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[WORSHIP] FW: Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down
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To: worship@praise.net
From: David King <D.King@usm.edu>
Subject: Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down - a critique
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First, the citation (hey, I'm a librarian...)
Dawn, Marva J. "Reaching Out Without Dumbing Down: A theology of worship
for the turn-of- the-century culture." Grand Rapids, MI: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company. 1995. critique.
I've just read this book, and thought I'd offer my critique of it to the
worship list. In general, the book enlightened me, irritated me, and taught
me. Now, let me explain all that.
The book focuses mainly on what Dawn calls "worship wars" - or the battle
of traditional vs. contemporary praise and worship music that so many
churches are currently experiencing. Dawn states "What worries me is that
many congregations are hurriedly switching their worship practices... in
order to ‘grow' their churches...," and then explains why that's not always
a good thing. And I agree with many of Dawn's reasons. But, while reading,
you can quickly tell which side of the "war" Dawn comes from - she is very
much into the traditional side.
This quote will give you an idea of where Dawn's coming from: " a workshop
leader adamantly declared, ‘baby boomers don't like hymns. They want to
hear music like they hear outside the church.' First of all, how can she be
so sure? I know lots of baby boomers who love hymns. I am one of them.
Furthermore, many of those who dislike hymns participate in churches that
disdain hymns, don't teach them well, and sing them poorly. What would
happen if they were exposed to good hymn singing and better education about
the Church's musical heritage? What if they came as adults to a parish with
a vital musical life including various styles of music sung with vigor and
gladness? Furthermore... should worship be simply what we want, and should
the Church be like the culture surrounding it?" (Pg. 166-167).
And that's just fine with me - I realize that some people like hymns, some
people like loud, rocky praise, and some people fall into the middle of all
that. I don't mind traditional hymns when they're done well (meaning no
slow, plodding renditions of "Holy, Holy, Holy" for example). But, I
definitely lean towards the contemporary side (being a drummer, I don't
have much of a choice, really!). And so I was bothered when I saw things
like:
1. Traditional worship always being spoken of positively, while
contemporary worship was usually spoken of negatively;
2. Not one example of hymns with bad theology (easy to find), but gives
2-3 examples of contemporary songs with bad theology;
3. Discussion focused only on the traditional, liturgical worship format.
No discussion of the "entering the sanctuary" style of worship
found in more charismatic/third wave/contemporary churches.
4. When lyrics were quoted, all hymn writers were given proper credit, but
when contemporary praise lyrics were quoted, no credit was given
(a small technicality maybe, but in my eyes, more than a simple
oversight - probably the librarian in me coming out again...).
Here's an example of point #2, above. Dawn complains about contemporary
songs focusing on I rather than on God. She gives an example of a song she
thinks points to I: "I will celebrate, sing unto the Lord. I will sing to
God a new song. I will praise God, hallelujah.", and then states "the verb
says ‘I will,' but in this song I don't, because, though God is mentioned
as the recipient of my praise and singing, the song never says a single
thing about or to God. I think that statement really shows that Dawn is
totally focused on liturgical worship, and doesn't understand the "moving
to the inner sanctum" style of worship, where you start with celebratory
songs (her example sounds like a celebratory song, at least in lyrical
content) and move towards intimate songs addressing God. And in the
process, Dawn conveniently forgets many of the Psalms that say "I will
praise God," and are considered definite praises.
And now, after all that, here are some things I liked about the book. I
think I generally agree with her about worship, but I'm just coming from a
different angle. Here are some interesting/helpful quotes/thoughts:
"...the Church throughout the ages has understood that its task as an
institution is to provide opportunities for the worship and praise of God
and the educating and forming of its people for a life of caring for others
in response to that grace. We might compare these two tasks to the two
great commandments - to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and
strength and to become the kind of people who will love our neighbors as
ourselves" (pg. 8). I found that to be a very succinct description of how
the Church should operate.
Dawn mentions several times that God needs to be the center/subject of our
worship. Real worried about the focus being on us rather than God (ie., the
glory of the lord shall be revealed, vs. We shall see his glory). I'd
generally agree with that, but I'm not quite as rigid as Dawn seems to be
(one example being of the Psalms frequently speaking in the "I" voice).
Dawn's worried about dumbing down our worship music - "A principal cause of
such dumbing down is the contemporary confusion of praise with ‘happiness.'
Some worship planners and participants think that to praise God is simply
to sing upbeat music; consequently, many songs that are called ‘praise'
actually describe the feelings of the believer rather than the character of
God." (Pg. 87). Again, I'd agree. Upbeat, happy music doesn't necessarily
equal worship music. I know of some praise songs that point out the fact
that we're lowly sinners, and that God isn't - that just can't be sung to
the tune of "Sugar, Sugar," you know?
Dawn also talks about not focusing on "good feelings" in worship, but
focusing rather on God, whether or not you experience any feelings. What
Dawn doesn't mention is that if you truly mean what you sing during
worship, then you certainly might experience strong emotions or feelings.
But I think her point is that worship shouldn't be focused primarily on our
feelings, but rather on expressing God's worthiness, etc.
And, in fairness, Dawn did say "our worship practices must embody the truth
in ways that relate to people, that invite them to experience the truth
firsthand and not simply as irrelevant tradition" (pg. 113). I'd agree. In
fact, I'd probably agree more than Dawn would like me to :-)
So there you have it! That's gotta be worth more than .02 cents...!
______________________________
David King
Electronic Services Librarian
University of Southern Mississippi
D.King@usm.edu
http://ocean.st.usm.edu/~dlking/