Instruments or no instruments - the big controversy

I've grown up in a Church of Christ my entire life and I absolutely love it and I wouldn't change a thing about it...even the a cappella worship. Tonight I went to an Acappella concert (the guys happen to be friends of mine) at a local Church of Christ. There is really only one difference between the Church of Christ I attend and this Church of Christ. Every Sunday they have 2 services - an a cappella service and an instrumental service. This was actually the first church I visited in the area when I moved to Oklahoma (pre-instrumental service) because I had a friend who was a member there. I decided that it wasn't the church for me because it was too big with a membership of about 800. Which is funny now because the church I go to has about 3,000 members!

Anyway, besides Acappella performing, their worship team led several songs as well to support Habitat for Humanity. I must say, I was not the most comfortable in the setting. I am just not used to seeing drums and guitars and keyboards on a church stage. Please do not get me wrong, I don't think it is against the Bible to play instruments and I am not against people in any way who worship with instruments, it's just tradition for me sing a cappella while in church. I found myself focusing more on the song leader than on God and I got distracted easily. I could barely hear the people around because the music was so loud. Most people looked like they could feel God in their presence,which is great and awesome, but to me, when I sing with all I've got and can hear everyone else around doing the same, that's when I feel God's presence. They sang a lot of the same songs we sing in church, but at first I couldn't tell what songs they were because it seemed like they were sung completely different than how I would sing it.

Probably the most uncomfortable I felt was when a woman led an entire song. I grew up being taught that women are to be quiet in the church. Now, this does not mean we cannot speak, in fact, women can be very influential parts of the church. It just means that the men are the leaders of the church, including preaching, song leading, passing communion, leading prayers, etc., just at Christ is the head of the church. In school the rule is, once the closing prayer is finished, women can get up and make announcements and in the church I grew up in, women were allowed to make prayer requests to the congregation. I guess I just felt like it wasn't her place to be on stage leading a worship song. Once the Acappella guys got on stage, I felt about 1,000 times better and they were excellent, as always!!!

Needless to say, I was uncomfortable, BUT I think it is a good thing to sometimes get out of your comfort zone to find out why you believe what you believe. It can make you question some things, but it can also be very reassuring.