the running reverend

“Camp Hill Praise” by Jason Tromm

James K.A. Smith wrote “An Open Letter to Praise Bands” over on his blog. James express his concern as follows:

[M]y concern is that we, the church, have unwittingly encouraged you to simply import musical practices into Christian worship that—while they might be appropriate elsewhere—are detrimental to congregational worship. More pointedly, using language I first employed in Desiring the Kingdom, I sometimes worry that we’ve unwittingly encouraged you to import certain forms of performance that are, in effect, “secular liturgies” and not just neutral “methods.” Without us realizing it, the dominant practices of performance train us to relate to music (and musicians) in a certain way: as something for our pleasure, as entertainment, as a largely passive experience. The function and goal of music in these “secular liturgies” is quite different from the function and goal of music in Christian worship.

In a subsequent section, James (briefly) explores three common worship practices and explains why these practices are antithetical to Christian worship. 

I think that the article makes for a short, yet interesting read. It also seems like there could be a great deal of discussion around Smith’s thesis, although the discussion won’t take place over on his blog, as he does not have comments enabled. That being said, I’d be interested in turning the comment section following this post into a forum where we might discuss (in a civil fashion) his thesis.

To that end: What do you think? Do you agree with Smith’s thesis? Do you disagree? And, WHY?