Fancy yourself the rightful king of a country, but now you're on the run because your own son has stirred up a rebellion again you. Your life is threatened. It's not that you are the rightful king of just any country, but you are king over God's own chosen covenant people; and God Himself has promised that "your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever, your throne shall be established forever" (2 Sam. 7:16). The well-being of God's people is tied to that promise and to your faithful perseverance in the Lord's love.

A year and a half ago, churches where I live began displaying banners that read: "Peace Is the Church's Business." Though hard to disagree with, the statement made me uneasy. That it was part of an interdenominational protest against the Iraqi war did not seem to have anything to do with it. That the banners appeared on churches that supported medical violence against the unborn and legislative violence against the institution of marriage was not it, either. I eventually realized my disagreement was more theological than political: I worried that the banners were a case of what C. S. Lewis called "Christianity And," a form of reductionism that takes one element of a complex whole--in this case the gospel work of peacemaking--and treats it as if it were the most important thing. In The Screwtape Letters, Lewis describes how reductionism can undermine faith:

Let him begin by treating the Patriotism or Pacifism as a part of his religion. Then let him . . . come to regard it as the most important part. Then quietly and gradually nurse him on to the state at which the religion becomes merely part of the "Cause," in which Christianity is valued chiefly because of the excellent arguments it can produce in favor of [the Cause]. . . . Once you have made the World an end, and faith a means, you have almost won your man, and it makes very little difference what kind of worldly end he is pursuing.¹

"Give ear, O my people, to my law; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old, Which we have heard and known, And our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, And His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. For He established a testimony in Jacob, And appointed a law in Israel, Which He commanded our fathers, That they should make them known to their children; That the generation to come might know them, The children who would be born, That they may arise and declare them to their children, That they may set their hope in God, And not forget the works of God, But keep His commandments"
Psalm 78:1-7

How many people do you know who have too much time on their hands? They are simply not busy enough and wish they could find more to do? How many families do you know that are burdened by too much free time?

THE WORSHIP WARS

One of the basic features of church life in the U.S. today is the proliferation of worship and music forms. This in turn has caused many severe conflicts both within individual congregations and whole denominations. Most books and articles about recent worship trends tend to fall into one of two broad categories.¹ "Contemporary Worship" (hereafter CW) advocates often make rather sweeping statements, such as "pipe organs and choirs will never reach people today." "Historic Worship" (hereafter HW) advocates often speak similarly about how incorrigibly corrupt popular music and culture is, and how they make contemporary worship completely unacceptable.²

The people of God have always been and will always be a people of song. If the enjoyment of song is gone, that is a symptom of far greater disease. A congregation's singing is not an absolute thermometer of their spiritual temperature, but it is one indicator. As Luther said way back in the Reformation days of the 16th century, "If any would not sing and talk of what Christ has wrought for us, he shows thereby that he does not really believe..." ¹

What is the role of singing in the life and worship of the church? According to most "church growth" experts a church's approach to music is a key factor in its potential for numerical growth. A large cement company in our area has its motto emblazoned on its trucks, "Find a need and fill it." If our motto was "Find the seeker's desire and fill it," then opinion polls on the role of music in the life and worship of the church would be crucial. But our motto must be, "Find the Seeker's desire and fulfill it" (Luke 19:10).

Only Americans could so deftly separate joy from solemnity. Perhaps it is our deep prohibitionist streak. We tend to think that joy has to be rather chaotic and unbounded, like a fraternity party, and that it loses its heart when structured in any way. In our opposition to solemn rituals, we are quite lonely in the history of the world and the church. Our Christian worship often follows in this American trench: some insist that it must be spontaneous and unbounded, and others insist on funereal solemnity.