OK, so several of you have challenged me to consider other ways to view the subject of what type of songs we sing in our worship assemblies...
My argument (see previous post "who is sharon") had to do with relevance. Since some of you asked the very pertinent question "what about me?" (I'm paraphrasing, of course), I have studied and considered (and continue to study and consider) that aspect of the worship...
The discussion is this: what if those old songs DO speak to me? What if my sweet grandmother took the time to explain 'rose of Sharon' and 'night with ebon pinion' and 'ebeneezer', thereby making them relevant to me?
And, I have to admit, I hadn't considered the implications of that... I was thinking primarily of our children or the seeker or new brother or sister who is being assimilated into our fellowship... and, for them, I have to say… some of our old hymns must seem like code words with secret meanings, for which they must have a secret decoder ring to decrypt and understand them!
(I have to stop and say that I REALLY LOVE some of those old songs!!! I truly do! And please understand: 1) these posts are just my considered opinion… and 2) it is never my intention to alienate or upset people who are kind enough to read this blog... )
and, incidentally, I was not trying to make a case for throwing out all the old songs to the exclusion of the new 'praise and worship 7-11' songs... my concern was/is relevance.
So, let me say that I have considered (and continue to study) that aspect...
and I still believe it circles back to the same, central question: who is our audience, and what is the relevance? During our worship, who are we singing for and to? Well, obviously, GOD is an audience of one... no question about it. That's the vertical part... so, with regard to the horizontal part (Colossians 3:16, Ephesians 5:19), to whom are we singing?
A friend of mine suggests that the Biblical examples we have of 'worship singing' seem to include the 'members'... the 'saved'...
Listen to the language and you will see his point: "teach and admonish one another" and "speak to one another" may indeed suggest that the horizontal audience is comprised of fellow Christians.... so what do we do with that? I dunno... but, taken to its logical extreme, wouldn't that mean that today's church should be singing the exact same songs that it was singing in the first century... and in the exact same way they were sung then... (by the way, is it possible the 1st century church was struggling with this? could it be there were some who wanted to sing the songs their ancestors had sung, while others were leaning toward those wild, new-fangled Gregorian chants?) ...sorry, I digress...
Here's the deal: it is unrealistic to think that the songs we sing this Sunday are the ones our grandchildren will be singing on Sunday, May 5, 2052! and it is similarly unrealistic to believe that we should be singing the songs Kelly's grandma Hazel enjoyed when she was a young woman in the 1950's... so what are we hanging on to?
And to the extent we will or should be expected to explain archaic language to our kids or new seekers so they can understand our old favorite songs, I wonder if our time may be better spent teaching them the simple truths of the Bible (using, by the way, a contemporary-language version...) Speaking of that, one could use this same reasoning to promote sticking with the King James version of the Bible… but few people would argue that we should intentionally expose our children – or any new ‘seeker’ – to the KJV as a primary method of learning ‘the story’… OK, another can of worms… sorry.
But… again, taken to its logical extreme, the 'hanging on' mentality will necessarily mean that our assemblies will become less - not more – relevant… to anyone but us!
On another note: All my life I have felt that our 'church' life was separate from our ‘everyday’ life... it is something I believe – at a visceral level- we must change! I do not want to perpetuate the habit which separates and compartmentalizes our Christianity from 'real life'… it is my goal in life to NOT perpetuate that cycle. I want to close the gap between our ‘Tuesday’ life and our ‘Sunday’ life…
So, for me, that compartmentalizing is all about relevance... what we do on Tuesday MUST be relevant to what we ‘do’ on Sunday…
So why would I want to use some secret, exclusionary, almost inexplicable language on Sunday (whether in song or prayer or scripture reading) that I use in no other part of my life? When I do that (as we have for generations), the gap widens, and I virtually guarantee the perpetuation of the ‘separation’ of ‘church’ and ‘life’…
OK, I’m ranting… again, sorry for that… I welcome your thoughts…
God Bless!
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2 comments:
OK... so I've been reading your blogs for about 2 months now and have wanted to comment on so many of them.....not sure why the "Sharon" sequel has spoke so close to me but it has. The whole music thing has always perplexed me at the CofC. As a young girl 10, 11, 12....not sure when but at some point saying to my mom and dad- We are going to have to do something more to get to people. That we are competing with the "world, ie...the devil" and that if we don't make this a little more interesting or actually show people that God is happy, fun a joyous thing then I'm afraid we are never going to win this battle. Some of these songs are really boring and I really don't get it. Well, of course they tried to explain them to me....but it was still as greek as it could be. Not that all the songs that we grew up singing at the CofC weren't great.... I love singing the old hymns. Now as I'm older they mean even more. But as I stand in church today and raise my hands to my Savior the Spirit fills my heart, I know there is more. God has given many folks the gift of words and of music...just as he had given those in years past. We should not be limited to what has become the "custom or tradition". The music ministry has really helped me in furthering my walk with the Lord and I believe it's been responsible for many others learning and understanding about Christ as well. There is no way that anyone today could listen to some of the "praise and worship" songs and not feel a connection. What would be wrong with singing the old and the new? I think that God wants us to not get comfortable with things. That we should daily be renewed- with that renewal comes "new" things. That we shouldn't just do the same thing everyday...that we should be Spirit led. If we let the Spirit lead and we feel like there should be a change in a particular "tradition" then we should embrace the Spirit and know that by not doing it, we are conforming to "religion" and as many know "religion" can be the enemy of "christianity". So if we recognize the need to broaden our "music" roots that's exactly what we should do. What happens could really surprise folks! Hopefully, this made sense....basically, I just wanted you to know that it's not so bad...change...God doesn't ask that we get used to Him but instead that we seek Him...who knows he might be there in a few of those "praise and worship" songs.
Tim, your blogs are great. I've really enjoyed reading them!
Paige
how very kind of you to read my blog.... and even kinder of you to respond! great post... thanks you! God Bless!
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