One In Jesus

Now, all that being said, I have trouble seeing the Churches of Christ remaining a cappella for another 100 years. There are some very good reasons to seriously consider picking up a guitar or violin.

First, we live in a world where a cappella music is nearly unheard of. It’s always created a barrier to the unchurched, just because it’s so unusual, and the barrier is getting greater every year.

Teens and college students can’t go anywhere without their iPods. Kids burn their own CDs of downloaded music and swap them. The whole youth culture is centered on music, almost all of it instrumental.

While I’m very comfortable in an a cappella service, I can’t let my comfort–and preference–hurt my ability to seek and save the lost. Continue reading →

Church leaders considering having two different worship styles, whether instrumental or not, in two separate services have to wrestle with the risk of effectively creating two congregations that share a common building. If one service is traditional and another is contemporary, two different tastes in music are accommodated, but then members are allowed to separate in order to have their tastes accommodated.

Worse yet, if a church intends to one day build a larger facility and re-combine services, someone is going to be made very unhappy when they learn the new combined service doesn’t suit their taste.

Perhaps more worrisome is the doctrinal side of things. Continue reading →

It’s well known among the Churches of Christ that our largest congregation, the Richland Hills Church of Christ in Ft. Worth, recently decided to add an instrumental Saturday night worship service to their two Sunday morning a cappella services. I understand that the decision cost them 200 members, but that, in less than six months, they regained at least that many and are poised to continue their growth. But, then, they were out of room at their two Sunday morning services and couldn’t have grown at all without adding a third service of some sort.

Not surprisingly, many congregations are now wrestling with the question of whether to introduce instrumental music or a separate instrumental worship. Continue reading →