Dear Friend,
We at CCC are so very thankful to have many gifted musical members of the body of Christ here. We believe that we can use everyone whom God has gifted and feels called to join in serving Him and praising Him in song. We have several ways for someone to serve: Sunday morning praise team, media team, sound team and the choir. We believe that music has been, is now, and always will be (even in heaven), a way of lifting our voices as a body of Christ to give praise and exalt His Name. We believe music is a universal language or tool for all God’s children to use to worship Him. Our Sunday morning services are not designed to only be “contemporary” in nature, nor are they designed to only be “traditional.” Rather we seek a blended format with music that reflects differing times and styles – as much as we are capable of singing. We attempt to praise Him with music that is centered on God and familiar to the larger population of brothers and sisters in Christ throughout America.
Musical preferences have become in our day deeply personal, almost as much as politics and football teams. What someone prefers in the type of music they listen to can often be influenced by what they grew up listening to, among other factors. Some views about music can be narrowed to one type; others include all types of musical genres in keeping with one’s personal tastes and love of music.
At CCC we believe that there is no such thing as a time period of sacred music. It has been written many times that most people who believe in one type of music being “sacred” always refer back to their denomination’s hymnal with songs from about 100 years earlier. So for example, in the days of Martin Luther, John and Charles Wesley or William Booth – who are all on record as getting melodies from taverns and writing words that glorify God to those tunes – the songs they wrote would be considered “sacred hymns” by some today. By the way, the only reason they went to taverns is because those were mostly considered as meeting places, not bars. Those were places where the public at large went to listen to music, as they had no radios and no “top 40” countdowns.
Some have argued that worship music during the Reformation Era began with John Walther (1496-1570) and Ludwig Senfl (1480-1555). Both men did much to promote the type of singing in which the whole congregation took part. During the Reformation around 1500 A.D., we know that Martin Luther wrote songs to inspire a remarkable expression of faith and praise. Walther in 1524 developed and published a hymnal written from folk songs (from taverns) that could be sung by a congregation of people. Senfl wrote Chorale arrangements that were later finished by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).
Booth, Luther, both Wesleys, Senfl, Walther, all took melodies of their time and wrote inspirational words. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, is quoted as saying, “why should the devil have all the good melodies”. It is humorous to me that many of them were ridiculed by some of the religious people of that time, just as today you hear ridicule of some of the contemporary music of this time.
One could try to argue then that we may have to go back even further, perhaps to the time of King David, to get to the real sacred music. I wish I could find a recording of it.
Praise the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet, praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and dancing, praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals, praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD. Praise the LORD.
(Psa 150 NIV)
As your Pastor of Worship and Music, I do not have all the answers about music and worship, but this I do know, I have a personal relationship with the God of the Universe and I believe He certainly knows our hearts and seeks out those who will worship him “in Spirit and in truth.”
The Elders and Ministry Staff throughout this church’s history have not tried to isolate or promote only one kind of musical style, so as to only appeal to a certain type of worshipper. We simply want to praise God with people who are tolerant of a variety of musical preferences, in a spirit of grace, who want to praise God as a unified body of Christ. We will not all look alike, be the same age, or wear the same style of dress. At CCC, we want to learn to be a church that says, “Come one and all, just as you are. Jesus wants to meet you right where you are.”
So for us at CCC, we will honor the great inspirational songs that cross a variety of time periods for as long as we have breath to praise Him, seeking to give Him all the glory, honor, and praise. And so you may hear an old hymn as well as the most recent worship song. But in everything, we strive to give of our very best to our Lord in terms of excellence in music and lyrics. We are not interested in highlighting individual performances, yet we seek to give God our very best efforts, knowing that it’s more about Him than us. And in areas where musically we fall short, we believe that God is filled with grace and judges the intent of the heart.
It is with great passion and fervor that we play every song we can muster with great skill so as to encourage and inspire the praises of His people across all generations, no matter what individual preferences may be.
Beethoven once said “to please a congregation is simple. Just never play a song too fast or too slow, too loud or too softly”.
And we do……….Fast…..Slow…..Loud……Soft……..
May God bless you,
Bill Small
Associate Pastor of Worship & Music