God is My Boyfriend? Razormouth critiques theological ambiguity in modern praise-worship.
Who Wants to Hear “Les Miz?” Adventist preacher David Smith quotes C.S. Lewis on the need for humility in the face of conflict between traditional and modern worship.
Addendum: This contrast is certainly not intended to be a divisive finger pointed between contemporary and traditional church music. Rather- oh, I’ll just repaste my comment:
If worship is just time between you and God, then why go to church at all? Why not just sit at home with your bible and guitar and sing godly love songs in your room all Sunday?
Rhetorical question, of course. The church’s worship is a community event in which the body of Christ meets for the edification of its members and the glorification of God. Proper edification and holy worship must be based on the Word of God, and not just any loving words that evoke one emotion or another.
There’s nothing wrong with good modern music in our worship. I’ll bet there’s even some amazingly profound Christian Metal or Hiphop out there. But before we beat on our drums that “Jesus Rocks,” we must first make sure that our words and songs are solidly founded upon Jesus the Rock — whether in traditional or contemporary church music. That job is up to our songleaders and choirmasters, as they are led by the Spirit.
At the same time, we who critique Christian musical traditions must approach these with humility and respect for the reverence with which the singers worship the Lord. While we must be critical of theological problems in our midst, we must never cease to exhibit the gentleness and love of the Spirit among each other, regardless of cultural leaning.