With One Voice: Discovering Christ's Song in Our Worship

There is scarcely a more divisive topic in the area of Christian worship than music. Descriptive terms like "praise and worship," "contemporary," "traditional", or "sacred" have a way of getting under congregations' skins as each individual seeks to impose his own likes and dislikes on the entire church body. What is often forgotten in these disputes is the fact that Christ is supposed to be the center of the worship service, not our personal musical preferences. Reggie Kidd, in his book With One Voice, issues a manifesto of sanity to the music dilemma of the Church. Kidd explains how worship of the Savior can (and should) be accomplished using Bach, Bubba, and the Blues Brothers. There is a standard operating notion, when the subject is discussed, that classical music is the "high art" of the music world. We tend to easily dismiss the new in favor of the old, simply because it's new. While many churches are guilty of this belief, many others are also guilty of the opposite extreme: ignoring the old in favor of the new, simply because it is old. While it is beyond dispute that each individual in the Church has personal tastes and preferences that are unique to him, we must be acutely aware of these subjective inclinations when it comes to worshiping the triune God. How often have you heard someone say (or maybe even said it yourself!) that they "got nothing out of the church service." This simple declaration betrays a backwards understanding of why we gather together as a church body. If we get nothing out of a worship service, perhaps it was because we put nothing into it. Worship is not about us, it is about Him, and we must be constantly reminding ourselves of this basic fact. Finish reading this review here: http://christianreader.typepad.com/christian_reader/2009/05/bach-bubba-blues.html