Acceptable Music

[RZehr]

I would like this thread to be only open to people who are, or have been, or working towards being a member at a plain conservative church that has written standards on music that their members can listen to. In other words people who have some experience in this area are who I’m looking for.

We are a starting a new church plant and are discussing music. Our current standard says only accapella music is acceptable for our members to listen to.
We feel that there is some accapella music that is unacceptable, but our current standard allows it because it is accapella. And there is instrumental music that we feel is acceptable.

So the question is, how would you define acceptable music that includes some instruments but not wide open, and some accapella but not wide open, if you were writing a guideline for a church?

[Soloist]

The only thing I could see that would be remotely acceptable would be to have some sort of review of the music people purchase otherwise I wouldn’t see there being any way to have that line between the two. I have thought some of the hymns that we sing are not necessarily good songs to sing I find it a strange irony that we listen and sing songs that Martin Luther wrote.

[Josh]

I would like this thread to be only open to people who are, or have been, or working towards being a member at a plain conservative church that has written standards on music that their members can listen to. In other words people who have some experience in this area are who I’m looking for.

We are a starting a new church plant and are discussing music. Our current standard says only accapella music is acceptable for our members to listen to.
We feel that there is some accapella music that is unacceptable, but our current standard allows it because it is accapella. And there is instrumental music that we feel is acceptable.

So the question is, how would you define acceptable music that includes some instruments but not wide open, and some accapella but not wide open, if you were writing a guideline for a church?

Once you go down this path, music will eventually be at people’s personal discretion. Think carefully if that’s where you want to end up.

A simple standard would be “We should only listen to music that unambiguously glorifies Jesus”, or even simpler, just avoid pre-recorded music altogether.

[Neto]

I think that the lyrics deserve more scrutiny than whether there is some sort of instrumental accompaniment or not, but that is probably not what you are looking at. So if no instruments is the basic standard, then I would still say that the words we sing are shaping our thoughts, and therefore, our doctrine. Some things I would look out for: endless repetition, focus on self, wrong doctrines such as single-focus views of atonement, etc.

[RZehr]

Even without accepting instrumental music, our music standard is inadequate and needs changed because of the growth and availability in secular accapella music.
So you who only listen to accapella music like we do: what is your people listening to? Secular, hymns, or what? Are you okay with your people listening to “Highway To Hell” in accapella, which is a thing now?
This is why we aren’t content with the accapella line anymore.

[Hats Off]

We don't "allow" any recorded music but our young people, before church membership, do listen to music. There was one acapella group that was quite common some years ago where the music still had the "boom boom" effect similar to drums. Our children did not really feel this was or should be acceptable. Unfortunately the only good way is by teaching and personal conviction unless you appoint a committee to pre-approve all music and create a list of acceptable groups - music.

This is not a good solution and can become almost hypocritical unless you were able to create something similar to the Redwood Security Appliance Content Filtering by and for the Plain Community which identifies text. Surely they could develop something similar for text plus music. It takes away most of the human intervention while screening for suitability. The below describes Redwood's internet filtering but might be adaptable to music as well.

Most people think of Redwood as a Filter, which is understandable. But first and foremost, Redwood is a classifier of text content. A "classifier" attempts to answer the question - "What subject is this body of text about?"

After answering that question, the "filter" part comes in, to answer the question "What should happen with this subject material?"

The data was generated during Redwood's classifying processes as it scored HTTP traffic on a network. So this report intends to visualize what Redwood was "thinking" about the content it analyzed.
What are Categories?
As mentioned above, the Redwood engine is a classifier of text content, and a "category" is what Redwood calculates that a body of text "means".
What are Ratings?
Ratings represent the overall Tone or Coarseness of a Category. The names - Base, Silt, Sand, Pebble, Stone, Rock, and Boulder were selected to illustrate the "coarseness" level. The color coding throughout the report is derived from the category rating.

Perhaps the Category Ratings seem a bit arbitrary or subjective, especially toward the Clean end of the spectrum. Well, these ratings may be edited according to the preferences of a given Company or Accountability Policy.

[Wade]

I would like this thread to be only open to people who are, or have been, or working towards being a member at a plain conservative church that has written standards on music that their members can listen to. In other words people who have some experience in this area are who I’m looking for.

We are a starting a new church plant and are discussing music. Our current standard says only accapella music is acceptable for our members to listen to.
We feel that there is some accapella music that is unacceptable, but our current standard allows it because it is accapella. And there is instrumental music that we feel is acceptable.

So the question is, how would you define acceptable music that includes some instruments but not wide open, and some accapella but not wide open, if you were writing a guideline for a church?

Once you go down this path, music will eventually be at people’s personal discretion. Think carefully if that’s where you want to end up.

A simple standard would be “We should only listen to music that unambiguously glorifies Jesus”, or even simpler, just avoid pre-recorded music altogether.

I hope this perspective can help and I am speaking out of turn?
Some of us newcomers never learnt music or how to sing. If I never got to have prerecorded music then my family and I probably wouldn't get to sing together most days like we do. We don't listen much any more and know how to sing a few songs but the acapella hymns on CD we listened to were extremely helpful as long as the words are clear and biblical.

We bought a Hymns of the Church vol. 1 CD which is acapella and every song is one I have never heard and it is sung in some fancy way that I can't even understand the words... That is about as useless to me as secular music.

[Josh]

I hope this perspective can help and I am speaking out of turn?
Some of us newcomers never learnt music or how to sing. If I never got to have prerecorded music then my family and I probably wouldn't get to sing together most days like we do. We don't listen much any more and know how to sing a few songs but the acapella hymns on CD we listened to were extremely helpful as long as the words are clear and biblical.

We bought a Hymns of the Church vol. 1 CD which is acapella and every song is one I have never heard and it is sung in some fancy way that I can't even understand the words... That is about as useless to me as secular music.

I don't even have a family on my Anabaptist journey with me, so I learned how to sing acapella entirely from scratch by simply going to church and singing during the singing time once or twice a week. Eventually I figured out the best part for me and then started sitting near another man singing my part and following him.

I respect that some people are not convicted about pre-recorded music... but Christians for about 1900 years didn't have the luxury of recorded music, so it seems odd that now it's essential.

[Heirbyadoption]

I hope this perspective can help and I am speaking out of turn?
Some of us newcomers never learnt music or how to sing. If I never got to have prerecorded music then my family and I probably wouldn't get to sing together most days like we do. We don't listen much any more and know how to sing a few songs but the acapella hymns on CD we listened to were extremely helpful as long as the words are clear and biblical.

We bought a Hymns of the Church vol. 1 CD which is acapella and every song is one I have never heard and it is sung in some fancy way that I can't even understand the words... That is about as useless to me as secular music.

I don't even have a family on my Anabaptist journey with me, so I learned how to sing acapella entirely from scratch by simply going to church and singing during the singing time once or twice a week. Eventually I figured out the best part for me and then started sitting near another man singing my part and following him.

I respect that some people are not convicted about pre-recorded music... but Christians for about 1900 years didn't have the luxury of recorded music, so it seems odd that now it's essential.

One might say the same of electricity, running water, septic systems, etc... Did somebody suggest that pre-recorded music was essential and I missed it on here? I'm just trying to connect in my mind how we're putting a lack of conviction (on the part of some) together with the implication that some think pre-recorded music is essential?

[cmbl]

Under the a cappella music category, one might consider subcategories...
- Things like what we sing in church (e.g. Antrim Mennonite Choir, youtube videos of bible school singing)
- Choral music
- Modern a cappella
- Southern gospel/bluegrassy acappella (is this a thing?)

While there will be things that blend the lines, I think those categories are descriptive enough to give a general idea.
(I tend to favor the "things like what we sing in church" category, with a little bit of "choral music".)