Traditional, Contemporary, or Blended? Part 1

My greatest joy in life is the worship of the Living God. I love to worship Him with the gathered church, and I love to worship Him when I am alone. I love to worship Him in song, I love to worship Him in thought, and I love to worship Him in deed. Most of all, I love to worship Him through the proclamation of the Scriptures.

I confess that I find it downright aggravating that so much hoopla surrounds worship in song. I have heard people on both sides of the contemporary/traditional divide say things like, "I just cannot worship to that style of music." I find that remarkable. It seems to me that it should be rather easy to worship God in a gathering of saints to most any kind of orderly and doctrinally sound song. If a Christian can worship over the casket of a deceased child, if Peter can worship after a beating, if Paul can worship in shackles in a Roman prison, then surely we can suffer through, and even worship during, a Christ-exalting ditty that does not strike our musical palate as the "best" way to sing God's praises. Can you imagine Paul and Silas in jail, suffering in the Roman stocks, and Paul saying, "Hey Sy, let's sing 'How Great Thou Art'." And Silas saying, "No way man. I don't go for the old stuff. Let's sing, 'How Great is Our God.' I just can't seem to get in a worshipful mood with a less than contemporary beat."

I firmly believe that if we lived in a time of persecution, as do many of our brethren worldwide, then not only would we be happy to sing a contemporary or traditional song with a brother, we would simply be overjoyed to have someone to sing with at all. At least one of our problems is that we are so wretchedly spoiled with our Christian radio, CD's, and plethora of church choices, that we have come to value music style and personal taste over our own family.

That's my short rant. Now that it's over, I'll spend the second part of the 'series' actually dealing with why I believe theologically that a blended service is the best way to go.