Major rock style interludes, especially on 'upbeat, contemporary' arrangements of hymns. I picture Animal from Sesame Street doing his drum solos. Just doesn't work.
I think he was referring to the wild, uncontrolled manner in which Animal beat the drums. Crazy, senseless (yet quite funny on the Muppet Show, of course... all things in context, for the most part... ;-) ), efforts that add nothing but time consumed on stage. Ya gotta admit, the visual hits home quite well. ;-)
I must agree here, Lorne. An instrumental (with any instrument...) for sake of having an instrumental is just annoying and takes away from the worship aspect. Lyrics for the sake of lyrics, same thing. Good point.
my former church worship team used to start with an instrumental prelude and I hated it. What was the point? Who was going to be blessed by an empty lyric screen? Who was being glorified? The Lord or the musicians? Ditto on the solos and such...not during actual worship, please. Maybe during a celebration night consisting of all music with a little fun added but not in a Sunday worship service. Let's have some reverence and respect for our Lord Jesus.
I think there are places for musical interludes. Consider some of the great classical composers like Bach who were composing for church. Much of what they wrote was instrumental.
Musical interludes for the sake of musical interludes, I think, is bad. But I do believe there is a place for them. Finding that place is the hard part, I think.
I disagree Carlos. First because you start of saying that "you" hated the musical preludes. Obviously that's not your preference in regards to worship music. I do agree that there are times people can get too carried away and disorderly, but we have to remember, that regardless of what and how we offer worship, the most important thing is the attitutde in the heart of the worshipper. We may not like solos during actual worship, because it's not our preference. We have to always remember, worship is not about what we prefer, but what He prefers. He prefers that we worship Him in spirit and in truth. In regards to music and skill, the bible does command us to play skillfully, not just sing skillfully. So instrumental the "selah" parts of the psalms are just as important to God's heart as the vocals and lyrics, because as long as both are given with the right heart, it is accepted and preferred by God.
We could go to the other extreme and say lyrics and words are more important, but at times we honor God with our lips but our hearts are far from Him. So it doesn't have to do with instrumental preludes, solos, lyrics or words, but a geniune heart of worship. Worship is to bless God, not just the congregation. The congregation gets bless, when God is bless. When we are gathered in His name and we lift Him up, he dwells among His people.
So what does God desire from us worshippers? A certain genre of music, a certain order to the song? David said to God in Ps 51:16-17 "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. (this is the external of what we offer God like music, lyrics, etc.) Then he goes on to state what really matters to Him. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." So if the musicians offer a instrumental prelude with such a heart, who are we to say that God despises it or is not beneficial to the body? Now, if it's with a heart of pride, that's a total different issue.
It never surpises me that the body can get critical about worship and how it should be done. David's wife critized him for the way he praised God. The Samaritan woman stated that the jews critized the way they worshipped and how the place of worship was to be in Jerusalem. Jesus said in John 4:21"Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem."
Did you understand that? He is dealing with the human regulations about worship. When we start to regulate worship by what we prefer, then we say that everything must follow our guideliness. We must not regulate any part of worship, especially if we have not a biblical basis to do so, but must concentrate on what matters most to God--our hearts.