EECC 1.2: Liturgy—Worship Styles (Rationale & Rebuttal)

Introduction
As we have seen, the primary mode of lyrical worship for the CofCs is a cappella, that is, solely vocal music. But where does this idea come from? Why do we primarily stick to a cappella music? The most common argument I've heard is that it is "scriptural". By this my fellows have generally assumed an argument from silence. This is when something is based on what is not said rather than what is. It is not stated explicitly in the New Testament that Christians (Jewish or Gentile) worshipped using anything but their voices. Aside from the argument from silence, there is one primary passage which has been used to defend an "a cappella only" stance: Ephesians 5.19, and using only a small section of this short verse:

A Small Break

If you could not tell, there have been no posts in a little while. I'm currently taking a break to focus on other matters at the moment. Check back in a couple weeks, and I hope I'll have something up by then.

As always, I appreciate you readers, both the intentional stalkers and the accidental happen-upon-ers. For the time being, though, nothing will be posted for a while as weddings draw near, jobs are sought, and other pursuits are . . . pursued. As such, it is more important that I get a job to support my very-soon-to-be wife and to help out with the wedding. I imagine Gabe is in a similar spot.

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• The first solution is to subscribe to the RSS feed. Copy and paste the following link into your address bar, and if you bookmark it the bookmark will inform you any time something new is posted. <feed://reedeemedweblog.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?alt=rss>
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I hope you all have an excellent summer.

Grace and peace to you all,
-Reed

EECC 1.1: Liturgy—Worship Styles (Overview)

When it comes to musical forms, CofCs have struggled in the past decade or so. Traditionally, we have held a pretty strict diet of a cappella (voice only, that is) music inside the worship assembly. There seems to be a growing consensus, however, that this is changing. Even the views on which worship styles are necessary, acceptable, or evil are slowly being reshaped. There is much interesting discussion to be had about this topic.

EECC 0.5: Where Is This Thing Going, Anyway?

Allow me to take a step backward. I'm afraid I may not have been entirely clear about my goals and intentions for this 'series'. As such, I think it would be much easier simply to write without a clear end in mind or a plan of what is to be discussed. So here's a little image for a possible route for the discussion (I realize it's ridiculously small; just click on it to make it larger. Hurray for technology!):

EECC 1: Liturgy

Our exploration of the Churches of Christ (hence abbreviated as "CofC") begins with liturgy, that is, the order of worship. This is one aspect of the free church traditions that sets them apart from many others. Christian groups with a hierarchical authority line, such as Roman Catholics, have a liturgy universal to their group. It is possible, almost regardless of which Catholic church one attends, to know precisely what to expect. There is a difference, though, for us.

EECC Introduction

Okey-dokey, ye faithful few, now is the time for some introspective exploration (at least for us, anyway). This is the beginning of a series of posts entitled EECC, which is an Examination and Exposition of the Churches of Christ. The Churches of Christ is my denominational tradition in Evangelical Protestantism (say that five times fast!), and I want to do some soul-searching and research about us. These next posts from me, unless something cataclysmic warrants a deviation from them, will deal with the various theological and ecclesial issues in this group at present. This is a continuation of the DIY posts and their ecclesiological concerns, but with a much narrower focus.

Do-It-Yourself, part 2

Let's continue with our thoughts from the last DIY, shall we? If you have the memory of a goldfish and need to go over that again, here's a link to it. Go on. No, really, I can wait. *Whistles a merry little tune* Oh, good, you're back! Now... where were we... Oh yes, how the church fits into the Do-It-Yourself mindset.