239. Hyles Church Manual Examined - Part 5 - Music - Is It Worship or Manipulation?

Again, we are continuing our series through The House Church Manual, and today we're getting something that's probably caused more Baptist fights in, uh, churches, uh, other than the color of the church carpet, the thermostats, or the business meetings all combined.

Uh, we're talking today about church music.

Uh, and just like some of the other chapters we've covered, I wanna say at the beginning there's quite a bit here that we don't have a problem with.

Like, there's some good things House says that church musicians ought to prepare.

Um, he thinks that the choir should practice, instruments should be tuned, services should start on time, congregational singing should matter.

Um, he says that people sh- involved in music ministry should take singing, uh, should, should take it seriously.

They should, they should do the right thing.

A- and Brett, I don't think that, uh, I'm gonna argue with m- any of that.

I, I believe that all those things are good practical advice, uh, when it comes to the philosophy of music.

Um, and I think it deserves some attention.

And House tells us what is almost immediately here, he opens the chapter by talking about the emotional power of music.

He tells about a friend who managed a cafeteria and supposedly demonstrated that when the organist played a slow waltz, people moved through the food line more slowly.

And when the organist switched to a march, everyone started moving faster with the realization that the music was influencing them.

House then said that a music in a preaching service is either a vitamin or a tranquilizer.

Uh, it was either a stimulant or a sedative, and that church musicians needed to know how to use music to prepare the congregation and the preacher for the message.

Now that's an interesting way to begin a chapter on church music, because before he ever tells us what songs to sing, he's telling us that music has the power to influence people, uh, to influence their behaviors, their emotions, uh, without even realizing it.

So I think that there are some questions that we need to come back to throughout this episode, episode.

One of them is, are we using music to help people worship God, or are we using music to pro- produce a particular response from people?

Exactly.

You know, and I think that's, uh, I think we need to make a distinction right there, because House is correct in the basic fact that music affects emotion.

I mean, anybody who's ever watched a movie understands that.

I mean, take the soundtrack out of a horror movie and half of it isn't scary anymore.

You know, put the Jaws music behind me as I'm going through the grocery store and people think that something terrible is about to happen.

So music affects us emotionally.

And listen, emotion isn't bad.