Trance as Worship

Trance is my lover. I throw my hands in the air and close my eyes and let the waves and beats carry me away. When the beats start rollin', I can feel a shiver well up and cascade through my body. The beat driving my heart; I imagine that this is what heaven is like.

Standing in the greatest DJ's presence as he spins up some hot tunes for his people to dance to.

If only worship music had a good beat. Too much of it is sad or self reflecting. I can't dance to that. Unless it's Evancesce - Hello (the G&D mix).

Now, I'm not making fun of worship music. It has its place. But for me, I want a whole experience. I want to move my body and dance with my God. Too bad most of the Christian EDM out there sucks so much.

Is it wrong to take secular music and use it for worship?

There are four kinds of music. Secular, worship, music done by Christians, and art.

• Secular music is music that lauds secular beliefs or is intended for profit. This can take the form of antitheistic music. Music that glorifies relationships with the opposite gender. Or pop, which is designed for profits only. Hook, 3.5 minutes long, repeat. Examples: Tool, Britney Spears, 50 Cent.
• Worship music is for the express purpose of connecting believers to their deity. Generally, this type of music contains lyrics that are reflective of the truth that the believers hold or agree upon. Sometims the music captures a particular sentiment that the believer wants to express to their deity through song. Examples: Passion, Hillsongs, Vineyard.
• Music performed by Christians is just that. Christians that create music that is not intended for worship. Somteimes, Christians will find meaning in the music and have a certain connection to it. These generally don't expressly mention God or Jesus. These references are often time replaced with "you". Examples: Creed, Switchfoot.
• Music as art. This is generally music that doesn't make any money, nor is it heard by a mass audience. A lot of times, this music just sounds downright weird to people. This music is created for the sake of music itself and no other motivation. This is not to be confused with experimental music. There is a lot of odd music out there, that doesn't mean that it is art. Examples: I don't know.

These are all fairly formal definitions of types of music. They are in no way exhaustive or accurate. In every case, there will be some sort of overlap. The best example is "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me. This was a worship song that was played as a secular song performed by Christians. Crazy.

Trance would definately be classified under secular music. Most of the time, the music lacks lyrics or the lyrics can sound like those written by Christians (even though I know they probably aren't).

If this music helps me grow closer to God, is that a bad thing?

I'm sure there are arguments for both sides and there would be plenty of examples and hypotheticals, but let us step back and approach this from a top down view.

Worship is a contraction of the term worth ship. It is the act of giving worth to something. When you participate in song to a deity, you can be engaging in an act of worship.

Worship music fits easily into this category because the lyrics and the subject matter reflects what the believer views in either his position, his relation to his deity, or about his deity. It's hard to think about your deity if the subject of the song is either talking about how he doesn't exist or talking about some random guy or girl.

The topic becomes muddy when you start talking about music that lacks lyrics. Classical music, such as Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, was often times written by commission of the Church. Sometimes, these composers were believers, sometimes they weren't. I won't be dogmatic and say that worship music must be written by those that adhere to the same beliefs of that he is composing, but I'm sure it would help.

I'm not going to go as far as to say that trance is on the same level as classical. Although they share similarities, they are not even close. What they do share in common is the lack of lyrics (some of the time) and that most of it is "composed" by non-believers.

If worship is dependent on the one applying the worth, then it shouldn't matter what type of music he uses to affirm that worth. Like I said before, some music makes it easier than others. It's the spiritual act of applying worth that matters. Whether it be through traditional or contemporary worship music or other alternatives, as long as it's being done is the important thing.

In the end, all that matters is that you love God and find a way to express that to him.

I'm a trance whore.