Chapter 8 of PDL is a good one. I haven't read a chapter since last Monday, and after reading it one of my first thoughts was, 'I was missing this for six days!? What a joy I did not know that awaited me.' The premise of this chapter is that "I was planned for God's pleasure." The memory verse is "The Lord takes pleasure in His people." (Psalm 149:4a) This is such a wonderful concept that goes far beyond refrigerator magnet good feelings. If one really believes that God takes pleasure in you individually, one would probably open up a dimension in worship that would be considered a breakthrough. Perhaps a level of passionate adoration would be reached that could be quite revelatory.
"Entering into God's presence," which is what deep worship is often referred to, is a very mystical and invisible experience of faith. Experiencing this liberty in worship can be quite beautiful. And, as this chapter points out, this is only a piece of the worship puzzle! (Not that it's confusing, it's just very multi-faceted) I love the reference to communing with God throughout our daily activities. "Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God." Another extremely liberating concept that can open our eyes to the wonder of knowing a God who really wants to know us and be our friend beyond the visible and public ceremonies of Sunday morning. That first cup of coffee Monday morning, the dirty clothes gathering for a toss in the washer, that unlocking the office door and preparing the workplace, that drive or walk to work, feeding the animals -- all these things (and more) can simply be dedicated to God and done as acts of worship in communion with and in conversation with the living God. Good food for thought.
The church I'm part of, Calvary Chapel of Austin, has just released a worship album. Upon listening to the first couple of songs, I was very aware of the musical performance aspect of it. I was bummed that a certain vocal sounded "sterilized" in performance and sonic production. But after a few songs into the album, a real appreciation of the beauty of the songs our local musician and worship team members have written took over. This new album, titled I Will, is a great vehicle for me to "enter in" to that worship that I'm familiar with. I think others would enjoy it too, but I'm afraid my bias might be too strong in this area to be trusted. My friend David, the worship pastor at Calvary, was talking to me and (probably) jested, "If I gave you a copy, would you review it in the magazine?" With a smile and probably a slight laugh, I said "No." I instantly thought of the door that reviewing a worship album in HM would bring. What?! Well, think about it: We review any real rocking and extremely heavy worship music (of course); but the modern praise and worship albums being released these days are almost all of a style that's very middle of the road, very ccm, very Christian radio, very older demographic, very "tame" musically.
I was awakened this morning at 4 am by a loud guy on a piano. I had been watching a dvd (King David, with Richard Gere) last night and left the dvd player on that "blank dvd menu" page that players put on the screen when no disc is present, and the television was on with no volume, since the "channel" was the empty dvd signal. Well, I guess around 4:00 am the dvd player shut itself off and someone on the PBS channel was wailing away on the piano. After getting up to take it all in and turn it off, I couldn't really go back to sleep. I prayed about things that my frightening dangerous and interrupted dream brought to mind, and then began thinking about this question of reviewing worship albums. I could take all the popular worship albums out there and evaluate them, getting David to help me rank them. I'm afraid many of them, however, would get critical ratings. This style of album has a unique challenge to it. If taken strictly as a piece of art, something that's effective in leading congregations in worship could be "torn apart" by the menacing unfeeling words of a critic. These kinds of albums probably need an approach that takes into account both the critical (attempting to be objective) opinion and the sensitivity to "how well do these songs 'work' in a worship setting? They would be best reviewed by a worshipper, something normal albums probably don't have the perspective of.
Things brings up a good subject: What about Christian hard music albums in general? Doesn't one have to take this into account as well? How can you criticize an album that Joe Believer from This City USA has poured his pure before the Lord heart into? I always try to take into account that the artist is going to read my reviews, so I try to make any criticism I write as constructively as possible. While this definition spoken of in chapter 8 of PDL is broad and could be used in the musical debate, I think most would be best served if an honest critique of art was just that (speaking the truth about a critical evaluation of a work of art)...at least when it comes to an album of rock music. Yes, art made by the believing artist is most often an act of worship (but so is the handiwork of that Christian carpenter on the crew that's building those houses up the road, and his or her work is judged by quality not intent of the heart). See how multi-faceted it can all get so quickly?
Food for thought.
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at March 8, 2004 06:31 AM