Praise and worship?

A Roman Catholic wrote about praise and worship music and highlighted some of the presuppositions about praise and worship music that need to be challenged.  I have adapted his list for our own church but he is clearly on track.

1. P&W music assumes that praise is worship.
2. P&W music assumes that worship is principally something we do.
3. P&W music assumes as its [primary] principle relevance.
4. P&W music assumes as its second principle the active participation of a certain age group.
5. P&W music self-consciously divides the Church into by such things as age and personal preference.
6. P&W music subverts the Biblical and liturgical texts of the lectionary and Divine Service.
7. P&W music assumes that the church's liturgical tradition is not an integral part of our doctrine.
8. P&W music focuses more consciously on emotions and uses this music as a tool to produce a setting seen as necessary for spiritual conversion.
9. P&W music focuses more on the present moment and seems to equate transcendence with feeling or sentiment.
10. P&W music tends to focus on individual interpretations of what happens in worship and less upon the larger assembly, the unity of the liturgical songs of the Divine Service and the roles of music to speak confessionally of what we believe and teach.
11. P&W music values simplicity and ease of comprehension over the rich, deep, and full appreciation of the mystery of Christ's presence in the means of grace and the fuller doctrinal confession intrinsic to the lectionary and the use of primarily liturgical texts.

You can argue about his conclusions or mine own adaptation of his list for Lutheran use but I believe he is pretty much on track.  Praise and worship music is certainly an ecumenical phenomenon and this is both one of its strengths and its primary weakness.  It is difficult to use praise and worship music in sacramental and non-sacramental churches without that music being intentionally vague or devoid of the specific doctrinal confession inherent to the classical Lutheran chorale and the songs of the liturgy.

You can read his words here and this might spark a discussion, a healthy one I believe, and this would be good thing.  For Lutherans, the worship wars continue and the biggest hot spots are in the areas of the music used in worship -- both form and text.  If we take worship seriously, we will not short circuit this discussion but will work through it deliberately and carefully.  Worship is so important that it deserves nothing less...