Let Choirs Sing Well, or Not At All
Like most of CS Lewis’ writing, you gotta chew on this one…
I think sometimes (for better or for worse), I find myself pursuing excellence to sort of defend the church from this stigma. In my opinion, the Church should be the creative center of the world; we’ve got the God of the universe as our inspiration – how could this NOT overflow into excellent, unmatched, creative art?
[TheMonoBox] 
Seriously great quote Matt. And the design makes it so much better. Great post.
C.S. Lewis also wrote the following:
“The ‘sentimentality and cheapness’ of much Christian hymnody had been a strong point in my own resistance to conversion. Now I felt almost thankful for the bad hymns. It was good that we should have to lay down our precious refinement at the very doorstep of the church…”
We should be wary of misinterpreting what excellence means to God. I believe God cares more about what’s in our hearts than how well our music is played. And yes, I understand the arguments for not doing anything that takes away from the worship experience for participants (I’ve made those arguments myself). But I think too many worship leaders and worship teams and even choirs are more concerned with performance than with worship.
Well said. I think there’s a balance to be had – at the same time, I don’t think that performance (or the pursuit of excellence) and worship are mutually exclusive.
That being said, I think it is also very important (if not pivotal in this discussion) to be careful about how we define “worship”. I think, very often, we tend to have a narrow view of worship.
That’s very deep.. I love C.S. Lewis. And I agree with both of you.. worship can be hard to define sometimes cause we’ve been spoonfed this watered down version of worship, while Jesus calls us to be worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth (John 4). If that involves doing our best to create excellent music, then bravo, if it involves more of our hearts and our lifestyles, then do that. I don’t think it should mean that we ignore one or the other though. We just have to always keep in mind that which is most important.
what a fantastic quote. The definition of Excellence is debated all the time in the volunteer, cashless christian world. there’s no doubt that the great projects of OT people were of a high standard – because they had to be in order to fullfill their purpose. the Ark of the covenant, Noah’s Ark, The Tent of the Lord’s prescence, The Temple, The tablets on which the commandments were written. They were made to last.
Thanks for this Matt. To sidestep on a related but different point of view from this quote, one of the things that I have been wanting to talk about that I see is a dangerous trend in our church culture is the celebration of effemination, and a disdain for the things that are considered masculine. Does anyone else see this?
Matt, I think you’re right on with this… the God of the Universe IS our inspiration, God’s people should be the artistic catalysts.
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Daily365 #043 “Let Choirs Sing Well Or Not At All” – C.S. Lewis said this on June 9, 2013 at 12:05 pm |