Robert's Reflections
May 06, 2001

Archive

A Case For A cappella Singing
By: Tom Lawson

There are three advantages of an A cappella worship, without considering the biblical perspective.

1. It tends to maintain the central leaders in worship a part of a congregation, rather than performers up front . When the music of worship is the music of the church itself, it seems less likely that we move form worship to watching worship. The worth of a particular service is, many times gauged by the quality of the performers. Applause is not merely tolerated, it is expected.

2. It tends to preserve times of silence within corporate worship. Not every moment must be programmed with organ or piano music to affect mood.

3. It tends to preserve simplicity of worship that may be increasingly attractive in our complicated age. I am baffle( why some within the Church of Christ would pick this time to move toward inclusion of the instrument in worship . Times of silence may have an attraction as great as the "big performances."

"To my friends within the Church of Christ, I should encourage you to think long and hard before you join the rest of the evangelical world in this area that so clearly impacts the entire worship service. I find myself wishing that, at least once in a while, we'd close up that piano, turn off the organ, unplug that guitars and just see what would happen."

Tom Lawson is the minister of music for an Independent Christian Church, a body which uses instrumental music in worship.

Source: Liberty Lamplighter