Review Of "The Silly War"

This article first published in Link,
a bi-monthly publication of the TN Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
by Tambi Swiney

As Kyle Matthews has sung and spoken in churches around the country, he has witnessed firsthand the casualties in the ongoing battle over worship styles. Because of his experiences, Matthews was uniquely qualified to write "The Silly War: Ending the Conflict over Music Styles in the Church and Reclaiming Worship for the People of God." In this booklet, Matthews provides churches with a strategy designed to help ministers and laypeople build a new foundation for worship that is based on biblical principles rather than stylistic preferences.

The war over worship is not only silly, Matthews observes, but also unwinnable. He notes that while churches that focus on traditional music are struggling to grow, congregations that emphasize contemporary music draw fickle crowds that are quick to jump ship when a "hipper" church arrives on the local scene. Churches that offer segregated worship experiences – a contemporary style in one time slot and a traditional one in another – lack unity. Churches that attempt blended worship services inevitably fail in their quest to please congregants with divergent musical tastes.

Matthews believes that the conflict over worship styles is actually about spiritual reductionism rather than spiritual growth. He observes that a shift has occurred in churches away from the parishioner/clergy model of the past to a customer/service provider model. He notes that while active participation by the laypeople in a local congregation is a good thing, a consumer mentality within the church is divisive.

As a Nashville-based songwriter for Universal Music Group, Matthews is keenly aware of the influence the music industry has on worship and warns churches that they should not trust a commercial industry to dictate what they need. Because pop culture has overwhelmed the marketplace, traditional music now seems like a foreign language that requires translation.

Matthews believes that seminaries have failed to adequately prepare ministerial candidates to address worship conflicts. He recalls a conversation he had with two college deans – one from the school of music and the other from the religion department. Addressing the dean of the school of music, Matthews implored, "Please tell me that you're giving your music ministry students enough theological education so that they'll be able to address the worship style debate." The dean replied that there was no theological component to the music degree. Next Matthews asked the dean of religion if pastoral candidates were required to study arts education. The dean responded that there was no arts component to that degree. "How do you expect your students to survive?" Matthews inquired.

"My sense is that seminaries see theoretical theological education as more important than practical theological education," Matthews explains. "I believe those two worlds have to be woven together for either one to have value. For a minister to come out of seminary and not be able to articulate what worship is about in such a way that laypersons can understand it and assent to pastoral leadership on the subject is a sign that something is terribly wrong with the system. If ministers are not equipped to lead, the relationship will devolve into a customer/service provider relationship almost instantly."

When Matthews consults with a congregation about worship, he seeks to raise the level of discourse from style to substance. As he encourages congregants to consider the nature of true worship, he prompts discussion with this question: If they could have nothing else, just one element or quality in their worship, what would it be? Suddenly, people who have previously been on opposite sides of the stylistic debate discover that they are standing on common ground. Individual musical preferences fade into the background as corporate theological beliefs move to center stage. "The process I walk congregations through is designed to undermine their confidence in the notion that any one style is a panacea for their problems," Matthews explains.

Churches that are searching for a new minister of music need to recognize the weakness of style-based diets before they begin interviewing candidates, Matthews advises. He recommends that churches put aside resumes of candidates who are clearly committed to one particular style of music: "Candidates who want to be traditional music preservationists or contemporary rock stars will tend to put their own agenda first."

In order to help the next generation avoid worshiping at the altar of style, Matthews insists that a direct approach is necessary. "Jesus called out demons by name," he notes. "Pointing out the way styles are about personal preferences, which always leave somebody out, is a start. Nobody likes to be left out, and we need to be shown – like children – how ugly we become when demanding our own way."

At the end of "The Silly War," Matthews suggests several questions for worship leaders to consider as they plan a worship service:

• How does this service of worship speak to some aspect of my personality, habits, or thought-life that needs to be transformed by the gospel?
• Is this service catering to only what we want or is it challenging us to accept what we most need?
• Who does this service reveal us to be and what does it say about our image of God?
• What is this service of worship a response to? What does it call us to do in response to what God has already done?
• What does this service teach my children about reverence, tradition, inclusion, ritual, the community of faith and the importance of all the elements of worship: praise, confession, meditation, teaching scripture, offering, prayer, etc., for their spiritual development?
• What is the message, the point, the focus of all these expressions and how does it transcend all the superficial concerns of my life and challenge me or encourage my spiritual development?

If you would like more information about how to invite Kyle Matthews to lead a worship seminar at your church, or if you would like to order a copy of "The Silly War," visit www.kylematthews.com or call (615) 837-8624.