ECHOES WITH
MATT MAHER
An Interview by
Bruce Adolph & Doug Doppler
photos by Angela Wasko
One recent morning our Editorial Director Doug waves but music that is beautiful is not just a (if not the primary) mission of the church. I
Doppler and I jumped on a phone conversation subjective thing, but it is objectively beautiful as believe evangelism is God’s work, primarily,
with one of our favorite songwriter/musicians well. Objectively beautiful music corresponds to not the church’s. What I mean by that is that
Matt Maher and did a tag team interview with what the sound waves actually look like. When the Holy Spirit is the one that ultimately makes
him. The following is what transpired… you hear a boy’s choir singing in a cathedral and connections with the human heart and does
everyone is in tune and the place is acoustically the hard work of transformation, not us. When
[WM] You are an evangelist, and music is a well designed, it creates an overtone series that you realize that there is less pressure for music
great tool for evangelism. You are obviously looks beautiful, and that is objectively good. to become a tool that produces changeable
very attuned to the idea that part of what you
results.
want to do with a song is to draw a person in, Music tends to reveal things that are good, even if it’s the first Sunday that they’ve been true, and beautiful. Then the possibility arises One of the things I wonder about when it comes
to church. Tell us what evangelism in music to be able to engage with someone about an to music in church, is if we are measuring the
means to you. idea that may or may not be related to what success of a song by how much it moves
you’re singing about. Music becomes a way to people. Sometimes that is a valid criticism, but
[Matt Maher] Music is a great gift from illustrate a point using words and melodies in a it is very subjective. Some churches you go to,
God that opens the soul to new horizons. It way that speaking alone can’t do. like a Lutheran church with a large Norwegian
presents possibilities in the human heart for
congregation. . . they just don’t raise their
revelation to happen. Out of all the art forms, Personally, I wrestle with the idea of music hands. Yet you talk with people afterwards
music is the one that is the most accessible. being a tool of anything, in the sense that and they express how moving the song was
There is something about it… there’s probably I wonder about using it when it comes to and they thank you for playing the song. It
science behind it about the physics of sound evangelism, which I think is one of the primary created an opportunity for the Holy Spirit to do
20
October 2017
WorshipMusician.com