Worship Music 2.0 - May 11,2022
Back in January of 2021 I wrote my first “Worship Blog” for Mountainview. You can read it here. In that first blog, among other things, I quoted from a little-known booklet from CRC Publications “Authentic Worship in a Changing Culture” published in 1997. Here is that quote again:
“When our hearts are right, we will refuse to be controlled by caricatures of the worship of those with whom we disagree. We will resist labels like traditional and contemporary when they are used to put down others. We will quit trashing hymnals and traditions and quit using highly judgmental words like ditties and schlock [today we say things like 7/11 songs which is equally offensive] to describe contemporary music. We will not come to church looking for things with which we disagree in worship, but we will come to WORSHIP, regardless of what happens “up front” in a particular worship service.” – Authentic Worship in a Changing Culture, p. 52
This book was written at the height of the worship conflict in many Christian Reformed churches, 25 years ago. Recently two separate, short articles in the Banner caused these labels “traditional” and “contemporary” to be escalated yet again into un-necessary divisive worship-war talk. Worship directors and planners and leaders everywhere were dis-heartened. I wish we were past these old arguments. Worship is so much more complicated and nuanced and important and rich! We cannot reduce it to the generalizations or categories of (old) hymns against newer modern songs, or youth v. seniors. Because even in trying to find labels (so we can find ourselves on one side or the other of this argument) we fall short.
There are many modern worship songs, written in a standard hymn-form. Are these contemporary songs or hymns? There are non-hymns written in the 1970’s that we use in worship: are those contemporary because they aren’t hymns (eg Lord I lift your name on high. Shine Jesus Shine)? Where does “Will you come and Follow Me” by John Bell, a Scottish minister and musician, fit in these two limited categories? What about “In Christ Alone”? Hymn or contemporary? Both? Neither? What about “Father let your kingdom come” by Porter’s Gate? This was written very recently making it contemporary in the sense of “now.” Is it then in the “contemporary” group? In what ways is it or is it not like “Way Maker” or “Open the eyes of my heart Lord”? All of these are more or less “contemporary” but the forms are so different; they can’t be all categorized as the “same.”
I’m sure you see the point I’m trying to make. The word “hymn” refers to the compositional form of a particular song; and “contemporary” is a word indicating a time-frame, usually referring to the context of “now” or current. We can’t use these words on opposite sides of a continuum. Nor can we assume that all youth love Hillsong worship songs or that all seniors want to sing hymns.
Could we do better, and think more imaginatively? Let’s not reduce the work of worship planning to an imaginary two categories of music, of which we must choose some of each.
Here are 5 spectrums of categories I try to use when choosing songs for worship (thinking of both lyrics and melody). These are continuums:
Simple ….. Complex.
Familiar…. New
Formation (head/doctrine) …... Expression (heart/emotion)
Pastoral (comfort) ….Prophetic (challenging)
Congregational….. Presentational
And then we must consider even more: tone, mood, theme, church season, congregational context, length of service. Perhaps instead of asking if any song fits our category of contemporary or hymn, why not ask how the song connects with the message and themes we are exploring together? Or how does this song help me pray? How does it help me praise? Or how do all of the parts of worship: (songs, images, art, readings, prayers, sermon) reveal God to me? Or reveal something about me, and ways that I could grow in faith?
My hope and prayer, and this is a BIG hope and prayer, is that we learn to be open to worshiping God through ALL that is offered in a service. Even the parts we don’t like.
Ruth Ann
P.S. I encourage you to also read Laura DeJong’s blog “Can we complicate our worship conversations?” which expresses many of these same ideas.
https://blog.reformedjournal.com/2022/05/05/can-we-complicate-our-worship-conversations/