convicted by the Spirit of God, experience freedom, repent, surrender areas of life we have held back from God, and, importantly, develop unity as we agree in Jesus’ name."
According to Fielding, what must I be clear about? I must be clear that the presence of God brings lasting change. What on earth does that mean? It's hard to be clear on something that is fairly undefined. In "musical worship", apparently, I can experience change too. Experiencing change seems to be good. But I still don't know what it means. I know that it happens with musical worship, but I don't know what it is. Also, according to Fielding, during "musical worship" I can be "convicted by the Spirit of God", as well as "experience freedom". I certainly consider myself to have freedom in Christ, but what is the relationship between musical worship and the experience of freedom? I certainly think that the Spirit, has, does, and will convict me - but what will he convict me of? And is there anything unique about his work during musical worship? Again, what does it mean to "surrender areas of my life [I] have held back from God"?
Fielding's comment about unity has me cheering - one of the great things about song is that is a great way of getting a whole bunch of people to declare something together. But overall, I feel a certain pressure to just accept what Fielding says about musical worship even though much of it is too vague to for me to know what he means, because, to use Bren's terminology, I fear been seen as one of those evangelicals who just doesn't like to admit things.