I grew up in the church - I'm a PK. My mother played the piano, and my father led the congregational singing. Often, my father would encourage the congregants to think deeply about the lyrics of the songs we were singing. That encouragement made me really appreciate the Holy Spirit inspired verses of those great songs - many of which had verses taken straight from the Bible. Our hymnal even indicated from where in the Bible the lyrics were drawn. At the time, I didn't even realize how wonderful it was to be singing the hymns with a whole congregation of people singing, too! Those hymns were "the music of God's church." And, they had been for many decades - even centuries.
A friend loaned me a DVD about George Wallace, and the title role was played by Gary Sinese. Toward the end of the movie, Wallace had come to realize he had compromised his principles - one by one - until he was sick of himself. He was seated in the back seat of his car and the driver stopped for a red light. Wallace rolled down his window and he could hear the music from a Sunday night church service. As he listened to the congregation sing, "Beneath The Cross Of Jesus," his eyes filled with tears. He instructed the driver to pull over and he entered the church. They sang:
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock Within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness; A rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noon-time heat
And the burden of the day.
Wallace was convicted and renewed his commitment to God right then and there.
But, try to imagine the scene: He rolled down his window and overheard a Sunday night song service and the congregation was singing (together - all of them) a hymn that was written in mid 19th century that, at that time, was known to ALL protestant Christians of all denominations.
One of my very favorite hymns is entitled, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
Great is Thy faithfulness, Oh God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, Moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside!
That's another of the great hymns that ALL Christians recognized and would sing in church for many decades. And, again, I'm referring to a time when the vast majority of the congregants actually sang together.
But, those times are now over. Now, there is a "worship team" that does all the singing for you. The music part of the service has become a spectator experience. They put the words up on a screen, but there are a few reasons why the congregation no longer participates. First, the lyrics of the songs are less than moving.
This past Sunday, I sat and listened as the worship team performed on stage. I read the lyrics on the screen and here they are:
He is worthy
He is worthy
He is worthy
He is worthy to be praised.
The worship team sang those four lines over and over for seven minutes. I thoroughly agree that He is, indeed worthy to be praised. But, just repeating a line over and over again seems redundant to me. And, how acquainted with the Scripture would one need to be to come up with these lyrics? Great is Thy Faithfulness was obviously written by someone who was very acquainted with his Bible - especially Lamentations. When I was a child, the children's songs we were taught had more depth than "He is worthy times 21."
Second, the volume of the worship team's performance is so loud, I don't know if I'd be able to hear myself sing. Indeed, the whole "song service" with drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, and multiple singers emulates the performances we see on TV quite well, and when you watch live performances of secular bands, the crowd is supposed to be entertained - not participate.
Third, just like pop music, the tunes change almost quarterly. You can't really masterfully sing a song the very first time you hear the melody. So, unless you're a member of the worship team, which means you go to rehearsals at least once a week, you won't know the song, and therefore, you'll just leave it to the team to sing for you.
I can easily imagine someone reading what I have written here and surmising that I'm just an old fashioned, grumpy curmudgeon. But, I have to believe that anyone who would just make that assumption and leave it at that has never experienced what it is like to be in a large congregation with everyone in attendance singing heartily their worship to the Lord. Oh how I miss those days. Now, I just wait for that part of the service to be over and hope the Holy Spirit speaks to me through the message of the pastor.
A friend loaned me a DVD about George Wallace, and the title role was played by Gary Sinese. Toward the end of the movie, Wallace had come to realize he had compromised his principles - one by one - until he was sick of himself. He was seated in the back seat of his car and the driver stopped for a red light. Wallace rolled down his window and he could hear the music from a Sunday night church service. As he listened to the congregation sing, "Beneath The Cross Of Jesus," his eyes filled with tears. He instructed the driver to pull over and he entered the church. They sang:
Beneath the cross of Jesus I fain would take my stand,
The shadow of a mighty rock Within a weary land;
A home within the wilderness; A rest upon the way,
From the burning of the noon-time heat
And the burden of the day.
Wallace was convicted and renewed his commitment to God right then and there.
But, try to imagine the scene: He rolled down his window and overheard a Sunday night song service and the congregation was singing (together - all of them) a hymn that was written in mid 19th century that, at that time, was known to ALL protestant Christians of all denominations.
One of my very favorite hymns is entitled, "Great Is Thy Faithfulness."
Great is Thy faithfulness, Oh God my Father;
There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not; Thy compassions, they fail not;
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
Sun, Moon and stars in their courses above,
Join with all nature in manifold witness
To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow
Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside!
That's another of the great hymns that ALL Christians recognized and would sing in church for many decades. And, again, I'm referring to a time when the vast majority of the congregants actually sang together.
But, those times are now over. Now, there is a "worship team" that does all the singing for you. The music part of the service has become a spectator experience. They put the words up on a screen, but there are a few reasons why the congregation no longer participates. First, the lyrics of the songs are less than moving.
This past Sunday, I sat and listened as the worship team performed on stage. I read the lyrics on the screen and here they are:
He is worthy
He is worthy
He is worthy
He is worthy to be praised.
The worship team sang those four lines over and over for seven minutes. I thoroughly agree that He is, indeed worthy to be praised. But, just repeating a line over and over again seems redundant to me. And, how acquainted with the Scripture would one need to be to come up with these lyrics? Great is Thy Faithfulness was obviously written by someone who was very acquainted with his Bible - especially Lamentations. When I was a child, the children's songs we were taught had more depth than "He is worthy times 21."
Second, the volume of the worship team's performance is so loud, I don't know if I'd be able to hear myself sing. Indeed, the whole "song service" with drums, bass, guitars, keyboards, and multiple singers emulates the performances we see on TV quite well, and when you watch live performances of secular bands, the crowd is supposed to be entertained - not participate.
Third, just like pop music, the tunes change almost quarterly. You can't really masterfully sing a song the very first time you hear the melody. So, unless you're a member of the worship team, which means you go to rehearsals at least once a week, you won't know the song, and therefore, you'll just leave it to the team to sing for you.
I can easily imagine someone reading what I have written here and surmising that I'm just an old fashioned, grumpy curmudgeon. But, I have to believe that anyone who would just make that assumption and leave it at that has never experienced what it is like to be in a large congregation with everyone in attendance singing heartily their worship to the Lord. Oh how I miss those days. Now, I just wait for that part of the service to be over and hope the Holy Spirit speaks to me through the message of the pastor.