This is a topic about which I feel very strongly. I recently had the privilege of presenting on this topic to a group of WELS teachers at the teachers’ conference hosted by St. John’s and St. Mark’s the end of September. Here are some highlights from that presentation.
“Developing.” Teaching children to listen to and perform music with thoughtful, deep understanding is not a random process. It is a carefully sequenced process, requiring thoughtful planning by an entire school faculty, even a whole congregation. There is much research on the appropriate sequence to follow when teaching music. (See below.)
“Musicianship.” Just as a good school aims to produce students who use language intuitively, creatively, and effectively, so also a good school (and congregation) strives to produce students who use music intuitively, creatively, and effectively. And, in fact, research shows that the process of music-learning follows the same sequence as language learning.
“In ALL students.” Music is God’s gift to all people, and he integrated it into every aspect of his creation. Great or small, every student’s musical potential deserves to be maximized, to the glory of the One who gave that musical gift. Unlike American society, we don’t just glorify the performers given a large gift. A small musical gift deserves to be developed, too.
“Active learning.” Music learning is best learned in a very active environment. Music and movement are largely inseparable, and active learning is nearly always more meaningful than passive learning. As a creative art, young musicians must have the opportunity to create and experiment, both individually and in groups.
“Sequential instruction.” Just as in language learning, parents and teachers must immerse children in the sounds and movement of music to build a strong foundation. Next, children must have the opportunity to experiment with their voices and bodies and discover how to make different sounds. Next, reading music is built on these foundations, and finally musical theory enhances the understanding already developed.
“Constructivist learning.” Just as in other areas of the school curriculum, students need to be given many opportunities to make decisions about and take ownership in their music making. The teacher’s role is largely that of facilitator, guiding students into discovering the wonders of God’s creation of music, especially its power to carry God’s Word to the human heart.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
How do we balance “tradition” and “reformation”?
Worship FAQs, part 8 – How do we balance “tradition” and “reformation”?
To help answer our question this month, I will share selected quotes from pages 58-60 of Marva J. Dawn’s book about worship titled Reaching Out without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time.
“Tradition, along with its correlative authority, was once one of the strongest sinews that held Western society together. …
“[Quoting David Wells]’Tradition is the process whereby one generation inducts its successor into its accumulated wisdom. The family once served as the chief conduit for this transmission, but the family is now collapsing, not merely because of divorce, but as a result of affluence and the innovations of a technological age. … [Mass media and technology] now provide the sorts of values that were once provided by the family. And public education … has also contracted out of this business, pleading that it has an obligation to be value-neutral. So it is that in the new civilization that is emerging, children are lifted away from the older values like anchorless boats on a rising tide.’
“In its desire to hold on to the traditions of its faith and to pass them on carefully, the Church is, to some extent, alien to this new civilization. …
“The Christian faith has always been odd … However, when churches … [become] completely alien to the culture in sticking to traditions or celebrating them in ways irrelevant to normal life – then Christians separate themselves from the world in a [way that] … prevents ministry to the culture from which they remove themselves.
“[Opposite tradition] is the need constantly to revitalize the tradition, to express the heritage of the faith in new worship forms that are accessible to the world around the Church. The primary key for holding the two … together is education – teaching the gifts of the faith tradition to those who do not yet know and understand them and teaching those who love the heritage some new forms in which it can be presented to others.
“To accent either … without the other is to lose them both. To utilize only new worship forms without connections to the past heritage is to isolate only a few years out of the 3,500-year history of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Reformation always returns to and deepens the gifts of the original. On the other hand, without reformation the tradition becomes distorted, stale, or dead – or an idolatry.
“[Let us] balance … tradition and revitalization, old and new. [Let us] preserve the tradition of faith without letting it become … inaccessible. [Let us also] participate in the present culture without thereby losing our soul.”
To help answer our question this month, I will share selected quotes from pages 58-60 of Marva J. Dawn’s book about worship titled Reaching Out without Dumbing Down: A Theology of Worship for This Urgent Time.
“Tradition, along with its correlative authority, was once one of the strongest sinews that held Western society together. …
“[Quoting David Wells]’Tradition is the process whereby one generation inducts its successor into its accumulated wisdom. The family once served as the chief conduit for this transmission, but the family is now collapsing, not merely because of divorce, but as a result of affluence and the innovations of a technological age. … [Mass media and technology] now provide the sorts of values that were once provided by the family. And public education … has also contracted out of this business, pleading that it has an obligation to be value-neutral. So it is that in the new civilization that is emerging, children are lifted away from the older values like anchorless boats on a rising tide.’
“In its desire to hold on to the traditions of its faith and to pass them on carefully, the Church is, to some extent, alien to this new civilization. …
“The Christian faith has always been odd … However, when churches … [become] completely alien to the culture in sticking to traditions or celebrating them in ways irrelevant to normal life – then Christians separate themselves from the world in a [way that] … prevents ministry to the culture from which they remove themselves.
“[Opposite tradition] is the need constantly to revitalize the tradition, to express the heritage of the faith in new worship forms that are accessible to the world around the Church. The primary key for holding the two … together is education – teaching the gifts of the faith tradition to those who do not yet know and understand them and teaching those who love the heritage some new forms in which it can be presented to others.
“To accent either … without the other is to lose them both. To utilize only new worship forms without connections to the past heritage is to isolate only a few years out of the 3,500-year history of the Judeo-Christian tradition. Reformation always returns to and deepens the gifts of the original. On the other hand, without reformation the tradition becomes distorted, stale, or dead – or an idolatry.
“[Let us] balance … tradition and revitalization, old and new. [Let us] preserve the tradition of faith without letting it become … inaccessible. [Let us also] participate in the present culture without thereby losing our soul.”
Why do worship music styles have to change?
Worship FAQs, part 7b – Why do worship music styles have to change?
“Sing a new song to the Lord!” exhorted the Psalmist. Of all the elements of the public worship of God’s Church, our new song and the Lord’s Supper alone will endure beyond this life.
So what is the Christian Church’s new song—our new song? In the context (Psalm 96 and 98), it is clear the Psalmist’s “new song” is defined primarily by the content and message of the song, rather than by its musical style. The Psalmist’s new song, flowing from a heart of faith, celebrated that God’s promise of the Messiah who would save all people from their sins was as good as done, eternal life in heaven was certain, and the “old song” of the condemnation of God’s law and the hopelessness of our human condition was obsolete. The “new song” is the Gospel message!
This Gospel is also our new song. “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!” This new song fills our voices and lives as we proclaim it to the world around us. It connects us with believers of all times and places, including those already singing it around the heavenly throne.
The Psalm verse has a secondary meaning, though, in that the Psalmist had just written a new Psalm for God’s people to sing. God’s people have always found it beneficial to write new song texts (always “to tell the old, old story”) and new musical settings (sometimes in new musical styles), as part of the ongoing renewal and reformation that is always necessary in the Christian Church on earth. This happens very naturally, as poets and composers, with God’s Word in their thoughts and faith in their hearts, sit down to write new songs for God’s Church in their specific time and place.
One of the marvelous things about God’s created gift of music is the immense variety possible. And God’s people throughout history have very naturally put the Church’s new song into nearly every musical style. In most cases, this has proven beneficial for the mission of the church in those times and places. Missionaries do the same as they work with local believers to utilize musical styles familiar to their mission prospects.
Will some popular musical styles of today prove beneficial in our worship? If we follow the natural pattern of renewal and reformation that has continued throughout the history of the church, then yes. If we are to show concern for the multitudes around us who know very little beyond popular culture, then yes. To what degree? And how quickly? These are difficult questions to answer, and I hope in any new songs to be written and sung, we make wise choices in service first and foremost to the new song of salvation and not to our personal preferences or popular opinion.
“Sing a new song to the Lord!” exhorted the Psalmist. Of all the elements of the public worship of God’s Church, our new song and the Lord’s Supper alone will endure beyond this life.
So what is the Christian Church’s new song—our new song? In the context (Psalm 96 and 98), it is clear the Psalmist’s “new song” is defined primarily by the content and message of the song, rather than by its musical style. The Psalmist’s new song, flowing from a heart of faith, celebrated that God’s promise of the Messiah who would save all people from their sins was as good as done, eternal life in heaven was certain, and the “old song” of the condemnation of God’s law and the hopelessness of our human condition was obsolete. The “new song” is the Gospel message!
This Gospel is also our new song. “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again!” This new song fills our voices and lives as we proclaim it to the world around us. It connects us with believers of all times and places, including those already singing it around the heavenly throne.
The Psalm verse has a secondary meaning, though, in that the Psalmist had just written a new Psalm for God’s people to sing. God’s people have always found it beneficial to write new song texts (always “to tell the old, old story”) and new musical settings (sometimes in new musical styles), as part of the ongoing renewal and reformation that is always necessary in the Christian Church on earth. This happens very naturally, as poets and composers, with God’s Word in their thoughts and faith in their hearts, sit down to write new songs for God’s Church in their specific time and place.
One of the marvelous things about God’s created gift of music is the immense variety possible. And God’s people throughout history have very naturally put the Church’s new song into nearly every musical style. In most cases, this has proven beneficial for the mission of the church in those times and places. Missionaries do the same as they work with local believers to utilize musical styles familiar to their mission prospects.
Will some popular musical styles of today prove beneficial in our worship? If we follow the natural pattern of renewal and reformation that has continued throughout the history of the church, then yes. If we are to show concern for the multitudes around us who know very little beyond popular culture, then yes. To what degree? And how quickly? These are difficult questions to answer, and I hope in any new songs to be written and sung, we make wise choices in service first and foremost to the new song of salvation and not to our personal preferences or popular opinion.
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