Blessed are the peacemakers

I love a lot of the old hymns and I love a lot of the new worship music. My preferences have to do with music that has an easy-to-sing melody, isn't pitched too high, has words that glorify God and are scripturally sound.

Though I've been a church pastor for several decades now, I'll never quite understand the music wars in churches. Lines are drawn in the sand and each side vilifies the other. Music preferences -- traditional vs. contemporary -- become personal identifiers and strategic alliances are formed. Pressure is put on leadership by each side in an effort to win the music war and claim victory, but nobody really wins, and there's unintended -- but nonetheless real -- collateral damage done to the church and its mission.

And what is traditional and what is contemporary when it comes to worship music? Those labels, at best, are not well-defined, though the armies in the battle take their stand, religiously, on one or the other. How old does a worship song need to be to be traditional? Does it need to be 100, 200, 500 years old? Most traditionalists I know would include in their list of acceptable titles "How Great Thou Art," but that's not "old;" it was published in 1953. To be traditional, does it have to appear in a hymnal? There are dozens and dozens of hymnals being used in churches that have been published over the past 100 years, some published in just the past few years.

And what defines contemporary worship music? I've learned that, to some folks, if it's not in the hymnal, it's contemporary. But our hymnal was published in 1979. It includes old standards but also music by John W. Peterson and the Gaithers that was considered contemporary in those days. But I've also heard from those with contemporary music preferences that music prior to 2000 isn't really contemporary; it should at least be from this century.

My point is that traditional and contemporary are relative terms at best, definable in a variety of divisive ways that tend only to serve as fodder for the music wars.

Jesus' prayer in John 17 includes His desire that His followers would be united, would be "one" -- just as He and the Father are one. For the prayer to be fulfilled in us, we need to make peace about our preferences. We need to "esteem" others (Philippians 2:3) above ourselves, seeking not our own desires but only to glorify God and exalt Jesus Christ in word and deed.

The inspired writer of Psalm 96 said, "Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise His name; proclaim His salvation day after day. Declare His glory among the nations, His marvelous deeds among all peoples."

And all God's people said, "Amen!"

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Mark Voll is pastor of the Village Bible Evangelical Free Church. The opinions expressed are those of the author.

Religion on 03/22/2017