I love Rock n Roll Music

Psalm150:5 "Praise Him with the clash of cymbals, praise Him with resounding cymbals."

Back in the day... late 50's to early 60's, at least in the church, the very mention of the term Rock 'n Roll evoked quite a negative response from the overwhelming majority of churchgoers. As I was growing up in the San Fernando Valley in my preteens and early teen years I remember vividly a spoken and unspoken conflict between Rock 'n Roll music and Christian music. Church music was made up of organ only accompanied hymns (some of them peppier than others). Maybe at camp around a campfire a guitar would be played and some more folkier tunes would be sung, like Do Lord or maybe a little later on Kum Bah Yah. As long as it was explained what it meant and why we would sing in another language. The idea of amplifiers, drums, electric music (other than organ) was unheard of and rejected if ever even mentioned.

In the mid-sixties I was part of the First Baptist Church of San Fernando and change started coming. But it came slowly and a bit painfully. I remember when our first Youth Choir wanted to sing something slightly new that we had to jump through all kinds of hoops and answer all kinds of questions about who, what, when, where and why. To a degree I really do understand such concern because it was different and often, any good change, comes slowly. Some of the early music we shared was not well received, even though we tried so hard to be thoughtful and earnest.

I'm not sure how it happened, but somewhere in the summer of 66 we hit a brick wall and the openness we felt was closed off for a long time, probably over a year. I think we had pushed the envelope in rewriting the words to a contemporary song and shared it in Sunday Morning Worship. We meant no harm, but we definitely had stepped over some line of some kind. Not long after that time the openness to change shifted again and not only was it the beginning of loud cymbals being accepted, but even loud resounding cymbals. This verse from Psalm 150 became our proof text for why we knew that all kinds of music, as long as it glorified God was acceptable for worship.

Now, mind you... I think sometimes we lose something when we forget the great hymns and their place, and that we can tend to get a little repetitious with some of the new stuff and not recently so much but some time ago (15-20 years) a season of the music was shallow and content less. I've tried to remain objective in my appreciation of the good older music and the freshest stuff too.

We are blessed to not suffer from 'worship wars' at Grace Harbor, but I do believe that we must preserve the beauty of more of the older music, especially the best of the hymns and still do new music, because it is important too. As long as the intent of the music is to Praise the Lord I think we can express all kinds of music and glorify Him without being insensitive or uncaring or stuck anywhere on the continuum of style or preference. Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. This is what the Bible says for a reason.

With His Grace, Pastor Fred

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