Expert: Hoyt Roberson - 1/29/2008

Question
QUESTION: The following is an article I found interesting.

I was wondering if this is a trend or an anomaly in the Church of Christ?




By Carla Hinton
Religion Editor

Mark Henderson, teaching and preaching minister at Quail Springs Church of Christ, recently shared information about the church's plans to add a worship service that will include musical instruments. The new service, which begins Sunday, is a break from Church of Christ tradition.
Henderson said the decision came through lengthy prayer and study. Even so, about 300 people left the church, 14401 N May, in opposition of the change.
Here Henderson tells why and how the decision to add the new worship service was made, along with the congregation's hopes for the future:
Q:Please explain the position that Church of Christ congregations typically take regarding using instruments in worship services.
A:Historically the position was — and there's different parts of it — but I think the primary piece of it was that there is no New Testament authority for using instruments in worship.
You have a lot of Old Testament references to it, but when you look at references you might attribute to worship in the New Testament, you don't see them mentioned, and people interpreted that silence as intentional.Therefore, it was restrictive.
So, the position was it's wrong to use instruments in worship because if you use them, you're basically adding to what the New Testament teaches — it's unauthorized.
So the historic position has been there's no authority to use instruments in worship, therefore we don't do it, and those who use instruments are sinning and really out of step with God, and therefore we don't fellowship with them.
Q:When did your church decide to begin offering this service?
A:The decision was made here, I believe it was announced last March, March 2007. The elders said they had been through a period of discussion and prayer and study, and had come to the conclusion that we would add an instrumental service. For the last several months, we've been just talking through some different issues and working out some logistics, when would it happen, what would the schedule look like and things of that nature.
Q:What kind of response have you received from, first your congregation, as far as offering this service, and then from the Church of Christ congregation at large?
A: In the congregation it's been difficult. I think just about any pastor will tell you that significant change in a congregation is difficult. So we had some people who have been very enthusiastic about it and other people who have been very resistant to it. It's been a painful and difficult process. One good example of what we went through in 2007 was the day that one of the elders announced that they arrived at this conclusion, that we were going forward, that this would be a part of our future, a certain percentage of the congregation broke out in applause and a number of people got up and left in tears. And so it's been like that.
As far as other congregations of Churches of Christ, we've received very little direct feedback from them. It's not a popular choice among them, but we're not having difficult conversations or getting mail from them.
Q:What will happen Jan. 27? Do you have certain instruments that you will allow in the service?
A:We had done an activity here in the past that we called Worship Night. It would usually happen on Saturday night when we did it, so we already had kind of a band. And we have a worship style here, even in our a cappella service, we've tended toward more contemporary Christian worship music. So in some ways we weren't really re-inventing the wheel; we were just further developing what we have done before. Our typical band is going to look like a drum set, a keyboard and usually two or three guitars. We have some other gifted musicians here that we will incorporate, depending on what kind of music we're doing.
Q:How did you respond to those congregation members who were upset about this particular change?
A:You just do the best you can. We, the other leaders and I, would meet with anybody who would meet with me. I had conversations with individuals that might last two hours-plus and really whatever it took to try get to a level of comfort and understanding, we would try to do. Sometimes you could, and sometimes you couldn't.
Q:What do you hope to accomplish with this worship service?
A:There are two things that we really hope will come from this. One is we want to keep more of our people that were leaving to go to instrumental churches. One of the ways I would describe it is the way we handled it doctrinally. We essentially said you are free to worship with instruments and you are free to worship without them. From just a doctrinal biblical standpoint, we, for a number of years, have treated this as a nonissue. And so to me it seems like we were giving our people freedom to leave. We were saying you're free to worship with instruments — just not here. So one of things we're trying to do is for those people who really connect more with instrumental music, even of our own people, we're trying to give them a greater opportunity to stay and to worship and to serve and be a part of the church here.
The other thing we're trying to do is to reach some people that we've been missing. We don't do polls and surveys or exit interviews with people who are guests here, so all I can share is anecdotal evidence from some of our members. It's interesting: One member will say, “I brought a guest, and they didn't have any concerns about our worship style. They said the singing was beautiful, and they couldn't believe how impressed they were with the a cappella worship.” And another member would say, “I brought a guest, and they really liked the church and everything, but they're asking us what's the deal with the musical instruments, and I really can't get over this worship style.”
My hope is that we're going to do both really well and that either group can come and say “I connect with that. This is a place where I can worship and serve.”
Q:So to your congregation, this is about tradition and doing something different?
A: This isn't unique to Churches of Christ, but it happens in our churches where your tradition bumps into what you believe about freedom in Christ. In a situation like this, for some time it's an area where we believed we had freedom, but we wouldn't practice that freedom primarily because of our tradition.Then you get to a point where you say we're missing some people we believe we could reach. We're raising generations that leave us because they just don't buy this anymore, so maybe we ought to practice the freedom we believe we have. That's really what it came down to for us.
Q:Is there anything else you'd like to add?
A:One thing I would say about this is it was really a personal decision, not just for me but for our congregation and our leadership. I think in Churches of Christ, every congregation is going to have to chart their own course on this. One of the good things we have in churches of Christ is congregational autonomy; we don't have a denominational headquarters. We don't have anyone to tell us what we can and can't do. Each congregation has to decide on their own. We went through a painful process to make this decision. You know when we started this process, our average attendance was in the 900-950 arrange and by the time we finished, we were in the 600-650 range. And those numbers represent people and friends and family members, so we don't take it lightly, and others shouldn't either.

The other thing I would say is this is about us and what we believe, before God, is the best way for us to move into the future. We don't make any judgments about any other congregations about what they should or shouldn't do. Each one will have to chart that on their own as they're responsible for their decisions before God, as well


ANSWER: The introduction of instrumental music into congregational worship periods of churches of Christ is a slowly developing trend, and so each introduction can still be characterized as an anomaly.

Let me explain that. I believe churches of Christ will continue to introduce instrumental music, but the number of congregations currently doing so remains a minority by a considerable amount. Because there are so few congregations who use instrumental music, each one is an anomaly when viewed within the larger association of churches. Our final decision on whether it's a trend or an anomaly may depend on whether we want it to be one or the other - like most perceptions do.

A number of churches of Christ already use instrumental music with the most famous one being Richland Hills Church of Christ in Fort Worth, TX. They added an instrumental service this year (I believe). They are the largest church of Christ and so their beginning to use instruments could be seen as a bell weather indicator.

However, the vast majority of churches of Christ remain a capella and likely will over the next decade or two at least. Most congregations are and will remain more conservative and for a variety of reasons will elect not to use instruments in their services.

The story indicates that this congregation had used instruments on days other than Sunday, in events that were not perceived as "Worship" in the context of "adding instruments to worship" discussion. Churches of Christ tend to perceive hedges around Sunday activities, allowing somewhat more leeway on other days. This use of instruments may likely continue to grow as well and lay the expectational foundation for instruments in worship services.

The answer to this then, is that there does seem to be an overall trend of using instrumental music (especially in more cosmopolitan areas), but the number of adopters across the country at this point remains small. I do not expect that it will become the norm for two or more decades at least.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Just curious, do you approve or disapprove? Yes I am putting you on the spot.
Are these who use musical instruments still church of Christ or not?

Thanks

Answer
I don't mind being on the spot. ;)

Now, for a waffle......I neither approve or disapprove.

In theory, I can find nothing sinful about instrumental music per se in Scripture. However, I don't know that it is approriate to unilaterally institute such a change within a congregation willy-nilly. Given churches' of Christ long history of a capella singing and the beauty of such (when done well), I think it appropriate to move slowly with such a move.

It seems that God values peace and harmony among Christians more than exercising our freedoms, so poking folks in the eye with a sharp stick is not something we should do without considerable reflection and prayer.

However, evangelism also plays a strong role in the history of churches of Christ, and it is this purpose that most justifications for introducing instrumental music use.

Congregational leaders must balance several competing and difficult demands. One of these is the history and beauty of a capella singing, balanced with today's culture responding to music as an attraction (to get them in the door and keep them long enough to incorporate them).

So let me answer your question this way:

a. I cannot find a compelling Scriptural argument that clearly makes using instruments sinful or inappropriate in church assemblies. But...
b. I believe that the turmoil likely to be caused in a congregation should be carefully considered before doing so.

Personally, I cannot think of a better sound than a few hundred folks singing (a capella) some of my favorite hymns. On the other hand, I often wonder what it might sound like - how the congregation might be moved - if there were some sweeping accompaniment to "The King is Coming," or "It is Well with My Soul."

I always sit in the first 1/3 of the congregation, and toward the center. I often close my eyes and listen as the congregation around me sings. These times bring me some of my favorite worship memories.

I also close my eyes when listening to classical or even jazz music. Doing so allows me to hear the instruments more clearly, and "ride the music" much closer than with my eyes open.

When I hear a familiar tune played by a bagpipe or orchestra, my mind recalls the song, and my spirit moves with the sentiments as I recall the lyrics. It is no longer so much the music as it is the mental and psychological remembrance of the song that moves me in those moments.

Whether folks that use instruments are 'church of Christ' or not, depends on our view of churches of Christ, and what makes a Christian.

Church of Christ doctrine usually says that a Christian is made when someone "hears, believes, repents, confesses, and is baptized." And so, according to doctrine, anyone who successfully accomplishes that process, is a Christian and a member of the church of Christ.

Churches of Christ also teach that we all sin, and that if we follow God as best we can, the blood of Jesus continually cleanses us.

If using instrumental music is sin, it does not disqualify one from being a Christian any more than any other sin might.

If we can remain churches of Christ and differ on Sunday School, located preachers, children's homes, and what not, then we can likely remain churches of Christ with some using instrumental music.

But that view makes a distinction between the church, and the people that make up the church, a view that I find hard to sustain in most cases.

So the question to me really is, can I worship in an assembly with instrumental music, and remain a Christian? The answer it seems must be yes, since we don't exorcise fols for other sins.

So, can a gathering of Christians that use instrumental music in their assemblies, legitimately call themselves a church of Christ?

I think the answer has to be "yes."