Church Music?

The following post is submitted by Lance Cooper. What is “Church” music? And how would you define it? We’ve all grown up with  preconceived notions of what it is, and what it should be. For many, that playlist is filled with old, dusty songs that we barely understand and frankly, aren’t much fun to sing. The music we really liked to listen to was on our favorite cd, radio station, or ipod. It was the rhythm and beat that not only got us through high school, but caused us to dance and sing loudly off-tune in the shower.

But we never heard that music in church. With God, the one who breathed the creative spirit within us, why shouldn’t the music we play in church reflect the music that we really love? Why should we have “Sunday” music and “rest of the week” music?

Downtown Church doesn’t think we should, and has given us a freedom to worship God with a full palette of musical colors. It is the freedom to claim a song as sacred, no matter where it was found. The invisible list of “Sunday” music has been tossed, and we worship the God of all creation in the music we listen to all week long, music that explores the needs, struggles and joys of life.

God is bigger than you think. He is found in places you would have never imagined. And, He works and speaks in ways we cannot often comprehend. Recently, we found Him in the melodies of Stevie Wonder, the Four Tops, Otis Redding, and Curtis Mayfield. God is full of surprises, and I’m glad to be a part of a church that welcomes them.