by Matthew W. Bassford<\/p>\n
Several weeks ago, I encountered an article called “The Devolution of Christian Congregational Worship.” [https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/…\/the-devolution-of-christian…\/] Judging from the title, I predicted that it would be another grumpy get-off-my-lawn rant about contemporary praise songs and the damage that they are doing to Christianity. I was not wrong.<\/p>\n
As always, I am struck by the inability of many in the worship wars to find a middle ground. I love the great hymns of centuries past, but I also am aware that there were just as many stinkers written hundreds of years ago as there are now. Many praise songs written in the past 20 years resonate with me, and I can accept and appreciate even ones that don’t for the sake of my brethren who love them.<\/p>\n
I suppose that if you are tethered to instrumental worship of some kind or other, you have to pick a side. Organ music is organ music and praise-band music is praise-band music, and never shall the twain meet. However, within the churches of Christ, we don’t have that problem. It’s easy for us to sing “A Mighty Fortress” (circa 1529) and “Behold Our God” (circa 2013) in the same service without the result sounding discordant.<\/p>\n
I think it’s a mistake to junk every hymn that wasn’t written in the past 20 years. However, I think it’s also a mistake to try to turn our worship repertoire into a museum. The only things that don’t change are dead, and new songs inject new life into our assemblies.<\/p>\n
The key, I think, is for worship leaders to recognize and accommodate the different tastes that exist in a congregation of any size. The correct response to that old dude with the hearing aids in the back who grumps about “not knowing any of the songs” is not to reply, “OK, Boomer.” Instead, it’s to make sure that every service contains a few hymns that he does know.<\/p>\n
Anybody who thinks that hymns from 100 years ago can’t be relevant to today’s Christians hasn’t thoughtfully considered the lyrics of those hymns. Maybe they’re not as accessible as the latest Hillsong smash hit, but all of us can benefit from examining our faith from a cultural perspective that is not our own. I suspect, too, that if Boomer feels like he’s not being ignored, he’ll be more willing to learn a song or two that he doesn’t know.<\/p>\n
On the other end of the scale, you have younger brethren who are impatient with the status quo, who want to sing songs written in a culturally relevant style, who predict doom for the church if church music doesn’t sound like the world’s music. They shouldn’t be dismissed, either.<\/p>\n
After all, new things are always uncomfortable, and that goes double for what we sing in worship.<\/p>\n
So, too, it is with the praise songs of today. Most of them will be mercifully forgotten. The best of them will be incorporated into the repertoire alongside “When I Survey” and “I Am Thine, O Lord” to be defended by tomorrow’s traditionalists from whatever the next worship movement will be. There is nothing new under the sun, not even when it comes to new songs.<\/p>\n
For now, the best thing we can do is anticipate the process’s results. When we continue to sing from our musical heritage while adding to it the best and most useful of what is being written today, the results should be acceptable to everyone. They should ensure that God is glorified by our unity and our song.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Matthew W. Bassford Several weeks ago, I encountered an article called “The Devolution of Christian Congregational Worship.” [https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/…\/the-devolution-of-christian…\/] Judging from the title, I predicted that it would be another grumpy get-off-my-lawn rant about contemporary praise songs and the damage that they are doing to Christianity. I was not wrong. As always, I am struck…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[520,521],"class_list":["post-84545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-music","tag-songs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34759,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/review-of-songs-for-worship-and-praise\/","url_meta":{"origin":84545,"position":0},"title":"Review of Songs for Worship and Praise","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker The newest general hymnbook published for use among churches of Christ is\u00a0Songs for Worship and Praise, edited by Robert J. Taylor Jr., and published in 2010 by Taylor Publications of Montgomery, TX.\u00a0 Brother Taylor has been active in church music for many years.\u00a0 I believe that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/SongsForWorshipAndPraise-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":59766,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-songs-that-we-sing\/","url_meta":{"origin":84545,"position":1},"title":"The Songs That We Sing","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 7, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker As I was growing up, I loved to join in the singing of hymns and gospel songs during church services and other occasions where people gathered together to praise God in song, and through the years with my general love of music I have maintained an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59338,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-review-of-the-hymnbooks\/","url_meta":{"origin":84545,"position":2},"title":"A Review of the Hymnbooks","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker Originally published in Torch, October 1988 Please understand that my review is of necessity going to be biased by my own view of what constitutes a good hymn selection. With that in mind, I shall begin by saying that I grew up using the old \"brown\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":28218,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-do-you-think-of-songs-of-faith-and-praise\/","url_meta":{"origin":84545,"position":3},"title":"What do you think of Songs of Faith and Praise?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I am writing to you because I came across a blog you had on your website concerning your review of the Songs for Worship and Praise\u00a0hymnal. \u00a0I have owned the hymnal for a\u00a0couple\u00a0of months and also own\u00a0Songs of Faith and Praise\u00a0and\u00a0Praise for the Lord. \u00a0I am trying to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50030,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-i-get-a-hold-of-hymns-written-by-members-of-the-churches-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":84545,"position":4},"title":"How do I get a hold of hymns written by members of the churches of Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 27, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you know of any way to get a hold of a collection of hymns written by members of the churches of Christ? I very recently joined the church and have been wondering why we sing songs that were written by unsaved people? I actually love these old hymns\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61207,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-worship-wars\/","url_meta":{"origin":84545,"position":5},"title":"The “Worship Wars”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker In an article headlined \"Understanding the 'worship wars'\" from\u00a0World Magazine's website on October 16, 2009, Warren Cole Smith began, \"A recent Religion News Service dispatch caught my attention. Under the headline 'Missouri Synod Leaders Declare Worship Wars \"Sinful\"' came an article announcing the conservative Lutheran Church-Missouri\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}