I'm starting to think about when and how music stop being music and became worship. I was told today that our church does not believe music is worship but that it is "a part of worship". I guess the debate is if that is correct, what else is also worship, and how big "a part of worship" music is. I don't believe that music is worship, but if I'm wrong and it is "a part of worship" I believe it is a very small part. To forge my thinking about this I have decided to go back and see what Scripture says about music and worship. I also think it may be helpful to read what the church in the past believed about both. So if you desire come along with me as I blog for answers to this important contemporary issue in my life. As I began I stumbled across this gem by one of my spiritual heroes of the faith Martin Luther. "The organ in the worship Is the insignia of Baal… The Roman Catholic borrowed it from the Jews." (Martin Luther, Mcclintock & Strong's Encyclopedia Volume VI, page 762)
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I think it was C.S. Lewis who said something like "Worship is not complicated. Humans do it naturally every day. A man sees a beautiful woman and can't help telling his friend 'She is lovely!' An audience member hears the aria sung by a great professional and can't contain their applause. A wife looks at her husband playing with their chld, and says 'What a great father you are.' Worship is expressing the greatness of someone you love and/or admire."
With that definition, music is just one means of worship. Sculpture, the written word, prayer, and virtually any other medium of communication can be worship. It also takes the "how do I feel" out of the equation.
At the same time, it does question the "worship value" of songs which do not talk to or about God, and talks instead about us. For example, is Onward Christian Soldiers really a worship song, or merely a teaching tool?
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