One of my favorite authors, EG White mentions that we must be mindful to not let our "good be evil spoken of". This advice could be applied here. I agree with you that the songs and ministry have blessed so many for years, and we cannot take that away. However, the witness has been damaged as the "good" is now "evil spoke of". It is a reminder to all of us, that we must guard carefully our character (behavior, words and intentions), our sphere of influence, and our engagements with others. Integrity matters!
Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I resonate with several things in this post. This morning, a helpful analogy occurred to me:
I don’t have a powerful nose. When I pull a container out of my fridge, I can’t always tell if the food is still good to eat. Sometimes I take a sniff and have doubts. My mother-in-law’s voice rings in my ears: “If in doubt, throw it out!” Or perhaps my sister’s maxim: “If in doubt, put it back on the shelf until all doubt is removed.” Either way, they wouldn’t risk eating it. I, on the other hand, am a risk-taker. Sometimes I check with my spouse to get a second opinion, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I eat it regardless of the second opinion. “After all, it has so many good ingredients, and it still tastes pretty good!” If, however, the King of England and his royal family were to pop by for supper, I wouldn’t risk feeding him any of my questionable food. Especially if someone had tipped me off that a number of his companions suffered from weak digestion. I would pull out food that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was good.
A number of genuine people have voiced concerns about music from Hillsong and Bethel. Again, I don’t have a powerful nose. Some of their songs smell fine to me. But I won’t deny that some of them smell a little “off”. Part of me wants to just keep singing anyway. After all, the ingredients seem relatively fine, and many of the songs are catchy. But part of me asks: “Who am I serving with these songs? ... Am I singing for the King? ... Or for the royal family? ... Or for myself?”
Thanks for sharing your feedback here! If I understand your analogy correctly, it seems like you are questioning the *music* itself - rather than the people who've written/performed/distributed the music?
For me, it's not a question about the music itself. I'm pretty settled on that (and I feel like I have a pretty "trained" nose when it comes to the theological content of music). The only question I'm grappling with is the morality of singing/listening to music that is produced/distributed by organizations whose practices and behaviors - when they're not "on the stage" - is questionable (at best).
I've had a kind of love-hate relationship with Hillsong's music over the years. It seems to me that sometimes Hillsong's music is more about the glitz and glamour and ultimately the generating of money. Then I will hear a song which resonates with me, and a I later find out it's from Hillsong. That doesn't changes the beauty of the message of the song for me, but it has made me less willing to be either pro or anti Hillsong's music. Nowadays, if I have a choice I rarely listen to any worship music unless it's Messianic Jewish (or even more Orthodox Jewish, for that matter). But I do wonder sometimes whether using Hillsong's music, while knowing full well that the media has reported various scandals involving Hillsong, is actually productive in a missional or evangelistic way.
One of my favorite authors, EG White mentions that we must be mindful to not let our "good be evil spoken of". This advice could be applied here. I agree with you that the songs and ministry have blessed so many for years, and we cannot take that away. However, the witness has been damaged as the "good" is now "evil spoke of". It is a reminder to all of us, that we must guard carefully our character (behavior, words and intentions), our sphere of influence, and our engagements with others. Integrity matters!
Thank you, Judi! Integrity really does matter. Thank you for giving me some additional food for thought!
Thank you for sharing these thoughts. I resonate with several things in this post. This morning, a helpful analogy occurred to me:
I don’t have a powerful nose. When I pull a container out of my fridge, I can’t always tell if the food is still good to eat. Sometimes I take a sniff and have doubts. My mother-in-law’s voice rings in my ears: “If in doubt, throw it out!” Or perhaps my sister’s maxim: “If in doubt, put it back on the shelf until all doubt is removed.” Either way, they wouldn’t risk eating it. I, on the other hand, am a risk-taker. Sometimes I check with my spouse to get a second opinion, but sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I eat it regardless of the second opinion. “After all, it has so many good ingredients, and it still tastes pretty good!” If, however, the King of England and his royal family were to pop by for supper, I wouldn’t risk feeding him any of my questionable food. Especially if someone had tipped me off that a number of his companions suffered from weak digestion. I would pull out food that I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, was good.
A number of genuine people have voiced concerns about music from Hillsong and Bethel. Again, I don’t have a powerful nose. Some of their songs smell fine to me. But I won’t deny that some of them smell a little “off”. Part of me wants to just keep singing anyway. After all, the ingredients seem relatively fine, and many of the songs are catchy. But part of me asks: “Who am I serving with these songs? ... Am I singing for the King? ... Or for the royal family? ... Or for myself?”
Thanks for sharing your feedback here! If I understand your analogy correctly, it seems like you are questioning the *music* itself - rather than the people who've written/performed/distributed the music?
For me, it's not a question about the music itself. I'm pretty settled on that (and I feel like I have a pretty "trained" nose when it comes to the theological content of music). The only question I'm grappling with is the morality of singing/listening to music that is produced/distributed by organizations whose practices and behaviors - when they're not "on the stage" - is questionable (at best).
Thanks again for your reflections!
I've had a kind of love-hate relationship with Hillsong's music over the years. It seems to me that sometimes Hillsong's music is more about the glitz and glamour and ultimately the generating of money. Then I will hear a song which resonates with me, and a I later find out it's from Hillsong. That doesn't changes the beauty of the message of the song for me, but it has made me less willing to be either pro or anti Hillsong's music. Nowadays, if I have a choice I rarely listen to any worship music unless it's Messianic Jewish (or even more Orthodox Jewish, for that matter). But I do wonder sometimes whether using Hillsong's music, while knowing full well that the media has reported various scandals involving Hillsong, is actually productive in a missional or evangelistic way.
Thank you for your very thoughtful reflections, James.