In recent decades, many of
Scotland’s evangelical churches have changed the way they worship. Organists
and hymn books are out. The worship leader and his/her 3-4 piece band and
powerpoint presentations of song lyrics
are now ‘de rigeur’ in the church that aspires to be ‘contemporary’.
Don’t get me wrong, as a
bass guitarist and worship leader, I am passionate about enabling people to
move into the presence of God through the medium of music. Effective praise and
worship is the best preparation for receiving God’s word via the preacher. I do
however sometimes worry that much of the contemporary praise and worship music
served up in our churches is shallow, repetitive and theologically
questionable.
While the composition,
production and marketing of contemporary praise and worship music is a growth
industry, much of what is produced is second rate. In my experience, only one
song in twelve from the average praise and worship CD is worthy of use in a
church service. Meanwhile, much of the huge catalogue of what is now described
as ‘traditional music’ has been consigned to the dustbin of history, by the up
and coming younger, enthusiastic and, performance orientated worship leaders.
As a result, this has fuelled a ‘dumbing down’ of the worship experience,
producing an ethos and environment of bland, ‘vanilla vulgarity’ in some of our
churches.
I was therefore greatly
encouraged when I came upon an article entitled: ‘The power of a great hymn’ by
Bill O’Connor. He argues that there is a clear case for maintaining the best of
our so-called traditional hymns, particularly when they are given a
contemporary arrangement. Here are some of the very good reasons keeping
traditional hymns:
Great hymns keep us in touch with our
Christian heritage.
Hymns expose us to poetry and some o the
greatest music ever written.
Hymns give our worship a sense of majesty and
beauty and embed Christian truths in our minds and hearts.
Hymns are one of the most effective ways to
teach Christian doctrine.
Hymns help us lift our hearts to God and
exalt and magnify the Lord Jesus Christ.
For me the power of our
great hymns is such that when exposed to them with an open heart, worship takes
place.......it’s inevitable.
Hymns when well arranged,
rehearsed by a group of skilled musicians pave the way for the sermon and give
the message a better chance of making a lasting impact. The key to a
well-rounded worship experience is a balance of theologically sound
contemporary songs and great hymns.
The simple 3-4 chord
repetitive contemporary songs have their place. They are ‘happy clappy’ catchy
tunes which require minimal musical skill or rehearsal time but offer instant
gratification. When mixed with the ‘strong meat’ of a traditional hymn from the
great gospel writers such as Moody and Sankey, real worship takes place.
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