Wednesday, November 3, 2004

A New Heart, A Now Song

Been thinking about worship today, and some of the infighting that has gone on in the Church over worship music, old and new. Part of the problem has been that, although music may well be a part of worship, it is not the heart of worship. So some people feel like they can’t worship with new music, and others feel like they can’t worship with old music. But they’ve missed it — the problem is not in the music.

Old music is not the answer, because people tend to use the old music in old ways, and it becomes little more than sentiment. New music is not the answer either. For one thing, it is easy for the new music to become the old music pretty quickly, and it begins to be used in old ways. On top of that, it is also possible to use the old music in new ways.

But the real solution lies somewhere else. The problem is not the music we use in worship, but the heart with which we approach worship. What we need is not new music but a new heart — one that is focused on the Lord, one that is in love with Jesus, one that is open and obedient to the Holy Spirit. When we have that, music is not a problem. With a new heart, we can always sing a new song, whether it is a traditional hymn or a contemporary piece. For it will neither be an old song nor a new one — it will be a now song, freshly emerging from a heart that is in communion with the Lord.

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