Or not. Or do. I LOVE singing hymns. Love them, really do. I want my kids to hear and know the words too (not necessarily the organ, et. al. Though I do like the organ…anyway.) I also LOVE new music that allows me to WORSHIP God in the beauty of His holiness and brings HIM GLORY. (that is the point, not my LIKES, but then, my likes are important…to me…dang.)
I am glad that there are different styles now at different gatherings (churches). For those still fighting over music…ummm, get over it. Start a new service maybe (but please don’t do a contemporary service @ 8:00 am…I swear I see that all the time.)
Long live all music that honors GOD and draws my spirit upward (but therein lies the problem…MY PREFERENCE, which is all it is.) And praise God that we have people at New Hope who don’t necessarily LOVE the music, but LOVE the mission. Blessings to you. And to all of our WORSHIP TEAMS and LEADERS…you are amazing. Thanks for being LEAD WORSHIPPERS. You do an outstanding job bringing HIM glory!
Check this post out…it will help you see why “there is NOTHING new under the sun.” (Ecclesiastes)
Dan Kimball includes a couple of letters in a recent blog post that I found interesting. Not sure if these can be substantiated as fact, but take a look… it sounds about right…
“I am no music scholar, but I feel I know appropriate church music when I hear it. Last Sunday’s new hymn – if you can call it that – sounded like a sentimental love ballad one would expect to hear crooned in a saloon. If you insist on exposing us to rubbish like this – in God’s house! – don’t be surprised if many of the faithful look for a new place to worship. The hymns we grew up with are all we need.”
Of course, this letter was written in 1863, and the song they were talking about was “Just as I Am”. Here’s another one…
“What is wrong with the inspiring hymns with which we grew up? When I go to church, it is to worship God, not to be distracted with learning a new hymn. Last Sunday’s was particularly unnerving. The tune was un-singable and the new harmonies were quite distorting.”
This letter was written in 1890 and about the hymn “What A Friend We Have In Jesus”.
Blessings and peace.
ht [mmi]
Well I haven’t been going to church long enough to get to know all of these hymns that people hold so dear. I understand that they are age old songs, and I’m sure God is well pleased with them. So please don’t think that I’m knocking them.I thank God that there is music in churches that lights a fire in my soul. A fire that makes me want to drop to my knees and praise Him with all that is in me. It is so hard for me, (and I wish that it wasn’t), to worship our Lord with the older hymns. Not because I think that they are old fashion, or they’re bad songs (most of them are beautiful), and not because I think that they don’t bring glory to God. Like I said before, I think, no I know that God loves those tunes. For me, at least, it’s hard because: A. I don’t know those songs, like i said I’m new.2. They just don’t speak to my soul, don’t ask me why.D. When I feel like I’m truly worshiping, I lose myself in the moment, caught up in His glory i guess. It’s hard for me to do that when I can’t relate to rhythm patterns and so forth. That’s just me. You can say I’m wrong all you want, I don’t care. Just know that this is the personal opinion of a “rock and roll guy” who desperately needed Jesus in his life. And I mean desperately. And He showed up HUGE to me in the music. HUGE. Contemporary Christian Worship music. God new where I needed to be.I don’t think contemporary is for everyone, by any means. But it is for me. Heck, sometimes I worship with secular music. It just depends on how the Spirit in me receives it, and whether or not I lift it up to God. If the message of the song is right, absolutely.I don’t think we should quarrel about what “type” of music we should worship God with. I believe that the worst singer in the world could sing the ugliest tune ever written, and if it was for God, He would love it that much more.I think Charles knows my heart on this, and if he doesn’t, he does now. Where do you stand?
Mikey,You might not know those old songs, but you certainly know how to worship, and what worship is all about.Worship is not about us at all. It’s all about the One that all worship was written, new and old!
Just a comment on the old hymns… and I love some of those songs, however if you go back to the origin of most old hymns, they are actually old bar tunes with new lyrics… What’s “appropriate”? Well… if God moves a person through music to worship Him, then it’s appropriate! It really doesn’t matter the style… and yes, worship is all about HIM not us and our preferences of music or any other form of worship. When we get into those “battles” we take the focus off of Jesus and we begin to worship ourselves.