This morning I received an email from a friend who leads a contemporary music band in her church. She told me that she wanted to sing a “pop song with Christian lyrics” in Sunday’s worship service.
She wanted my opinion on the matter.
One of her band members apparently objected citing the so-called “Regulative Principle.” I have to admit I had never heard of such a principle before, or if I had I had previously dismissed it.
The basic idea is: We are not free to introduce things into worship that have no Biblical warrant. Below is the article she sent with her email.
So all this raises some interesting questions for me:
Is it offensive to God that we might use music that was originally intended for secular audiences in Christian worship?
Where does one draw the hard line between what is sacred and what is secular?
Who draws this line?
What gives any act of worship “Biblical Warrant?”
Is there Biblical Warrant for using bands with guitars, keyboards, and drums in church?
Who then serves as the ultimate arbiter over what is Biblical worship and what isn’t?
Isn’t most of modern worship in American Churches reflective more of our cultural preferences or what we are used to than it is some assumed Biblical mandate?
Finally, where in the Bible is there a gold standard explicitly outlined for Christian worship?
Quite frankly I find this kind of stuff exhausting. I would prefer to spend my energy on more important things, such as how to feed the poor or minister to the victims of sex trafficking or practicing justice in an unjust world. But that’s just me.
When I hear folks making such hard and fast claims about what one can or cannot do in worship (or anywhere else for that matter) I instantly duck.
Really, these rules police would not have to look very long to find me guilty of violating some part of Scripture.
Perhaps we have yet to grasp the full meaning of the Good News or Gospel. Like those Jewish Christians in the Book of Acts who wanted all Gentile Christians to become Jews first by submitting to circumcision (Acts 15) we still want to insist that God’s grace is not quite enough to justify us.
We insist that there is something more we must do or not do in order to win God’s favor.
This is sick and toxic Christianity. It is not life giving. It leads to death.
Christianity is not a rules-based but rather a relational-based faith and this is predicated upon God’s grace and not upon any merit of our own.
But still we continue to insist that the rules are the rules and we must abide by them.
All I can say to these modern day Judaizers is this: Knock yourselves out trying to follow all the rules that are mostly made up by folks who need rules to make sense of and give order to their world.
For me God’s amazing grace is sufficient enough to provide all the warrant, Biblical or otherwise, I need to live faithfully and relationally with God.
Once we get this we then see that there really are no hard lines between what is secular and what is sacred. All of creation is the sacred work of God and that includes the gift of writing music.
All music is God’s music by virtue of the creation.
One final thought: To live joyfully in relationship with God is to allow God’s grace to become the anchor of that relationship. Quit trying so hard to be religious, or spiritual, or even Christian.
Enjoy the ride with God. It really is a matter of grace and not how many merit badges you can earn!
You’ll feel a whole lot better about yourself. I know you will!
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