In our lives and our walk with God, we have always had music around us. Although we are plain, we don't ascribe to the standard of avoiding musical instruments. We have various acoustic guitars, drum sets, and other folk instruments, and most played is our piano. I'm not sure where the standard of avoiding musical instruments came from, I'm still trying to find it in the early German church writings.
Although we have our instruments, we choose not to use them in worship as it helps us to feel closer to God.
Often times when instruments are brought into worship, they (along with the musicians playing them) are made the centerpiece of the meeting.
Instruments cost money, and quality instruments cost a lot of money. That is a resource we feel is better spent supporting our community like the fatherless and widows.
Music is great when it's inside the home being played amongst the family to worship or just for fun. But in the situations where instruments are used amongst "privileged" individuals as status symbols rather than tools of worship, that's when priorities are misplaced.
That is why we choose to keep our instruments out of worship but still play them for God on our own. It's similar to the concept of the prayer room. It is about being as genuine as possible with our savior when we worship him.
If you ever have an opportunity to visit an Old German Baptist Brethren church, you will be very surprised by the music. It is all acapela and sounds like no other singing I've heard anywhere else.
I'd be very happy to learn the style and teach it to my children but I have no idea how I could begin to do that.
Their music has been handed down from generation to generation and is so tonaly unique that anything I would try to do to replicate it would probably sound false or severely degraded.
There is a certain musical slur that the women use in their singing that is so beautiful to hear, I truly hope my future daughters learn to replicate it, as once again-I've not heard it anywhere else.
The affect of the music on the singers is to feel very close as a family, and to feel very close all worshiping the same God. It is a very powerful feeling.
That same feeling would be impossible to replicate if musical instruments were to be used.
Though I do know from experience in the UPCI that musical instruments can be used in a whole different way to make a congregation feel close to God, but at the same time, you start to deal with those dangers that I've mentioned before.
When worship is genuine, it is a beautiful thing before God; When worship is done for vain glory, it is a foul stench before The Lord.
