Book Review: Strange Lyre by David De Bruyn

 

Charismatic theology has come in the church in various ways. One of the methods that has been used is worship. Sadly, many churches have worship services that are more charismatic than they realize. David De Bruyn takes a look at the Pentecostalization of worship in the church in his latest book, Strange Lyre.

De Bruyn begins with taking a look into the history of how Pentecostal worship began. He does not go into a full detail history, but he does take time to show how it all began and how it made its way into evangelical churches. Next, De Bruyn looks at what Pentecostal worship versus what historical worship is. De Bruyn does a great job showing the reader that Pentecostal worship deals more with style and what can user us into the presence of God which anyone who knows the Bible can see this is not worship is.

De Bruyn addresses the issue of feelings and experience which, as De Bruyn states, can be idolatry. Pentecostal worship tends to lean on one's feelings as they worship. Most Pentecostal worship tends to make worship an experience rather than a service to God. De Bruyn writes:

But in matters of Christian worship, we cannot be content if worshippers merely make the claim to an ecstatic experience. That's precisely because the experience of worship is not the goal of worship. Worship is not successful simply because the worshippers enjoyed their worship. Christian worship is rooted in truth, and therefore everything that claims to be Christian worship must be a truthful response to a truthful revelation of the true God. In other words, you can get worship wrong, even if it felt right. Many people feel good about an exam they wrote and find out they failed; some feel terrible and find out they passed with flying colors. 

Finally, De Bruyn address the hybrid of contemporary worship music. A lot of times we take worship that seems traditional but incorporate contemporary music into it such as hymns. I do not think De Bruyn is against contemporary music but in worship it can be based more on feeling and experience rather than truth. 

At the end of the book is an afterword from Scott Aniol, who has written books and articles on the area of worship. In this part of the book, Aniol addresses that the worship service is "first and foremost a meeting that God has called with his people so that he might speak his Words to us for the upbuilding and edification of his people." He goes on to say that God is the primary one who our worship needs to be the focus of and not our performance. In regard to the music, Aniol said it is secondary. Our worship needs to hold to sound doctrine, not emotion or our preference.

This book is not a lengthy book, but it speaks volumes to a subject in the area of worship. I highly recommend from all worship leaders in the church to read this one.

I received this book from G3 Press in exchange for a honest review.