Enjoyment and discernment in the music of worship (Liturgical participation and the creation of human community in the Christian church)

Nothing is more vital to the genuine enjoyment of worship than the arts. In deed, our enjoyment of arts such as music (within worship and without) can be said to participate in our enjoyment of God and in the creation of human community. Yet, enjoyment that is responsive to the disciplines of worship requires discernment. Arts in our culture have long exercised their fulles t creativity outside the church and have long been tailored, commercially, to satisfy the interests of entertainment and profit. Discerning together h ow diverse arts can best be employed and enjoyed is thus a task of the chur ch that in the end can only enhance the enjoyment of worship.