Gospel Worship

Just wanted to note that I'm starting to fall in love with Gospel music...

There's just something about classic hymns being sung with that kind of groove and musicianship. I am all about simplicity, (as in, Dream Theater should not lead worship), but I think simplicity is often used (especially in western non-charismatic churches) to mean simplistic.

What bugs me about Gospel music is often it has a lot of shallowness to it (theologically), but when you mix classic hymns... somehow.. it just feels complete. Its like, here God, we're going to worship you in truth and we're not going to worship you in mediocrity, but with our full persons to our very best.


Anyway.... so the question is,
if music is such a powerful medium to worship God in, why should we not strive for excellence?
What qualifies as distractions (both in being too musical and not enough)?
What does it mean (spiritually) if we are not striving for excellence?
Why is it that the very best (musically) worship teams usually are so weak theologically, and the strongest worship teams (theologically) usually are so poor musically?
How does better music benefit worship? Does it help people worship more, does it glorify God more?

That's all, any thoughts would be appreciated!

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Battlestar Galactica

I love Battlestar Galactica... but normally not because it has a redeeming moral message, but rather the drama and action are amazing, the characters and plots / commentary on humanity facinating, and the show is so incredibly dark.

I just wanted to comment how awsome last Sunday's episode was though in its message about marriage.

Its been awhile since I saw anything TV/Movie related that had such a high view of marriage. The ep. was very counter cultural:
(spoilers for those who care)

Two main characters have had this love thing building from the beginning of the show, but one problem: they both are married. The last few ep.s they've been toying with an affair... you know, the popular idea of "go with your feelings", "follow your heart" etc. Basically, its okay that your married, you made a mistake but it would be worse not to follow your heart and be miserable the rest of your life.

Except this is not what they did.... the girl was all for the affair, the guy was one step away. It came down to a choice, and he ended up choosing to stay with his wife. This was in part to the advice of another main character: who pointed out that since he was married, he never looked back.

This was just incredible.... and the episode portrayed it as both were happier for staying with their spouse. Breaking their marraiges would have been destructive and ultimately made both unhappy. Further: the plot was believable. In a culture infatuated with our own selfish desires, this was a pretty amazing message.

Anyway... great drama, good values... that's all..
(besides... who knows, next week maybe it will all fall apart, but thats why I love the show!)

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