December 17, 2003
Associated Baptist Press
The raging debate over worship music has surfaced in a most unlikely place – within the Churches of Christ, which bear the historical distinction of shunning all musical instruments in worship. Over the past two years, at least five major congregations associated with the Churches of Christ have added instruments to some worship services, according to the Christian Chronicle, a 60-year-old Church of Christ newspaper. The highest-profile case involves Oak Hills Church in San Antonio, Texas, a 3,800-member congregation led by pastor and best-selling author Max Lucado.
It is not yet known if those breaks from tradition signal the start of a sweeping change or "isolated tragedies" -- the description favored by Hardin University professor Flavil Yeakley. But they do illustrate the ages-old tension between making the gospel message "user friendly" and defending the purity of "the truth once delivered to the saints."
More than a century ago, Baptists, Methodists and Presbyterians fought the issue of instrumental worship to a resolution, remodeling their sanctuaries to accommodate organs and pianos. Since the Jesus Revolution of the 1960s, guitars, drums and amplifiers likewise have gained acceptance in many Protestant churches, as Christians adapted musical styles to the marketplace.
The Churches of Christ, claiming about 2 million adherents, is by far the largest fellowship prohibiting man-made instruments. But other smaller groups, such as Primitive Baptists, have resisted as well. The doctrine is based on the conviction that all congregational practices and structures should meticulously emulate the patterns of the New Testament, which reports nothing of musical instruments in worship. For the same reason, Churches of Christ shun denominational labels. There is no formal structure or authority to the Churches of Christ beyond the local congregation, and even the capitalized "C" is avoided in the name -- Churches of Christ -- assigned by religious demographers. More
Posted by acapnews at December 17, 2003 13:22 PM
