GYC 2007: Be

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Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC)

Bruce Ashton - Heavenly Harmony: Soaring to New Musical Heights

J. Bruce Ashton

This Mystery Called Music

And let me assure you that whoever picked the title for this series did not ask me.

I would love to think I'm going to talk to you about heavenly harmony.

And I am totally convinced that the heavenly harmony when we get there is going to be so different from anything we have ever experienced here that I couldn't begin to get you ready for that.

But I would like to talk about what we can do with music here.

And for that reason, I would encourage everybody except the 3 who are plugged into the wall back there, I understand, to get as close together as you feel like you can, because we sing better when we're together.

So move front, move in, move whatever, And we're going to start by singing the first thing on your handout.

The handout begins, you will notice, with a page of synopsis on the back of that.

I'm not going to play the music that's there.

I'm going to play a different piece, but you're going to sing the words that are there.

I had to get permission to duplicate just the words.

I'm going to play a tune that I think most of you know.

How many of you have ever sung For All the Saints?

Alright, so we're going to sing these words to the tune for all the saints.

It's the only other hymn in the book that they'll fit to.

When in our music God is glorified Creation leaves no room for pride 1 leaves no room for pride.

And did not Jesus sing a song that night, when utmost evil strove against the light?

O come all ye faithful, 1 God, 1 God, 1 God, 1 God, 1 God, 1 God, 1 God, ♪ Instrument be tuned for praise ♪ ♪ Let all rejoice who have a voice to raise ♪ ♪ And may God Give us faith to sing always, Alleluia, Alleluia.

Father in heaven, there's no point in our spending time here if it is not in worship and we worship with our minds as we learn and we worship with our hearts and we would worship with our voices also we pray that what is done here will be done because you want it done that through us you will do well that You will help us to know you better, and to know how to serve you better.

Thank you for this time that we get to spend talking together in Jesus' name.

If you have come here to get answers about how church music ought to be run.

I'm suggesting you turn your hand out in and go find another seminar.

I can't tell you how church music ought to be run.

What I really want to do is to get you to ask better questions.

Because an awful lot of what happens in church music never got questioned in the first place.

And I am, I hope, prepared to give you a reason for the beliefs that hold for me, that work for me, particularly about music and worship, since that's the context we're in.

But if you are thinking that you're going to go home Sunday morning with all the church music issues resolved, all I can say is, may the Holy Spirit guide you.

I get no credit for anything that big, and I'm not going to try.

Music is often called the universal language.

It's not the universal language at all because if it were any piece of music anywhere in the world should be accessible to me and I would understand it and know what it means and it's not true there are too many different musics And there are many people in the world who don't know what my music says.

It is not really a language in that sense at all.

We borrow concepts from language when we talk about music, just like we borrow concepts from space when we talk about music and when we talk about time.

But if we mean that the musical impulse is universal, then that's defensible.

As far as we know, there has never been a culture on earth that did not have some kind of music.

Historians have not found anybody that didn't have something musical in their circumstances.

So in that sense, doing music, being musical, is probably universal and is probably species-specific.

We don't know what the past music sounded like.

Once the music has stopped, There's nothing left.

Do you have any music in your hands there this morning?

Is there any music going on in this room right now?

And that stuff on the page, that's just black spots, reminders, we call them notes.

When a speaker gets up front, he has notes.

These notes are to remind you what you're going to sing, But they're not the music.

The music was what happens when we do it.

That's the experience that we need to be looking at.

I've been fascinated to read how diligently evolutionists work to come up with a basis for music.

Creationists don't have to worry about that problem.

There is a God who loves beauty and the God who loves beauty desires that everything that we experience in life partake of the same beauty that he enjoys he knows and we know that in this earth with the sinful circumstances that we brought upon ourselves that is not all beautiful but that's not his fault his job among other things is to restore the beauty and we are grateful for it my friend and erstwhile colleague mel west we were speaking about a few moments ago came fresh from a church board meeting 1 time, this was a long time back, or church planning session of some kind, I don't remember, and in a bit of a put-out mood he said, the biggest wonder in heaven is going to be that when the angels announce the opening song, everybody's going to say it was a good choice.

But I think there is a bigger wonder even back of that, and that is, Why music?

Why is music part of the human experience?

The Eleven O’Clock WHAT Hour?

Father in heaven we have sung praise to you.

We pray that you will help us also to know how to worship you with our minds, our heads.

May that be something we can learn together and study together during this hour.

Everything we've said so far about music has something to do with our humanness.

Ellen White talks about the birds making the air vocal with their happy melodies, and probably also staking out territories and households.

For those of us who believe that we are the magnificent product, and people, I'm going to emphasize that again, we do not have enough awe about our own bodies.

David had it figured out we are wonderfully and fearfully made.

For those of us who believe we are the magnificent product of an amazingly creative and loving mind, we therefore believe that we owe something to the owner of that great mind.

How does music fit in our lives if we are intentional about acknowledging the fact that we are creatures?

Is music an experience which is singular to our species?

Is there any manifestation of music beyond our planet?

How did music get to be part of what we are or who we are?

I'm going to start by reading you a portion of the introduction to Marva Dawn's second book.

And you will find if you look at the bibliography that I put highly recommended, very highly recommended beside these books.

Marva Dawn is a Lutheran writer, A woman who is a theologian, who has done pastoral work and has also done independent ministry of various sorts.

And her first book on the subject of worship was reaching out without dumbing down.

I looked at the title and I said I need to at least read this once.

And the fact is it is a marvelous, marvelous book.

My copy is so highlighted here and there, I can hardly read it anymore.

And she got such a response to that book that she wrote a second 1 entitled A Royal Waste of Time and that's also well worth it and both of these were surprises to her she had no idea she was going to write about worship the subject came to her attention she felt obliged Here's part of the introduction to her book, A Royal Waste, and waste is in quotes, okay?

To worship the Lord is in the world's eyes a waste of time.

It is indeed a royal waste of time, but a waste nonetheless.

By engaging in it, we do not accomplish anything useful in our society's terms.

Worship ought not to be construed in a utilitarian way.

Its purpose is not to gain numbers or for our churches to be seen as successful rather the entire reason for our worship is that God deserves it moreover it is not useful in earning points with God, for what we do in worship will not change 1 whit how God feels about us.

We will always still be helpless sinners caught in our endless inability to be what we should be or make ourselves better, and God will always still be merciful, compassionate, and gracious, abounding in steadfast love, and ready to forgive us as we come to Him.

But it is indeed royal, for it immerses us in the regal splendor of the King of the Cosmos.

The Church's worship provides opportunities for us to enjoy God's presence in corporate ways that take us out of time and into the eternal purposes of God's Kingdom.

God, on whom we are centered and to whom we submit will transform us by his revelation of himself.

To understand worship as a royal waste of time is good for us because it frees us to enter into the poverty of Christ.

We worship a triune God who chose to rescue the world He created by means of the way of humility.

God sent His Son into the world to empty Himself in the obedience of a slave, humbling Himself to suffer throughout his entire life and to die the worst of deaths on our behalf.

He did not come to be solving the world's problems in any sense that the world could understand.

Worship of such a God immerses us in such a way of life, empowered by a spirit who does not equip us with means of power or control, accomplishment or success, but with the ability and the humility to waste time in the love of our neighbor.

If all of worship is God-centered, what makes us think that God cares to have any music involved in our worship service?

Does music in worship, is it somehow God-ordained, or is it just a human idea that we stuck in there because it makes us feel better?

Does the fact that worship is a royal waste of time justify adding on the trappings of royalty?

Which would include high culture or folk culture or any culture or company manners or good dress or whatever else?

It would seem that a church whose primary scriptural mandate is to fear God and give glory to him and worship him that made should have a clear, consistent, intentional theology of worship.

Where did we get our picture of the proper things to include or exclude from our corporate gatherings?

It may be of interest also that we still have no really adequate theology of music.

The reasons, I think, are a little more interesting and somewhat more complex.

I'd like to talk about it briefly, because this lack of a theology of music is a concern of mine.

I didn't know the name Charlie Peacock at all until I read Dr.

Bakayoki's book, The Christian Rock Music.

I gather Charlie Peacock is 1 of the brighter lights in what's called the contemporary Christian music movement.

He is an award-winning recording artist, producer, and songwriter.

I assure you that my ignorance says a lot more about me than it says about him.

I learned by typing his name in the iTunes search window that he had at least 150 items that I could buy for 99 cents a piece, if I chose.

And I listened to some of the 30-second sound samples that you can have before you buy, and I found them less interesting than a quotation on page 162 of Dr.

Bakayoki's book, which is taken from Charlie Peacock, a book entitled At the Crossroads, which book I also wanted to get a copy and read.

Peacock said, quote, What is missing from contemporary Christian music is a comprehensive theology of music in general and a theology of CCM artistry, industry and audience in particular.

In order to begin to rethink contemporary Christian music, we will first have to recognize the necessity of developing a comprehensive theology.

Interesting words from an interesting source.

He continues, without God's thoughts and God's ways, we are left with our own dim and insufficient ideas.

If we willfully choose to neglect the work of building truthful theologies for our callings, we will find ourselves waving goodbye to the brightness which illuminates life.

We will find ourselves stumbling blindly down the way which seems right to a man, but leads to nothing but darkness." Heavy words, whether you're thinking CCM or Adventist Church.

I do not have the time or any particular interest to supply his lack of a theology for CCM.

I do have a very strong conviction, however, that most of the tensions which surface in our church about the worship of God arise because we do not have a credible theology of music, either music in general or church music.

I've talked with someone who was on the committee that at least came up with the philosophy of music, and I talked about the theology of music and said, write it quick, Write it quick, we've been trying for years.

But I have some pretty good ideas why it hasn't happened.

I'd like to suggest some, because while I don't think we can excuse the fact, we may be able to explain it somewhat.

There's a difference between a reason and an excuse.

First of all, theology is a rigorously structured, highly involved discipline.

I went to the dictionary to find out what theology is, and it says, a usually four-year course of specialized religious training in a Roman Catholic major seminary.

From experience I can tell you that the study of music is also a powerfully complex full-time occupation which nobody I know would consider adequately treated in 4 years at any stage in your life.

What’s So Yucky About Hymns?

By my watch, it's time to start, so let's start.

I would like to start by having you sing the third of the songs that is in your sheet, which should be the front side of about the third page.

And it should say, How Firm a Foundation, if I'm at the right place.

Even before we sing it, I am going to point out that I'm trying to teach a lesson by example as it happens we have how firm a foundation same tune in the church hymnal And I wanted to make a copy and hand it out.

That particular arrangement is under copyright.

Now I happen to know the man that owns the copyright, but I haven't talked to him for a long time.

I would have had to find his phone number, call him up, get permission.

So I looked around and I found in the Baptist hymnal they have the same tune in a setting that isn't copyright.

So it doesn't look like an Adventist hymnal page, although there's not that much difference.

This 1 happens to be from the Baptist Seminal, but it's not a copyright version.

Church choirs are probably the worst offenders in all of America.

If you don't own it, you don't have a right to sing it.

So, here is How Firm a Foundation, 1 of the most marvelous uplifting hymns, the ones that the students in my class almost always pick from the list of things that they're supposed to learn.

The firm affirmation, ye saints of the Lord.

He has laid for your faith in his excellent word.

What more can he say than to you he hath said, O you unto Jephthah, Jesus hath led.

Fear not, I am with thee, obey not, dismay, for I am thy God and will still give thee aid.

I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand, Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

William, through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, Thy grace, so sufficient will be thy supply.

The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design ♪ ♪ Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine ♪ ♪ All that on Jesus the flame foreclose ♪ ♪ I will not, I will not desire to dispose ♪ And they left out a verse.

Father in heaven, what a magnificent assurance that we cannot be put in a situation where you will not go with us.

That you do not send us into trial, that when necessary you lead us into trial.

But wherever we are, we are in your hands, and you are there with us.

For this we praise you, and we ask for your guidance and blessing as we think together about the ways we can praise you this afternoon.

Pretty much throughout the second half of the 20th century, hymns have suffered a major decline in popularity, even in some circles in acceptability.

So here are my first 8 ideas about why people have not sung hymns as much lately.

Number 1, It may be just a kind of a normal cycle sort of thing.

Like those who don't believe in global warming would like to tell us it's just a matter of going around again, not a serious issue.

Any look at the history of hymn singing in the Christian church will show you anything but a straight line.

It has not been constant progression up, constant progression down, or constant flat.

I think there may be a decline in seriously invested, accompanying musicians.

Any of you know the name Seaborne Becker?

Any of you who heard Andrews and heard him lead song services?

Now I know he wasn't the 1 up there at the pulpit, he was the 1 at the organ and he could make a congregation sing like I have not heard very many other places and he could build you up and he could set you down gently and he could take you to a spiritual climax with nothing but the pipes of his organ brilliant brilliant musician brilliant church musician there aren't a whole lot of them left, there are some, yes, not saying he was the only 1 but he certainly was a figure who taught many others and his heart was singing through his fingers and his feet he would have been as influential if he had not had it in his heart first it can be done on the piano also, it doesn't have to be organ but it does require a Christian who cares and who thinks.

Number 3, there seems to have been somewhat of a decline in available accompanists, period.

When I was growing up, taking the piano was everybody's, every child's job.

Well, not every child, you know, but a great majority.

My aunt was a music teacher in Worthington, Ohio, and many of the neighborhood children were in there taking lessons, and they got to where they could play for song service.

And I find that the percentage of young people doing the same now is considerably smaller.

Maybe there just aren't people to do the job.

Number 4, our culture does not invite us to sing.

By and large, we are not a singing culture.

I don't care whether you go to the symphony concert or the ball game, whenever they do the national anthem, what percentage of the audience sings?

And I wonder how many of those who can sing the national anthem can still sing Take Me Out to the Ball Game or Let Me Call You Sweetheart or any 1 of Oodles' songs that the last generation knew, just knew inside, because they sang them.

On the boat ride, when Southern's faculty would go getting together for a social occasion, we could sit and sing for 40 minutes songs everybody knew.

Some of those songs haven't come through lately.

Part of the reason for that, I think, is the fact that we keep getting better and better performances available for our listening, not singing.

I can Remember the days of old 78 records, shellac records.

And then the vinyl LPs, which most of you still don't know how to run, but that's all right.

And then cassettes came and went, and CDs, who knows how long they'll be around, and iPods.

Why should we bother to sing everybody else's singing?

Part of it comes also from changes in taste foisted on us by the producers of all of these CDs and iPods.

The stuff that's out there to sing is not all as singable as on top of Old Smokey was, or White Christmas, or How Far From the Foundation, even.

Number 5, I think maybe there's been a change in the general attitudes of society in the shadow of the atomic bomb, which was all through the Cold War, under the threat of another 9-11, with a whole lot more global orientation making us more aware of the invisible children of Darfur, of whatever.

Maybe we just haven't got the heart to sing anymore.

And I think our culture has responded somewhat.

Number 6, there's a decline, I think, in the universality of vocal training.

I talked about kids taking piano lessons.

There aren't as many kids taking voice lessons anymore.

I remember, it was a standard scenario 50 years ago in funny movies for the family.

The teenage girl who had to get up and do her recital and was hanging from the drapes because she was so scared and so on.

It's an experience a lot of people never had.

We haven't studied vocal culture to the same extent, perhaps, that happened in the past.

And Furthermore, if you've got a lollipop you can hold in front of you like this, you don't really have to sing well anyway, because the microphone will take care of it all, and you can sing as badly as you want, and nobody cares.

Number 7, I think we are a less poetic generation than in the past.

How many of you know Jack be nimble, Jack be quick?

I have students in my Music in the Christian Church class, when I come up with nursery rhymes, they say, huh?

Five Names You Deserve to Know

Father in Heaven, we've been having a good time singing.

Not all of us came and sang the last hour.

But we have things that we want to say to you.

We have things that we need to learn about.

How to approach you, how to talk to you, how the people of the past have come to you and express themselves in ways that also resonate with us we ask for wisdom we ask for your grace we ask for direction and understanding and give ourselves to you for this hour of learning in jesus name You don't have to be a physicist to recognize the name Isaac Newton or Albert Einstein.

You don't have to be an artist to have heard of Michelangelo or Claude Monet.

You don't have to be a musician to know the least there was such a fellow as Johann Sebastian Bach or Ludwig van Beethoven.

Others besides historians can identify Abraham Lincoln or Charlemagne.

Others besides medical personnel have heard of Florence Nightingale and Ben Carson.

Others besides naturalists know about John James Audubon and John Muir.

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Bruce Ashton - Heavenly Harmony: Soaring to New Musical Heights

The Crossroads of Church and Culture

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