Name Brand Worship

A few days back I wrote about how music mood is closely knit to the theology behind those singing it. Those who have a shallow theology will sing with a whimsical shallow happiness, but those with a deeper theology will have a more serious sound to their music. On the heels of that thought, I have also noticed how this reality makes itself known through the various brands of worship music that you can adopt in your church. I've been to different styles of church worship and noticed that they all have a particular brand of worship music and style that even has labels and trademarks. This will probably be the future of Christian music in the American Church. To identify yourself with a certain philosophy, a church will pick music from a particular brand name to draw people to the kind of "worship experience" that they are guaranteed to get. The worship wars have ended and the Traditionalists lost. It used to be traditional versus contemporary service. The only contemporary music that was available was pretty much stuff by the early CCM pioneers like Michael W. Smith, Amy Grant, Rebecca Saint James, Steven Curtis Chapman, etc... Now, CCM is not just vanilla flavored anymore, they have morphed into a wide variety of new brands to choose from and identify with.

For example, If a church uses a large number of Hillsong United songs in their regular worship times, then there are a few things associated with it: Willow Creek church growth methodology; a life coach smooth talker pastor who's probably in his 40's or 50's trying to look young and cool; programs galore to keep people entertained and busy!   Continue at Reforming Baptist