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Praising Him With Contemporary Hymns
By Lisa R. Foeman
“Where there is no music, the spirit will not come.” This West African
proverb daily greets the divinity students in the Introduction to Preaching course taught
by Brad R. Braxton, Assistant Professor of Homiletics and Biblical Studies at Wake Forest
University.
Explained Braxton, “fundamentally, in African American worship, music
serves the role of conjuring God’s spirit….When Black folks get together, they
don’t necessarily assume that God is there or that the conditions are ripe for
God’s presence to be manifest. But rather, the conditions have to be made ready
through fervent prayer and soul-stirring music. So, music creates the conditions for a
meaningful encounter with God.”
Trevón D. Gross, Vice President for Programs and
Partnerships of the American Bible Society (New York), says it another way, “it is
through music that we ascend and God descends.”
So, does the type of music matter? Can a contemporary song like Kirk Franklin’s Stomp
invoke the spirit of God? Is that genre of music appropriate in a traditional church
service? According to Toni Cunningham, Director of the Gospel Chorus at Shiloh Baptist
Church (New Site) in Fredericksburg, Virginia, there is a role for contemporary gospel
“because you have so many different personalities in the church.”
She cautioned,
however, that such music must be carefully selected. At Shiloh, the choirs serve as
“primers” that ready the congregation to hear the Word of God. For this reason,
advises Cunningham, “songs that have a message” are chosen.
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According to Braxton, the form of music is
not critical. In fact, “way too much has been made about the distinction between
traditional and contemporary gospel,” he suggested. Offered Braxton who is “not
at all bothered by [the integration of] chords from R & B and rap [into church
music],” the key issue is “what kind of theology is undergirding contemporary
gospel music.”
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But it’s the beat, not the theology, that seems to
attract Gen Yers to certain churches. Acknowledged Gross, “contemporary gospel music
works quite effectively [in drawing them to church].” He continued, “while there
are aspects of worship that are cerebral, most of worship is emotive….and what gets
[you] viscerally.” But we may place “too much emphasis on praise for the sake of
praise,” opined Braxton. At times, “we’re so interested in stomping,
we’ve forgotten those hush moments.” He chuckled, “sometimes in our
churches we are so loud, we couldn’t even hear God if we wanted to.”
For Gross, traditional church music appeals to him because “it is about the
message.” He reveres “those hymns based on experiences with God” and
“written out of experiences of deep loss or deep affirmation of the relationship with
God.” Musically speaking, Gross notes, “when I hear a Hammond B-3 organ, I know
it’s church time.”
Agreeing with the sentiment expressed by Gross, Cunningham asserts that churches
exclusively using a hymnal can have a rousing worship experience facilitated by
traditional gospel music. “You can take Because He Lives from the hymnal and make a
person shed a lot of tears.” How true.
M
February 2001
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How has your church incorporated
contemporary gospel
into its services? Do you think it's appropriate?
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