THE CONVICITON OF THINGS NOT SEEN
I'm in the middle of reading a The Conviction of Things Not Seen: Worship and Ministry in the 21st Century, edited by Todd E. Johnson. This is a festschrift in honor of Robert Webber. The collection really does honor Webber in an appropriate way, with numerous essays that stimulate serious thinking about how we do worship. It's loaded with chewable material. For now just one sample -- this from John Witvliet:

...A more important test, however -- which also needs to be recognized, celebrated, affirmed, and credentialed -- is to see how effectively, honestly, and knowingly a worship band or organist can get a congregation to sing well together. Music in worship is not primarily about individual choice, participation, or preferences, but about the entire congregation.

And many voices would extend this reasoning one step further to argue that music in worship is not about individual congregations but also about the whole body of Christ, the whole catholic church. In his description of liturgical worship, Dietrich Bonhöffer explores this catholic impulse:

"It is the voice of the Church that is heard in singing together. It is not you that sings, it is the Church that is singing, and you, as a member of the Church, may share in its song. Thus all singing together...serves to widen our spiritual horizon, make us see out little company as a member of the great Christian Church on earth, and help us willingly and gladly to join our singing, be it feeble or good, to the song of the Church."

In a culture that celebrates individual choices and preferences, this vision calls us to a new way of experiencing music. This vision invites us not to ask, "Did I like the music?" but rather, "Did that music give me a powerful sense of joining with Christians in other times and places?" (pp. 75-76)