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Friday, August 01, 2014

Links on church music

The posting of links does not constitute an endorsement of the sites linked, and not necessarily even agreement with the specific posts linked.

* 15 Reasons Why We Should Still Be Using Hymnals -- 15 reasons, from "Hymnals allow people to take possession of the music" to "Hymnals involve tactile action" to "Hymnals give congregational singing back to the people."
* One Generation...Making the Case for Classical Christian Hymnody -- "What has happened in some sections of the Church is that THIS generation has told all the other generations to shut up and keep silent."
* Evaluating Contemporary Worship -- "Most who ask about music today seek a "traditional" service. Christian Contemporary Music is no longer the exception in evangelical churches; it is the norm."
* Misplacing Charisma: Where Contemporary Worship Lost Its Way -- "Particularly in mainline congregations influenced by the Church Growth Movement, “contemporary worship” was a technique for reaching out—the concept of “praise and worship” as sacramental/encounter was diluted at best."
* My position on “God bless america” being sung in corporate worship services -- "The fact that it has the word “God” in it doesn’t consecrate it for any holy use, in my mind."
* My position on patriotic celebrations in Christian worship -- "When our services focus on country and patriotism, there are conflicting messages sent as to what being a Christ-follower is all about."
* New harmonies: Music and identity at four congregations -- "There's either the densely theological hymn by Wesley or Luther (gobs of words sung over gobs of chords) or the vapid pop-rock song by some cool young person (maybe five words over three chords)."
* Not Just Any Song Will Do: Three basics for choosing church music -- "Why sing songs written by fallen mortals when Almighty God has inspired 150 of his own hymns?"
* The line connecting Gaelic psalm singing & American Music -- "The Massachusetts Bay Colony Psalm Book from 1640, which Ruff found in Yale's Beinecke Library, indicated that the unusual form, with one church member calling out the first line of a Psalm and the rest of the congregation continuing to chant the text in unison, had been a common worship service in Colonial America."
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree, yet it seems to me that many churches today are having patriotic services, show pride & proud hearts for this country. I attended a funeral service right after the 4th of July, afterwards I was talking with him & a IFB pastor who was present. On that Sunday morning both of them had patriotic service. Singing patriotic songs, saying the Pledge of Allegiance. It seems to have come to the point that some seems to think unless your a "Very Good Patriotic American," you cannot be a good Christian. I've never had such a worship service. To me worship service is 'All' about God the Father, & Jesus our Savior. I told those two pastors this & they looked down on me if I was crazy.

R. L. Vaughn said...

Old Cotton Picker, I am in agreement with you. Church service is no place for patriotic service. The twain should never mix.