Skip to main content

What Should Worship Look Like? ~ Emmett Bryant

 Ever since the establishment of the Church there has always been the question, "What should worship look like?". Whether it be meditative worship, voice-led worship, or instrumental worship, there has always been the argument of what constitutes worship. I think we have to understand that all things were created by God and for God, including music. Music is another one of God's tools to speak to us and interact with us. Worship was used all throughout the Old Testament to soothe the soul and influence emotions. With that in mind, I must critique St. Augustine for thinking that being moved by the music used for worship is a sin. The people who use their talents to worship the Lord through voice or instrument are using those avenues to worship just as equally as we, the crowd, are using our voices to worship. It is nonsense to think that finding pleasure or beauty in the worship of a brother or sister to be a sin. Worship is not a static, emotionless action but a vibrant one. Worship is meant to move the heart and bring us into communion with God. Worship is most absolutely meant to be a form of knowing God which is why Paul told the Church to admonish each other with "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" (Eph. 5:19, ESV). Worship is a place for our heart to deeply commune with God and is meant to be charged with emotions that are in line with the Scriptures. Contrary to fundamentalist thought, worship was never meant to be and never will be, a dry, liturgical exercise. 

I commented on Braylan Stringfellow's post and Madalyn Dillard's post. 

Comments

  1. Abigale BellJanuary 25, 2021 at 6:00 PM

    Hi Emmett! I really enjoyed reading your post! You made a very good point when you spoke of music as a beautiful thing created by God. I think it is important to remember that our worship doesn't originate within ourselves. I also think it is important to understand that worship can become simply a liturgical experience if we do not keep our focus on growing closer to and glorifying God.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Word Painting in Vesta—Lily Caswell

  Word painting in Weelkes’s As Vesta Was from Latmos Hill Descending is quite interesting. And because that is a really long title, I’m calling it Vesta from now on. Word painting is basically when the melody matches up with the lyrics. So in Vesta, when it says “ascending” and “descending”, there are obviously scales going up and down. The madrigal was written for six voices to sing unaccompanied, so when they start to come together, it matches with the lyrics; so if the lyric says “two by two”, there are only two voices; “three by three” there is another voice added, and so forth. All the parts combine in exclamation before Vesta before it is left “all alone” to the highest soprano. All the way to the end of the piece, word painting continues when shouts of “Long live fair Oriana” with the bass sustaining long notes. Word painting in and of itself is a highly interesting topic because a musician takes the words of a poem or a sonnet and writes a melody line that pertains to cer...
4 comments
Read more

Honor and Gain; Which Do You Seek?

 Pericles.... thanks? I can only imagine that's what the family and friends were thinking after they heard his historic funeral speech honoring the departed. What do I mean? Well, Pericles briefly mentions the men who have fallen at the beginning of his speech, but then goes on to discuss how great Athens is, and how the contributions the city has made to the world are unmatched.. why? I understand that he is also commending the citizens of Athens and empowering them to continue to make their city greater, but I thought this was supposed to be a funeral speech about dead war heroes, not about Athens. Another thing I found interesting is what Pericles said on page five about honor: "For it is only the love of honour that never grows old; and honour it is, not gain, as some would have it, that rejoices the heart of age and helplessness" (Thucydides, page 5). Have you ever watched a show or movie, or read a book, about a duel between two men? There is always an unspoken agre...
Post a Comment
Read more

Aristotle Might Not Like Me...Or Jesus//Haylee Lynd

      Aristotle says that the man who does not get angry at the things he should be angry at "is thought unlikely to defend himself; and to endure being insulted and put up with insult to one's friends is slavish" (Aristotle 41). While he states that passivity is preferred to excessive anger, he still gives great criticism to it.  In contrast to Aristotle, the man who Christians believe to be the most just is Jesus who states in Matthew 5:39-40, "...do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." Essentially, arguing that one is not to respond in anger when insulted or hurt, to not defend one's self. Most individual's are unable to achieve this. Our natural instinct is to defend ourselves, especially in physical cases. However, Christians strive to be like Jesus in this way. I would also argue that it is a very admirable wa...
2 comments
Read more