Some of you are going to be offended by this entry. I apologize, in advance, and hope the offense isn't so much that you won't be visiting anymore. If it is, well...you'll be missed but I roll honestly around here and you know that. You'd be offended if I didn't, yes?
There's been an argument..parting of the ways...disagreement for YEARS in the realm of worship music. Contemporary versus traditional. I'm going to go on record and say that I am BEYOND worn out with this "discussion." I just want to sing. And I want to sing it all. I want to sing the music from my childhood. There are hymns that I cannot sing without flashing back to Yesteryear. I'm standing with Granny and Papa, wearing some lovely dotted Swiss creation, lovingly sewed for me by Granny. She's scooping and pouring those notes and he's steady on that bass line, until he's so "got off with" (translation= emotionally overcome)that he can hardly sing. I want to sing them so my children will know them...there is great meaning and artistry in some of those lyrics. They are timeless and should be taught to those coming behind us because they will ALWAYS be relevant.
I also want to sing the new songs. I want to keep my praise and worship fresh and vibrant. I don't like to eat the same thing for lunch everyday...I don't want to sing the same songs when I come to worship...be it on my own or corporately. I want to actively worship alongside of my boyos. I want to sing the songs that grab their hearts and leave them "got off with." There are some gifted modern day lyricists and composers amongst us and they are churning out INCREDIBLE tools of praise. To be quite frank with you, some of these songs...in about twenty years or so...will be looked at as "standards of the faith." I kid you not. Because He Lives was penned in 1971 by Bill and Gloria Gaither. Like anything new, I'm willing to bet (and I'm Baptist, so you know how we feel about such things) that it was met with opposition...just because it was new. Just because the language was a bit more modern than a lot of what was being sung in most churches of that era. Fast forward forty-one years, if anyone doing a hymnal revision were to suggest omitting BHL, he or she would be drummed out of the room! Shunned, even! All pot-luck lunch privileges revoked...FOREVER!
It's not in the hymnal...we shouldn't sing it. WRONG...check out the latest version of the Baptist Hymnal...there are A LOT of the more modern worship songs in the hymnal and by modern, I'm talking written since about 1990. So, if they are in the hymnal that makes them hymns, yes...and if they are hymns, then they MUST be okay to sing. NEXT!
That song was written over 100 years ago; it has no value to modern society. WRONG...one hundred years ago, society had a better collective grip on what was right and what was wrong. There was a reverence that the modern church has lost because we're trying to make worship about us...what's convenient for us..what's comfortable for us. IT'S NOT ABOUT US!!!
I sat through the entire service and didn't know any of the songs. Did you try to learn them? Did you try to sing them? Did you try to listen to the words and take them into your mind and heart? When you look through a new cookbook, do you throw it away because you don't know many of the recipes? It's amazing what happens when you try something new...sometimes, you find out that it's a very good thing.
I don't like singing the same seven words, eleven times over! Have you read Revelation...there are passages, upon passages that describe the words, "Holy, holy, holy!" being sung over and over and over. Do you REALLY believe that we're going to be singing all six verses of Amazing Grace? I love that song and I love all the verses but if you boil it down, the message of that song is very simple...I was lost, I was wretched, I was undone until found and saved by God's amazing grace. That's it.
I don't feel like I can worship when I'm singing the old songs. Are you kidding me? You can't worship when you hear Great is Thy Faithfulness, It Is Well With My Soul or How Great Thou Art? I'm just going to tell you, my brother/sister, that's more about YOU than the song. How do you NOT get excited when you sing Victory in Jesus? Again, are you listening to what you're singing? Are you reading the words? Do you believe what you're singing? If you do, how can you NOT worship?
Bottom line...our worship isn't about us. It's about Him. You get out of worship what you put into it, what you come expecting to receive. If you come with an open heart, an excited heart, a broken heart...a ready heart, you're going to walk out full to the brim. If you come full of yourself, there's no room for God to work and you wasted a trip driving to church.
There's been an argument..parting of the ways...disagreement for YEARS in the realm of worship music. Contemporary versus traditional. I'm going to go on record and say that I am BEYOND worn out with this "discussion." I just want to sing. And I want to sing it all. I want to sing the music from my childhood. There are hymns that I cannot sing without flashing back to Yesteryear. I'm standing with Granny and Papa, wearing some lovely dotted Swiss creation, lovingly sewed for me by Granny. She's scooping and pouring those notes and he's steady on that bass line, until he's so "got off with" (translation= emotionally overcome)that he can hardly sing. I want to sing them so my children will know them...there is great meaning and artistry in some of those lyrics. They are timeless and should be taught to those coming behind us because they will ALWAYS be relevant.
I also want to sing the new songs. I want to keep my praise and worship fresh and vibrant. I don't like to eat the same thing for lunch everyday...I don't want to sing the same songs when I come to worship...be it on my own or corporately. I want to actively worship alongside of my boyos. I want to sing the songs that grab their hearts and leave them "got off with." There are some gifted modern day lyricists and composers amongst us and they are churning out INCREDIBLE tools of praise. To be quite frank with you, some of these songs...in about twenty years or so...will be looked at as "standards of the faith." I kid you not. Because He Lives was penned in 1971 by Bill and Gloria Gaither. Like anything new, I'm willing to bet (and I'm Baptist, so you know how we feel about such things) that it was met with opposition...just because it was new. Just because the language was a bit more modern than a lot of what was being sung in most churches of that era. Fast forward forty-one years, if anyone doing a hymnal revision were to suggest omitting BHL, he or she would be drummed out of the room! Shunned, even! All pot-luck lunch privileges revoked...FOREVER!
It's not in the hymnal...we shouldn't sing it. WRONG...check out the latest version of the Baptist Hymnal...there are A LOT of the more modern worship songs in the hymnal and by modern, I'm talking written since about 1990. So, if they are in the hymnal that makes them hymns, yes...and if they are hymns, then they MUST be okay to sing. NEXT!
That song was written over 100 years ago; it has no value to modern society. WRONG...one hundred years ago, society had a better collective grip on what was right and what was wrong. There was a reverence that the modern church has lost because we're trying to make worship about us...what's convenient for us..what's comfortable for us. IT'S NOT ABOUT US!!!
I sat through the entire service and didn't know any of the songs. Did you try to learn them? Did you try to sing them? Did you try to listen to the words and take them into your mind and heart? When you look through a new cookbook, do you throw it away because you don't know many of the recipes? It's amazing what happens when you try something new...sometimes, you find out that it's a very good thing.
I don't like singing the same seven words, eleven times over! Have you read Revelation...there are passages, upon passages that describe the words, "Holy, holy, holy!" being sung over and over and over. Do you REALLY believe that we're going to be singing all six verses of Amazing Grace? I love that song and I love all the verses but if you boil it down, the message of that song is very simple...I was lost, I was wretched, I was undone until found and saved by God's amazing grace. That's it.
I don't feel like I can worship when I'm singing the old songs. Are you kidding me? You can't worship when you hear Great is Thy Faithfulness, It Is Well With My Soul or How Great Thou Art? I'm just going to tell you, my brother/sister, that's more about YOU than the song. How do you NOT get excited when you sing Victory in Jesus? Again, are you listening to what you're singing? Are you reading the words? Do you believe what you're singing? If you do, how can you NOT worship?
Bottom line...our worship isn't about us. It's about Him. You get out of worship what you put into it, what you come expecting to receive. If you come with an open heart, an excited heart, a broken heart...a ready heart, you're going to walk out full to the brim. If you come full of yourself, there's no room for God to work and you wasted a trip driving to church.
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