Title: The New Worship: Straight Talk on Music and the Church

Author: Barry Liesch

Publisher: Baker Books, 2007

For a book which promises "straight talk on music and the Church", Barry Liesch still leaves us with a few questions. In Chapter 10 (p.199) he says:

"... most of us (even musicians) do not have the expertise to talk about music style precisely. We are better equipped to talk about the words."

This kind of honest assessment makes Liesch (for all of our theological differences) hard to dislike as an author. If only he did not contradict his own logic:

"we should begin with the thought that no melody, scale, chord, rhythm, instrument, or timbre should be theoretically off-limits to the Christian composer." (Chapter 12, p.182)