Christmas Music and the Whole Church Music Controversy

I enjoy Christmas music. It seems that every year, the average radio station will play a variety of Christmas Songs:

• They’ll play Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs performed by their original artists.
• They’ll play Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs performed by newer artists.
• They’ll play Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs redone with a new tune by newer artists.
• They’ll play new Christmas songs performed by newer artists.

 

Usually, most people are accepting of each of these. There are pros and cons to each of these as well.

• Some Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs are performed better by the original artists, some are actually performed better by the newer artists.
• Some artists have done phenomenal remakes of Christmas carols and traditional Christmas songs, while others have not.
• Some new Christmas songs are so-so and others are really good.

 

Now let’s think about Christian music. It seems you have 2 major camps. There are some who want almost nothing except Traditional Hymns and others who want almost nothing but Contemporary Songs. It is rare to find a Church that has an equal mix of both types.

 

Could I suggest we consider Church Christian Songs and Hymns as we do Christmas Songs?

• Why not have some Traditional Hymns played in their traditional format?
• Why not have some Traditional Hymns played with newer / contemporary instruments?
• Why not have some Traditional Hymns redone with newer / contemporary tunes?
• Why not have some Contemporary songs?

 

I see that there is truly a need for this type of balance. If Christmas music is acceptable by most as we described it above, why wouldn’t this approach to Christian Hymns and Contemporary songs also be acceptable?

 

Oh, and what constitutes the right music? Colossians 3:16 tells us, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

 

Let me repeat that verse with some commentary:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another …”

     Traditional Hymns do a great job with this.

“…in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…”

     Psalms and Hymns are like Traditional Hymns; Spiritual Songs are like Contemporary Songs.

“singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.”

     Contemporary Songs do a great job with this.

 

So, as I see it, we need a good mix of both.

Is technology actually hindering us?

No, this is not another blog about how we need to get rid of technology or use it less. I am not an advocate for abolishing technology. I use a smartphone, I have internet, and I am on sites like Facebook and Twitter. I see that it has great benefit and enjoy doing my best to take advantage of those benefits.

Yet, here’s something that I think we should consider.

Some use technology to build their own “little world” and seem to stay in that “little world” even if they don’t mean to do so. Here are some examples:

Years ago, if you went to a gym, the only music you could listen to was what the gym was playing. Now most people bring their own music and earphones (using their smartphone, ipod, generic mp3 players, etc). By doing so they make their “little world” consist of themselves, their music, and whatever is immediately in front of them. I recently saw this when a guy at the gym exchanged greetings with me. However, immediately after saying he said “hi,” I asked if he would mind if I turned on the main radio. He answered the question by the fact that he didn’t hear the question since he was listening to his ipod.

Years ago, we didn’t have cell phones and text messaging. Now people do, and many seem addicted to either talking on them or texting on them. Oftentimes, when I’m waiting for something out in public, riding public transportation, or things such as that, I notice that many around me are on their cell phones, talking or texting. By doing so they make their “little world” consist of themselves and the person to whom they are actively communicating to on the cell phone. I’ve even heard of some who have been on their phone in a store while ringing up their groceries. If that wasn’t bad enough, they then got annoyed with the cashier since they had to stop their cell phone conversation to finish paying for their items.

Could I also play music through my smartphone and earphones when I go the gym? Yes. Could I also text someone or talk with someone on the phone while I wait for something in a public place? Yes. But I choose not to so that I can have more opportunities to engage in conversations.

Instead of letting cell phones and the like trap us in a “little world,” put it down, pause it, and look around at the “big world” we live in. Say more than hi to someone. Start a conversation with someone. Perhaps after you get home, while listening to your music, you can then call or text that person you normally would and let them know about the new person you met and the interesting conversation you had with them.


PS – Adding to this pet peeve is the fact that all of this also hinders the sharing of the Gospel. If we cannot start a conversation with the person, since they are constantly on their ipods or cell phones, how can we share the good news of the Gospel? If anyone has any ideas on how we can better reach people who are in their own “little world” with the Gospel, please let me know. You can even leave it in the comments below.

Day 12 – Check it out!

Ok, after eleven semi-earth shattering mini-blogs, I am hard pressed to come up with a twelfth one. I could write about how our door-to-door Christmas Caroling has its roots in Wassailing (which wasn’t always the cleanest/nicest). Or I could write about how other traditional Christmas things have pagan roots (Yule Log, 8 Reindeer, mistletoe, etc). But instead, let me take this blog to encourage you to do something:

 

No matter what we read or hear, we need to check things out for ourselves and discover the truth. Many of us hear stories about the song the 12 Days of Christmas and the Candy Cane as both having Christian roots. But as we saw earlier in the blogs, if we check them out, we find out that it’s not true.

 

Sometimes throughout the year, we’ll get emails about things that may or may not be true. Again, we must check them out. Could I suggest that before we pass on an email that has a story that sounds too good to be true (positive or negative), that we check them out first? Websites such as snopes.com and wikipedia.com are good resources.

 

Although I am not opposed to coming up with creative ways to segue into witnessing and telling others about Jesus, we must not promote lies. If we promote a lie to promote the gospel; once the lie is exposed, the person may not believe the truth about Jesus. That would be a travesty.

 

(Here’s another great blog about Christmas origins: http://m.relevantmagazine.com/god/deeper-walk/features/27647-stealing-christmas-).

Day 11 – The Religious Roots of the 12 Days of Christmas?

This Christmas, a friend of mine heard on the radio that the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” was originally written to teach some truths about Christianity. This got me curious and so I decided to look this up. I discovered 2 interesting things:

First, there was a song called “In Those Twelve Days” which was written to help teach the catechism. This song was written to coincide with the 12 Days of Christmas (the days, not the song). It includes things such as 1 God, 2 parts of the Bible (OT and NT), 3 in the Trinity (Father, Son, Spirit), 4 Gospels, 5 books of Moses, 6 Days of Creation, etc.

Second, the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” was not written for that purpose. Perhaps many have mixed up these two songs, since they both have to do with 12 Days of Christmas.

With that said, we as Christians can think about the parts of “In Those Twelve Days” whenever we read or sing “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” We can also use it as a teaching tool for Christianity, like the song “In Those Twelve Days.” However, let’s be careful not to mix up the origins of these two songs.

Here’s a link to the snopes.com article about the songs:
http://snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp

Day 10 - Candy Cane story?

At Christmastime, many share the story about the Candy Cane. But actually I don’t like the story at all…and for a good reason!

The story is told about how the candy cane was invented by a candy maker who wanted to make candy that would symbolize the true meaning of Christmas. The hard candy was shaped like a " J " to stand for Jesus. The candy was white, that stands for the pureness of Jesus, and the red represents the blood that Jesus shed to save us from our sins.

It may be neat to say that to us it can symbolize all of that, but to say that the story is true is simply a lie.
I don’t care for the story because it is not true.

And if we as Christians spread lies about the Candy Cane like this, couldn’t that lead some to believe we are lying about Christ’s birth, death, burial, resurrection, and being the payment for our sins – you know, the gospel message?

Here’s a link to the snopes.com article about the tale: http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/candycane.asp

Day 9 - Why do we give gifts?

Don’t get me wrong, who doesn’t like to give or get gifts, especially at Christmas?! But why do we do it?

Some say it’s because God gave His greatest gift – His Son – at Christmas.
Other say it’s because the Magi brought gifts to Christ.
While we can certainly say that Christmas’ gift-giving reminds us of God’s gift or of the Magi’s gifts, the real reason we give gifts is because of a pagan holiday.

Below is part of an article from Wikipedia explaining the origin in the celebration of Saturnalia, how the church banned gift giving, and how we’ve now redefined it:

“The exchanging of gifts is one of the core aspects of the modern Christmas celebration, making the Christmas season the most profitable time of year for retailers and businesses throughout the world. Gift giving was common in the Roman celebration of Saturnalia, an ancient festival which took place in late December and may have influenced Christmas customs. Christmas gift giving was banned by the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages due to its suspected pagan origins. It was later rationalized by the Church on the basis that it associated St. Nicholas with Christmas, and that gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh were given to the infant Jesus by the Biblical Magi.”

Day 8 - The Need to Celebrate Christmas

A cousin of mine has gotten some heat recently for stating that, although he’s a Christian, he doesn’t celebrate Christmas. To some, this is blasphemous. But as we already pointed out, Christmas (Dec. 25) is not really the date of Christ’s birth.

Here are some of the things he has pointed out about Christmas:

“Nowhere in scripture are Christians commanded to celebrate the birth of Christ. I challenge anyone to find a scriptural reference to the First Century Church celebrating Christmas. In fact, two of the four canonized gospels don't even mention the birth of Jesus.

“By contrast, the followers of Christ are admonished to observe two things: Communion and Baptism. All other feasts, festivals, and observances are entirely optional (see Colossians 2:16).”

So, if they didn’t celebrate Christmas, did they celebrate anything?
Well, we know that Jesus was at the Temple at Hanukkah at least once (John 10:22-23). So I would imagine that the Jewish Christians would have still celebrated Hanukkah.

(For more of my cousin Ken’s thoughts on Christmas, please see his blog http://random-ken.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-really-dont-like-christmas.html)

Day 7 - December 25 is Christ’s Birth?

Like many, every year my family celebrates the Birth of Christ on December 25. This is when most traditionally celebrate it. But is this when Jesus was actually born?

According to Luke chapter 2, the shepherds were abiding in their fields. This was most likely in the spring time.

So, how did we get the date of December 25? Well, when the Church wanted to set a day, they saw that many in the world were celebrating a pagan holiday on December 25 and decided to give the Christians an alternate celebration for that day – the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

You can find more info from the snopes.com article: http://snopes.com/holidays/christmas/jesus.asp

Yet, despite this, we still can (and my family will) celebrate Christ’s birth on Christmas (Dec. 25).