10 Mistakes Worship Leaders Make - Mistake #5 - Worship = Music
Mistake # 5 – It’s only about music
Worship is about the transport of our heart to God. It has many expressions – meditational, contemplative, dance, chant, etc. Music is not an essential element to worship. But, today, “worship” is a sub-culture and “worship music” is a genre.
Did you know that monks designed the diatonic scale? They saw a great geometric symmetry in the universe. So, they created chant, not just because of the words, but because of the notes themselves. Those notes – Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do – resonate in and through different parts of the human body.
It was, literally, a cosmic tuning fork, capturing the powers of the universe. That is what chant is all about. It is beyond what any of us in a modern era can come close to understanding. Their unified world view gave birth to these kinds of integrated mysteries. They saw music, not as a style-driven show, but as a way to tune in to the harmony of God’s creation.
Worship is about the transport of our heart to God. It has many expressions – meditational, contemplative, dance, chant, etc. Music is not an essential element to worship. But, today, “worship” is a sub-culture and “worship music” is a genre.
Did you know that monks designed the diatonic scale? They saw a great geometric symmetry in the universe. So, they created chant, not just because of the words, but because of the notes themselves. Those notes – Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do – resonate in and through different parts of the human body.
It was, literally, a cosmic tuning fork, capturing the powers of the universe. That is what chant is all about. It is beyond what any of us in a modern era can come close to understanding. Their unified world view gave birth to these kinds of integrated mysteries. They saw music, not as a style-driven show, but as a way to tune in to the harmony of God’s creation.
1 Comments:
Great post, Rex, and the implications go even further.
I studied church music in my theology masters degree, and what I discovered is that pretty much everything we know about music in the West grew out of the worship of the church.
Composers in past centuries would often refuse to sign their work, because the glory was intended to go to God, not themselves. Musicians considered themselves servants, attempting to use their gifts to point people to God's majesty revealed in song, and in the created order.
And, in similar ways, worship has influenced many other art forms - dance, drama, poetry, architecture...the list goes on and on.
John
www.sacredise.com
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