Mark Beuving - Resonate: Enjoying Gods Gift of Music

PRAISE FOR RESONATE

Resonate is a joyful ode to the mysterious gift of music. With humor, wisdom, and incisive wit, Mark Beuving takes a thoughtful look at the joys (and sorrows) of music in the contemporary evangelical context. Lovers of music and theology alike will benefit greatly from it.

Josh Jeter, musician, A Minor Swoon

Mark Beuving has written a compelling and much-needed book that dismantles the secular/sacred divide in music. Since God is Creator, he has embedded much truth and beauty in his creation, and image-bearing artists have explored this revelation of God through music. This book will deepen your understanding of how to think theologically about music. Most of all, it will fill your heart and soul with much fodder to fuel the worship of your Creator.

Preston Sprinkle, professor of biblical studies and director of Eternity Bible Colleges Boise Extension, Boise, Idaho

People like to ask me if I play Christian music. I always smile and reply that Im not sure, but Id be glad to start as soon as I find a Christian guitar. Mark Beuving has taken the conversations that musicians have backstage about how faith and art work together and articulated them a lot better than any of us ever could. Everybody who lives in a culture and thinks about God needs to read this book. And the next time someone asks me if I play Christian music, Im just going to hand them a copy of Resonate.

Sean Michel, rock n roll artist

We have needed this kind of book about music for a very long time one that is deeply thoughtful, wisely appreciative, and theologically informed. And here it is. It is neither esoteric nor oversimplified. From Wesleys hymns to the Beatles, from Mozart to Lady Gaga, Mark Beuving guides us toward that wonderful place of godly theological meditation on culture, meditation built solidly on critical engagement combined with serious enjoyment. Who else has ever asked me what I would do if I were U2s lead singer Bono and had his platform before the whole world? Mark Beuving is right on the money when he tells us that music glorifies God it resonates according to his design. If you want to resonate as a Christian with the heart of music, then you must read this book.

Grant Horner, associate professor of Renaissance and Reformation studies, The Masters College

ZONDERVAN

Resonate

Copyright 2014 by Mark Beuving

ePub Edition March 2014: ISBN 978 0 310 51649 1

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beuving, Mark.

Resonate : enjoying Gods gift of music / Mark Beuving.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978 0 310 51647 7 (softcover)

1. MusicReligious aspectsChristianity. 2. Church music. I. Title.

ML3921.2.B48 2014

261.5'78 dc23 2013038017

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Cover photography: iStockphoto

Interior design: David Conn

Printed in the United States of America

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 /DCI/ 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To my wife, Laura, and my daughters, Abigail Schae and Claire Elizabeth for graciously listening to my (diverse and often odd) music in the car, around the house, and basically everywhere else, and for getting excited about some of it along with me. What a joyful musical world we inhabit together!

CONTENTS

J esus is Lord. This was the message the earliest church preached. Its a declaration that has been handed down throughout church history, a reality that has been transforming lives for thousands of years.

But like any frequently used phrase, Jesus is Lord can become tired and virtually meaningless to us. In many cases, Christians have sidelined Jesus lordship, seeing him as the Lord of their hearts, their spiritual lives, and nothing more.

This book is in some ways a response to a question that Francis Schaeffer used to ask: How much of life is Jesus Lord over?

If Jesus is Lord of only our spiritual activities, then there may not be a distinctively Christian way to think about music, aside from music used in religious settings. A book like this would be unnecessary. But if Jesus is Lord over all of life, over every aspect of our existence, over every thought and undertaking, then we must ask how his lordship comes to bear on the way we listen to, create, and interact with music.

Jesus is Lord, and music is one important part of his domain. Every night, at my oldest daughters request, I kneel at her bedside and sing a couple of verses from the hymn This Is My Fathers World:

This is my Fathers world

And to my listening ears

All nature sings

And round me rings

The music of the spheres

Christians have been singing this hymn for over a hundred years, but the truth it expresses has been a part of Christian teaching from the very beginning. It speaks of a world bursting with sound, of God as the Great Conductor whose music is being played throughout the universe at every moment. It echoes 1 Chronicles 16:31 33, which, after calling Gods people to praise their Lord, urges all creation to sing:

Let the heavens rejoice, let the earth be glad;

let them say among the nations, The LORD reigns!

Let the sea resound, and all that is in it;

let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them!

Let the trees of the forest sing,

let them sing for joy before the LORD,

for he comes to judge the earth.

This book is written with the conviction that Jesus is Lord of all of life, that this is indeed our Fathers world, and that he cares deeply about the way we relate to the gifts he gives us, including the gift of music.

In writing a book about music, of course, I am setting up myself as the writer and you as the reader for a certain It is not easily done, and something will be lost in translation.

When speaking of songs, its common to discuss lyrics and leave out any discussion of the music itself, as though it were simply decoration. There is an attractive simplicity to this approach, and many choose this option for various reasons. But I am also writing with the conviction that music means more than the words themselves denote. If we could say it simply, why would we create a song to express it?