Playing the Piano. The WHOLE Piano.

Had to pass this one on.  Some people just play the keys.  These guys play the PIANO.

Singing on the Brain

While the Christian group Acapella (and here) was doing some stuff like this 25 years ago, the Voca People have taken it to a whole new level (albeit not Christian).

Enjoy it while you try to figure out how they do it.

Sicka Cicadas

Apparently the whole cicada thing in Tennessee is much bigger than we desert-bound folks can appreciate.  I enjoyed this video of the phenomenon.

How Christina Aguilera is an Important Example for Christians

If you watched the Super Bowl, you probably caught it; if you didn't watch, you certainly have seen news reports and blog opinions on Ms. Aguilera's pre-game rendition of the Star Spangled Banner.  (If you just came out of a cave, here's a link to her performance.) 

It wasn't pretty.  (And that doesn't include the fact that she flubbed a line.)  What's wrong with singing it the way it was written??? 

OK, I got that out of my system.

Back to the theological implications of the whole mess.  If you listen to a lot of people in the church (and none too few outside it), what matters is your passion for whatever you believe, but not so much the content thereof.  I don't agree with that, and most serious bible students I know don't either.  Now, if we judge Ms. Aguilera's performance on passion alone, she was perfect.  You couldn't ask for more passion than what she put into that song.  But she didn't get the content right.

Our society seems to think that's OK.  How many times have you heard, "It doesn't really matter so much what you believe, just as long as you're sincere."  She was sincere to a fault, but didn't get the words quite right.  So was it a perfect performance, or not?  I didn't think so.  I'm sure she's embarrassed about it, and I know that in the same situation, I'd probably forget some of the words myself.  And as much as I don't appreciate that style of rendering the national anthem (I would much prefer a barbershop quartet, or the US Marine Chorus), she can sing a lot better than I could, even if I had the electronic enhancement that the Black Eyed Peas so sorely missed in their half-time show.

The gospel is, after all, a narrative...a story.  It has content.  It does indeed matter what we believe, and what we say about it.  It matters a great deal.  R. C. Sproul had to write a whole book about this, called, Getting the Gospel Right. More recently, Greg Gilbert wrote, What is the Gospel?, a book about getting the gospel right itself.  It seems a lot of good folks must not be getting it right.  I highly recommend both books, especially if you find the words to articulate the gospel hard to come by.

So next time you are interested in having a lot of passion for what you believe (and there's nothing wrong with that), take a cue from Christina...make sure you get the words right first.

The Last Vestige of Theology Around Christmas (Music!)

I've long been interested in hymns and their stories.  I have multiple iterations of those hymn-story books, and love reading about the origins and meanings of some of the hymns therein.  I especially enjoy reading about songs that are more than two hundred years old.

As Christmas season approaches, it isn't too hard to see that there is really little theology left in the holiday.  It has become secularized and commercialized (more of the latter, which results in the former, I think).  The last vestige of any theology outside church services is found in some of the Christmas music that has remained popular in spite of their lyrics.  Here's an example- I have XM/Sirius satellite radio in a couple of my vehicles, and I tune in to the couple of seasonal stations that they put up during the holidays.  One, called Holly, is really about as secular as it can get, and is new music, so I don't listen much.  The other, called Holiday Traditions, is more older stuff that we heard when I was a kid.  (But note, there is no Xmas hint in the station's title.)  The Holiday Traditions station plays a lot of secular seasonal music, but occasionally slips in a religious Christmas song, if it was performed by one of the greats (Crosby, Martin, Presley, etc.).  I heard Hark! The Herald Angels Sing yesterday.  Have you ever paid attention to the lyrics to that song?  The gospel is in there, and it can't be confused with any moralistic therapeutic deism, much less secular winter solstice worship.

Pete Scribner, over on his Sola Gratia blog (which I both follow and recommend), has just posted a couple of really neat posts about the song O Come, O Come Emmanuel. 

The first post of the pair is here, and the second is here. 

He talks about several aspects of this song, but also about how the real Christmas music works year-round, because it isn't oriented toward a holiday, but toward the gospel, at least the part of the gospel that is the incarnation of Christ.  I don't think the gospel orientation is why the songs have become traditions...if anything, the wording is offensive to secular culture and in many cases the lyrics get changed to fit the artist's taste (heard Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas lately?  It's not even a religious song, but the line, ...if the Lord allows has been changed to, ...if the fates allow.  And they say Calvinists are fatalists...).  I think R. C. Sproul got it right, in the video of the Q and A time at one of the Ligonier national conferences, when he points out that the high church music lasts because it is complex and strives to glorify God rather than be simple to perform; that's why the music has become a landmark.

But enough analysis.  Give these posts a read...they are worth the time taken as a devotional this time of year.

Getting Your Theology From Rap Music?

I've been listening to rap music, most of the time involuntarily, since the mid 80s. Not all rap was distasteful to me...I actually bought Run DMC's King of Rock (the vinyl LP version) in about '86, and owned a few others (Kurtis Blow, Fat Boys, etc.) back then. The rise of gansta rap (Cop Killa, etc.) in the 90s turned me off to the genre as a whole, and I mostly ignored it for the past 20 years, with the notable exception of DC Talk. One thing I thought for sure...I'd never use rap music to get theology to my kids.

Boy, was I wrong!

The recent arrival a new set of folks on the Christian rap scene has changed everything. I've heard some of their stuff recently and found the theology in the music was better than probably 70% of what I've heard from pulpits in churches in the last 10 years. Wow.

Here is a blog post from CT's Collin Hansen on the new groups, along with some links to recent songs/videos on YouTube. Don't blow these off...take a listen, and pay attention to the lyrics. They are gospel-centered, gospel-focused, and gospel-saturated in a way that makes Top 40 Christian Pop almost a waste of time.

Yes, I'm buying the new LaCrae album when it comes out on CD. You should, too.

Why 'Contemporary' as a Criterion is Not Helpful

"Why are there not signs outside churches that read: “Theologically Significant Worship,” or “Worship Appropriate to a Meeting between God and His Assembled People,” or “Worship That Is Literarily Apt and Thoughtful”? Why do the signs say “Contemporary Worship,” as though that criterion were itself worthy of promoting?"

That quote comes from the introduction to, "Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns" by T. David Gordon (can be found HERE).

It is an interesting thought...we put the term 'contemporary' on a lot of things without regard to what it means, and more importantly, what it doesn't mean. It's not just our music either. Historically, we used quite a few criteria for selecting our hymns, and in the same vein, our worship content. Gordon submits these criteria as historically important to the church-

> theologically orthodox lyrics
> theologically significant lyrics
> literarily apt and thoughful lyrics
> lyrics and music appropriate to a meeting between God and his people
> well-written music with regard to melody, harmony, rhythm, and form
> musical setting appropriate to the literary form

Then he says, appropriately, that only an arrogant generation could imagine that it could possibly replace and surpass (and render obsolete) all previous hymns with a new body of music. I agree.

We should seek to evaluate the worth of our music not with the label of 'new' or 'old' but with the consideration that it is gospel-centered and appropriate to the meeting of God and his people. Some contemporary music does these things well (consider, "In Christ Alone" for example). Some traditional music does not (consider, "The Savior is Waiting" as a classic example of B.A.D. traditional music). Even the idea of mixing contemporary music with traditional music (the so-called blended worship style) is a bad idea of the content is wishy-washy and not gospel-focused and God-glorifying (and yes, I have a problem with singing 'Jesus is your boyfriend' songs in worship...it is not God-glorifying but rather self-glorifying).

If you want to hear some good stuff, go HERE and listen to some samples of the T4G 08 conference music. I bought the CD, and I love it, along with my kids. That's how a worship service should sound.