Comments on: Worship in the Church: traditional or contemporary?

By: Dacia

Dacia — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:31:59 +0000

I don’t know. I think whatever helps people worship God is good. And what’s that verse in the Bible where it says the angels sing “holy holy holy” repeatedly for eternity? Simple can be good.

By: Hopeful Spirit

Hopeful Spirit — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 08:05:29 +0000

Another convert from Blogger to WordPress! Hurray! You will never regret it. The new site looks GREAT!

I hope that you will participate in the first-ever Group Writing Project that Tami, Shalene, and I are hosting! You can read the details at On the Horizon. All you need to do is send a link to your post to me via e-mail. It will then appear on all three of our sites and, hopefully, allow a good number of folks to read your thoughts about thankfulness and Christianity! Please join us!

By: Beth K. Vogt

Beth K. Vogt — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 05:00:34 +0000

I’ve had the advantage of being exposed to both the old hymns ( I love The Old Rugged Cross) and the new contemporary songs (I also love Blessed Be Your Name.)
The points you make are good ones–avoiding shallow theology–and this is true whether it is in the music we sing or the sermons we hear or the Bible studies we attend.
It seems like the topic of worship style will always be one that is controversial.

By: ashley

ashley — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 03:36:41 +0000

i was so glad to see this post today. my mom and i were just talking about this topic this afternoon. while i enjoy the more “culturally relevant” music of most contemporary praise and worship songs, i am continually blown away by the theology and story in traditional hymns. i wish that more people could fully appreciate both forms of worship. it seems like such a huge, unecessary division in the church today. they both have so much to offer believers.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 01:18:17 +0000

Now you know how I love “Jesus is my boyfriend” music but I’ll admit I was a little disturbed about putting the new with the old. Isn’t that what jumbo-trons and Powerpoint presentations are for? My grandfather not only knew every verse of every hymn, he knew which page it was on. We spent our entire lives singing from a hymnal. That being said, I feel like I get “more in the Spirit” with contemporary worship songs.
But if we are talking with an underground bias from the old crowd against ruining the purity of hymns, let’s not forget that many of our hymns were words put to the tunes of tavern songs in the 18th and 19th century.

By: Heidi

Heidi — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 01:38:34 +0000

I too listened to this story on my way to church this morning. Brent (my nephew) & I were really waiting for the puzzle…but I kind of chuckled to myself as I thought if this is the **only** issue we had as a church we’d be in heaven (probably both literally and figuratively).

By: Jen

Jen — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:41:02 +0000

I hadn’t thought of the dialect issue, but you’re right, some of the language is outdated. When I think the old hymns, I think mostly of their choruses, which tend to be more simply worded (right?).

I was also thinking of that Matt Redman (oops, spelled it wrong in my post, but corrected it) song as an example of contemporary worship with good theology. It’s a song I listened to often in the hight of my grieving Gordy’s death. These verses of the song really kept me grounded in the sovereignty of Jesus in that situation:

Blessed be Your name
When the sun’s shining down on me
When the world’s ‘all as it should be’
Blessed be Your name

Blessed be Your name
On the road marked with suffering
Though there’s pain in the offering
Blessed be Your name

Every blessing You pour out
I’ll turn back to praise
When the darkness closes in, Lord
Still I will say

Blessed be the name of the Lord

By: christa

christa — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 21:01:00 +0000

I have many thoughts on this issue…but will keep to a few…:) I love both the old hymns and the new choruses…one issue that I have with hymns is that, like the King James Version of scripture, they are often hard to understand, using words that we MIGHT understand if we were “brought up” in the church, but probably wouldn’t if we weren’t…”He rent my fetters in twain?!?” Choruses are often words directly out of the scripture put to music and I actually find them to be more relevant to my life today…I tend to find poor theology sometimes in both the old hymns and some of the new choruses…I think both can be learned from and appreciate the thought that goes into the service where I worship to incorporate both.

During both the difficult times in my life, I find both “Blessed Assurance” and “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord” (Matt Redman) running through my head and I’m thankful for both…