Lucifer in the sky with diamonds

I heard a rumor that one of our prominent ministers stopped a worship service to explain how a certain song shouldn't be sung because it was not Biblical. This particular song just happened to quote directly from the book of Job. 

The discussion surrounding this particular incident was light and funny with most people not truly believing that it actually happened in the first place. Everyone agreed that if it had happened, the minister needed to invest more time studying the Word. Everyone did not agree on the appropriate response from the worship leader and musicians. The discussion quickly turned into a debate on what was submission and what was a doormat. Almost inevitably the words "Lucifer", "Heaven's choir director", and "fallen" started being thrown around and the discussion quickly became a debate. 

My opinion is that if a pastor wants to cut a song from the repertoire, then it is his prerogative to do so. If you have a disagreement with him on the theology of the song, then by all means go see him in his office and work it out. 

What I want to open up for discussion is the fact that most of our debates about musicians and submission wind up with references to the most fantastic imagery of Satan as a celestial choir director who is on a never ending pursuit to get his job back. I can't find any scriptures that give any weight to this scenario. It is not my intention to be disrespectful, and by no means to I claim to have all the answers to any subject under the sun. However, I do want to know what other people think of this doctrine and is it as mainstream as I have experienced?

The Fullness of our Art....

Okay, so I apologize for no photo - seems that blogger is not working with me today on that!

Everett sparked a thought in my mind in his last blog. He made the following statement:

"When people approach music outside of a spiritual framework grounded in the Bible, they are liable to worship anything. Hence the great danger of coming to terms with something like Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps outside of a Christian worldview. "

I went through a period in grad school where I lived and breathed classical music, and I’ll say without reservation, that those were some good times! I remember leaving my piano lessons, mentally exhausted after 1-2 hours of intense focus or endless repetition of a single measure or motive. But, though I had given all I had mentally, I felt completely alive – I felt that all was right with the world!

A shifting focus….

I have advised Gateway graduates who were going on to pursue further music study that they need to attain the ability to shift focus. What I mean is, they need to be able to enjoy the beauty of formal music study – appreciate Beethoven’s fire, Haydn’s humor, Brahms’ passion, and certainly, Chopin’s beautiful voice-like melodies. But when one walks away from this you must remember this music is not the end-all. One cannot seek in this music what can never be found there – God, Himself, in all His fullness. In conversation with friends who are professional musicians, whether symphony players or doctorates teaching in high-class universities, I sense this tendency to “worship” the music, to seek finality and fulfillment within it. Admittedly, I have unconsciously sought this same satisfaction, only to end in disappointment.

So, I wonder if the absence of the God factor is the reason that any art form can leave us empty. Are we seeking what can never be found there? Yes, beauty in art, music, sculpture, and literature reflects God’s beauty, but it can never replace Him. I guess that’s what the Bible means when it cautions us against worshipping the creation in place of the Creator.

I’m sure this could be developed much further. Thoughts?

Coming Soon....

Due to my wonderful, fantastic, glorious starts-at-five-ayem job in the Public School System, I'm running a little (teensy, weensy - really Kent) slightly behind. It is half written. We have FCAT and it's killing me.

Expect a post around 2:30 p.m. Eastern Standard time.

Thanks

Courtney Ballestero

Stop the Music!

We were having a "God Moment."


It was happening, not in the midst of an Israel Houghton medley with pulsating base and perfectly aligned monitor reception, but in the family sedan crossing the Courtney Campbell Causeway linking Clearwater with Tampa. I was on the cell phone encouraging my very weary-in-well-doing friend of God's richest blessings when I heard a little sniff coming from the backseat. It was abnormally peaceful, considering that my 3 children consider confined spaces hotbeds for rambunctious behaviour. Maybe it was the sun setting over the inter coastal waterway. Whatever it was, it had caused my 7 year-old daughter to contemplate God and He chose that moment to speak to her. Little Sniffy poured her heart out regarding God's message to her and we felt His presence distinctly filter into the vehicle like air through the vents.


"Let's just mark this moment with some praise to God," I told my kids as I fiddled with the stereo. Isn't that what we do when we feel God's presence? We immediately turn to the mood music to keep it going? Of course it is. One Christian station was playing a lament to teenagers who cut themselves (real song folks, for another time and another post), another was asking "Where my girls at?" and since I was still so rattled by the cutting song and this little Britney Spears wannabe and her misplaced girls, I began to panic. What will I do if I can't find the right music?!


STOP THE MUSIC.


Notice there was no exclamation point. It was almost as if God sighed it into my spirit. STOP THE MUSIC. I already knew what I should do. Instead of fumbling around trying to keep His presence palpable, I should just let it be. He had entered in the silence and HE was enough to fill the space. Praising Him was in itself enough to create the harmony, the melody, and the lyric.


Much has been said in earlier posts about the manufacture of worship. I applaud the spiritual sensitivity of the bloggers for, obviously, God is wanting to adjust our thinking towards His entertainment. Remember that song, "God don't need no matches, He's fire all by his self?" Obviously God don't need no B3 either. The intuitiveness we need...no wait...let me rephrase that. The ANOINTING we need in order to tap into the flow, that something we need in order to pick the perfect song for an altar encounter, is the same anointing we need in order to know when to stop.


I don't want to belabor the point, but I was in a service once where the Holy Spirit was like a haze. The message had been presented and received. It felt like humidity. There was a definate climate change in the room. Music was playing softly. Gentle voices joined in harmonic swells. Surely God was pleased. The mics went off. Hmmm, that was strange? Furrowed eyebrows all around. The Prophet continued to pray for people unhindered. The piano still still tinkling while the base player is heaving sobs and drummer is nowhere to be found. Strange?! The drummer is at the altar! During altar call! The piano player soldiers on...must...still...play...must...keep...going...until wouldn't you know it? POP! goes the system and we are left with nothing but the sound of praying.

That's right. The sound of praying.

Hmmmmm...it apparently sounds like music to His ears.

(Happy Friday all! Have a great weekend!)

Beethoven -- An 1820s Dancing Generation

I could probably write ten or twenty thousand words on the music of Beethoven. But I will keep this short. Laura's recent post got me wondering... in part, she wrote, "Does God need a lyric?" Sorry, that's not a full quote, but it's an issue that seems to keep coming up with me. This post is a bit on the personal side -- I'm sharing more than I may feel comfortable with... but, well, go easy on me.

I have at least a passing familiarity with Beethoven's 40 some odd chamber works, and much greater familiarity with his piano sonatas and of course the symphonies. I like his early stuff, love the middle period and was at one time quite infatuated with music from his late period. (If you would like a brief primer on what constitutes an early, middle or late work, check out this link).

All right already, what does all this have to do with Pentecostal music?

Well . . . It doesn't, really. It has to do with our spirits and our relationship to music. And, in the case of the quartet movement I will be referencing, with Beethoven's spirituality.

On a side note, here is a video of me, back in the day, well before I discovered the passage in 1 Cor teaching about hair length, playing the first movement of Beethoven's op. 90. While not technically one of the "late" piano sonatas, it's transitional between the middle and late sonatas.

Toward the very end of his life (yes, he was quite deaf at this point), B wrote some string quartets. Like his other late period works, they are at turns contemplative, joyful, somber. The third movement of the op. 132 quartet is not titled with your standard tempo markings, but rather, "Heiliger Dankgesang eines Genesenen an die Gottheit, in der lydischen Tonart." Roughly translated, "Holy song of thanksgiving by a Convalescent to the Deity, in the Lydian mode."

What are we, as Pentecostals, to make of this music?

I am not going straight after the question, but rather, will provide here a "reader-response" to the music as I have encountered it historically in my life.

The opening bars are hymn-like, a slow and reflective prayer of thanksgiving. Later, there is a jubilant dancing in the spirit, joy in receiving a healing (or at least, receiving enough strength to live another day). B was offering praise to the Lord, although it isn't apparent he knew who that was, exactly.

Before I came to know Jesus, I loved this movement. It spoke to me of sorrow and pain, and an alleviation of pain, or rather, a mourning that had been turned to dancing, although I could not at that time have framed it as such. All I knew was that moment of joy in the music gave me joy. I exalted the music of Beethoven. Yea, did I even "worship" the music of Beethoven? Maybe so.

Certainly Jesus has replaced my love of Beethoven with a love of the Creator himself. I still derive enjoyment from listening to the "Heliger Dankgesang" but I no longer feel the same joy or exaltation that I did before coming in to the church. I recognize that the praise is due God and not man. My above reading of the movement as a prayer is informed by my spiritual convictions. When people approach music outside of a spiritual framework grounded in the Bible, they are liable to worship anything. Hence the great danger of coming to terms with something like Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps outside of a Christian worldview.

Unfortunately I do not have time at this time to perform a proper inquiry into the religio-cultural milieu of late 18th, early 19th century Vienna, which, along with a careful review of primary sorce materials relating to Beethoven's religious views, might shed significant light on this movement.

We can "feel God" listening to late Beethoven, just as we can "find God"
in "worldly music" (movies, literature) of our age. But we must be ever vigilant to ensure that we do not let ourselves be too enthralled with the music (or other media), as we risk damnation. Like that "magic bass line" that always gets the church hopping. Don't give yourself over to the music. Surrender yourself rather to God.