3. Is your church music orderly?
This question can be taken a couple different ways, and I want to address both of them. We ought to make sure our musical worship is orderly and not chaotic, and the music that we sing ought to follow a certain order.
This question can be taken a couple different ways, and I want to address both of them. We ought to make sure our musical worship is orderly and not chaotic, and the music that we sing ought to follow a certain order.
Firstly, we want to refrain from chaos in our church services. If there is a characteristic of chaos in the church, we won't truly be growing in the Word or becoming more like Christ. Additionally, we will not be a proper witness to any unbelievers that visit the church. Paul specifically addresses his in his first epistle to the Corinthians:
"Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said. If a revelation is made to another sitting there, let the first be silent. For you can all prophesy one by one, so that all may learn and be encouraged.... For God is not a God of confusion but of peace." (I Corinthians 14:29-33)
Now, this was a different era of the church where prophets were still more prevalent, and it seems as if they were all giving their prophecies at the same time so no one could understand what they were saying. Paul encourages them to prophesy one by one, because the church can understand is built up by those prophecies much better than if it was a free-for-all. In the same way, our church services cannot be disorganized or poorly planned, or it will reflect badly on the God we claim to serve and will not be beneficial to the congregation that has come to hear from the Word.
Also, I want to look at the specific order in which we plan our services. (Much like last week, this section will be mostly addressed to worship leaders and pastors, but I hope that laypeople in the church will be encouraged to observe how this works in their churches.) Many evangelical churches don't necessarily like the word "liturgy," but each church has its own liturgy, or order of the worship service. Most contemporary churches sing a song or two, have announcements of events around the church, sing some more songs, the senior pastor preaches from Scripture, and the worship team comes back for a song or two at the end. (Depending on how often your church partakes in communion, there may be some variation in that order.)
Kevin DeYoung wrote a blog post earlier this month almost condemning this liturgical order, showing it to be not as deep as older Reformed liturgies. He does make a point; many times leaders can fall into a rut of picking songs that may not connect together. I've been guilty of it at times. I understand DeYoung's concern about this liturgical order, but I think there is a way to intentionally incorporate aspects of older traditions into modern orders.
Many traditional liturgies begin with a call to worship, Scripture reading, and singing psalms and hymns. While I know churches that still incorporate this exact style into their morning services, I would not recommend making a significant break from what your local church is already doing to make room for something like this. There is a way for us to be intentional in the order of songs we choose and the depth of the lyrics. I made reference last week to Mike Cosper's book on worship called Rhythms of Grace, which has an appendix with many styles of liturgical orders taken from modern-day churches. Matt Papa has also written a blog about how to order services in a way that spells out the Gospel from beginning to end. These are some resources to get you thinking about how this might play out best in your church. (Kevin DeYoung also wrote a follow-up post to the one I previously mentioned, showing the benefits of traditional Reformed liturgy.)
There is not really any easy way to answer the second part of this question with any solid biblical ground. The one thing we must make sure about is that our music seeks to glorify God and build up His people (which we have already discussed). But some churches will incorporate this in a different way than others will. Each local body is different in some way, and will approach this scenario in their unique fashion. Musical style is not determined by a commandment in the Bible; what music you choose will depend on your congregation. We need to remember to take each of these checklist questions as a whole, not focusing on one and neglecting the others. This will be seen more clearly as we continue through the list next week.