usical reform is something I wish were somewhere in the fabric of the SBC program currently on the front burner. Sadly, it is not. I will be surprised if music as an issue is mentioned once this year in Louisville.
I say program because that is just what it is. It is well intentioned, to be sure, proposed by good men, to be sure. It is, however, merely a program, set with all of its little cures. Each item under each Roman numeral is just another attempt to solve the little problems that are merely symptoms of the one big problem. Dr. Akin, in his now-famous address touched on the problem numerous times, but only as items under the Roman numerals. It pleased me a great deal at the time I first listened to it via podcast, and later read the transcript. Then when I read the drafted statement that everybody is mad about signing (or condemning), I realized the whole thing is just another well-intentioned program, another symptom solver.
The glory of God, showing him large, should have been the over-arching theme. Instead, as the program’s title betrays, it’s all about numbers. After all, that is what Great Commission Resurgence really means. Our problem is that our numbers are dwindling. We are in decline. We need to beef up our evangelism. By the way, that is what is what it is all about. That is what the SBC was founded upon all those years ago. Yes, that is sarcasm, but don’t get me wrong. I do believe that evangelism is integral to genuine Christianity, and many behind this effort have genuine love for the lost. The only problem is that the Great Commission is not the only command our Lord ever gave us, and the “last thing he said while still on this earth” doesn’t supersede everything he said the three years prior, nor everything the apostles said from The Acts of the Apostles, to The Revelation of John; unless, of course, you are a red-letter Christian.
Faithfulness is a much more pedestrian term than evangelism. I guess that is why we hear it so seldom among the “faithful” these days. Faithfulness is that boring Elmer’s glue of the faith that makes Christianity real, that makes it credible when you speak a word of grace to the lost. It is doing the right thing, even when it is hard; very hard. Faithfulness is weighing the long-term gains against the short-term gains. Faithfulness is choosing the best and the highest, over the pretty good and the mighty high. Faithfulness is working hard, showing up early, staying late, and coming back from lunch early; not because you boss is watching, but because you want to be pleasing to your Father in heaven. Faithfulness is skipping the tube or You-Tube, so you can catechize your children, and interact in their lives; because they have souls that will spend eternity somewhere, and they are your first and most important mission field, not to mention your best hope for the future of your stinking denomination. Faithfulness is staying married to the same spouse for life, because you made a promise, and it is the picture of God’s faithfulness to you. Faithfulness is mowing your lawn, waxing your car, cleaning your house, sweeping your driveway, making a budget, being nice to the not-so-nice, driving the speed limit, dressing modestly, keeping guard over your tongue, etc., etc. In other words faithfulness is taking every thought captive to obey Christ, by seeing how every bit of God’s word applies to every bit of your life, not because you need to, but because you want to. You want to magnify Christ in your life.
So, what does all of this have to do with musical reform, you may ask. Music is an undercurrent in all of our lives, both secular and sacred. It is so subtle we hardly notice it most of the time, yet its subtleties enables it to shape our thoughts and attitudes in every area of our lives so profoundly. As someone somewhere said quite some time ago, “We sing the faith into our hearts.” My question is, what kind of faith are we singing? Our recently-revised Baptist Hymnal 2008 was a feeble attempt at reform. When I see the SBC begin to take seriously the way we express ourselves to God and each other in song, then I will believe that we have begun to solve the real problem that faces the SBC; the general lack of faithfulness and integrity, in every area of our lives. We don’t evangelize because the God we sing about is too small. Those who do evangelize are not taken seriously. The world looks on and sees us as just the same as them, only “religious.”
I guess I should give credit to what got this post started. Douglas Wilson is “not one of us.” That is how most of you would put it. The more I read Pastor Wilson, the more I believe he should be one of us. Or is it maybe that we are not one of him, but should be? For some time he and his have undertaken to reform music in the context of worship. I am not suggesting we should ape the style from his tradition, just the attitude of his heart. Here is a quote from his recent post on musical reform. You should take the time to read the whole article. It is not long. It is not even earth shattering, but it is good common-sense food for thought. If you follow just this one regularly-recurring topic of Wilson’s you will profit greatly.
. . . we are living in a time when general musical education has been abandoned for some generations, with the result that many of us know what we like, but we don’t know what we are liking. So as we have undertaken the challenging task of musical reformation, we are trying to provide something to the next generation that we ourelves did not receive.
