Wednesday, May 13, 2009

New Blog Series: Theology and Worship Music (1)



As many of you may know, one of my closest friends is Rich Van Voorst. Rich has been an incredible friend to me since we met nearly 5 years ago. Rich is a Jazz composer and talented Saxophonist. He holds two masters degrees from USF (in Composition and Jazz preformance). On top of this he has an excellent mind for theology. He has often been my sparring partner on a number of theological issues. He reads and thinks through a ton of material.

Rich and I share a passion for our Reformed heritage and a desire to see our churches (both local and global) live out the mantra of the reformation, "Soli Deo Gloria". We both would like to turn our hearts toward improving the quality of worship on our communities.

That being said, we come from different vantage points. Over the next few weeks,we will be corresponding over our blogs. I will be taking the premise, Worship is first theology and second, music. Rich will be taking the position, Worship is equally theology and music.

We understand there is a lot of nuance in worship discussions and we are limiting ourselves to the idea of corporate, Sunday morning worship; specifically music.

In the mean time, check our Rich's blog at http://www.richvanvoorst.com/

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I'm not even sure I know what you mean by "Worship is..." (elements of, sum/substance, etc?) so I'm greatly looking forward to this discussion.

Danny Stiling said...

Truth be told, our lives should be worship(Rom 12:1) and not just segmented from everything else. The last sentence Justin wrote is key..."We understand there is a lot of nuance in worship discussions and we are limiting ourselves to the idea of corporate, Sunday morning worship; specifically music"It's probably a better idea to try to tackle that small part of what worship is, rather worship as a whole (which would be biting off way too much to chew).

weso33 said...

I welcome this discussion - seems like a good time all around. I would however, appreciate it being lengthy as to allow different viewpoints to spread through the broader definition of "worship" - I do agree with you all that "worship" as a whole could be biting off more than we can chew, but I also don't think we can limit it (as much as we may try) to simply music in corporate settings entirely, as I am of the belief that music - and "worship" - transcends the Sunday morning routine. That's the beauty of music - why many of us study music - why many of us have so vastly different opinions of music - why music is such an integral part of "worship." But alas, I do understand the need to put some barriers on it...
Either way I guess - I look forward to the discussion. So...where will it take place? Here? Rich's site?