Music Ministry?

All my life my Mother has been a church pianist/organist. I love listening to the words and the music of the old, standard hymns. Some of the old hymns are also really effective at teaching the Bible. I believe the old hymns have great value.

On the other hand my grandfather belonged to a Church of Christ that allowed no instruments beyond the human voice. The special, accapella music they sang at his funeral is still with me today. But I always have thought that banning all instruments is "a little uptight." I mean instruments and music are in the Bible, right? So what's the problem? Grumpy old-Farts?

Today, after visiting church after church, I see large portions of the services are built around mood music with self-aggrandizing lyrics. The music is often in a format that that is centered on the musicians rather than God. Many musical pieces involve repeating the same phrase repeatedly in a manner akin to chanting. Whether whipping the congregation into a frenzy or creating a calm serenity the music appears intended control and manipulate moods.

The average church service today has 2 to 7 minutes of God's Word followed by 15-25 minutes of illustration on that passage. We spend about 3 to 5 minutes of prayer and 3 to 5 minutes on announcements. The rest of the time, the majority of the time, is spent on music.

Y'know, there isn't much time for worship in today's worship service. I've really started to wonder if my grandfather's church didn't have it right.

Is it possible that banning musicians is the only way to curb the self-centeredness and ambition in music ministries? Have past generations found that banning musicians and music programs is the only way to curb this problem? In other periods in history the church has disallowed all music other than the singing of scripture. Was this a response to similar problems?

Or maybe I'm just ahead of the curve on my Old Fart Development program... I've always been outstanding in my field... (...me and Nebuchadnezzer, y-know!)

More soon...