Hey guys! I miss not having class already! So, I just watched this video and really enjoyed it if you have time (It's an hour long) you should really check it out. If you don't have an hour that's ok because underneath the video is a "menu" of what questions are at what time seeing as it's an interview. The interview is about Bob Kauflin and he resonates a ton of the things we have spoken about. Here's the link: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/dg-live/dg-live-with-bob-kauflin--2#/watch/full

Here's one I'm watching right now so I can't say anything about it!

Bob Kauflin preaching: http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/conference-messages/words-of-wonder-what-happens-when-we-sing

Looking through all your songs and loving them ever more!

Need for Change?

In the writings of Joe Horness (contemporary representative) and Sally Morgenthaler (emerging representative), I have often sensed a common theme. It seems as if both of these movements have a fear of the church's antiquated past. This fear functions as an undercurrent for their respective positions on worship in the church. Although this fear has not been directly addressed before, it bubbled to the surface in today's reading.

In Horness's response to Sally's proposal, he says, "[W]e must constantly remind ourselves that to stay relevant and meaningful to people we really love and care about, we have to grow younger or our church will just grow old. (241)" Interesting statement... especially considering the fact that the church is approximately 2,000 years old!

Although I have appreciated hearing Horness and Morgenthaler on various issues regarding worship, this fear seems unfounded. If we really believe the Bible is the Word of God, there is no pressing need to remain culturally relevant. We have reason to believe that the same old things (reading, preaching, praying, singing the Word) will continue to work for every culture in every age just as they have done in the past. Why do we feel this constant need for change?

A Recipe for More Kirk McPhersons

I think Paul Zahl makes a good point in his criticism to Sally's article when he points out that "The practical burden laid on us by her idea, however, is considerable. In her changed universe, it is make-it-up-as-you-go-along-Sunday-to-Sunday world for worship leaders." Sally's idea of a worship service creates an immense responsibility for the worship leader to come up with something that is new, contemporary and different each week. Under this pressure a leader simply cannot thrive. This will create Kirk McPherson scenarios in the leaders of our churches. This is not the kind of leader or leadership we should desire in our churches. It creates leaders who are more concerned about finding the next new and creative idea than they are about feeding their sheep which in turn results in a congregation full of Biblically ignorant people because their leaders have neglected teaching them from the Bible. So, in this scenario we have burnt out worship leaders trying to feed a congregation of people who have yet to move from milk to meat in their knowledge of the Scriptures. I think we would all agree this is not the Biblical model for worship that properly brings glory to God.

“It is the remark of Dr. J. Edward…

…that it is the command of God that all should sing….Those therefore who have musical faculties and neglect to improve them are living in sin, for it is an ordinance of God’s worship in which all are commanded to join” (p. 198).

Dr. Kauffman has often remarked that it’s not impossible for anyone to learn how to sing, it’s natural, it’s part of being human, it’s wired into the brain. “Living in sin” sounds pretty harsh for an average churchgoer that “just doesn’t sing.” But singing is an experience that edifies oneself by preaching the gospel, edifies the body by hearing one another’s words and being united, and glorifies God by obeying his command to sing.

William Caldwell

As a singer I particularly enjoyed William Caldwell's Preface to Union Harmony:

"The giver of every good and perfect gift has been pleased to bless us with singing faculties, and to music we are indebted for one of the most refined and exalted pleasures which the bounty of heaven ever permitted to gladden the hearts of the children of men."

What a beautiful description of the gift of song that God has given us! But he didn't stop there..

"Then, most certainly, it is reasonable that we improve those faculties of our nature as we have opportunity that we may be prepared to exercise them in accents of acceptable praise to our Creator... Music like all other sciences must be critically learned, or it can never be performed correctly, and if it is the duty of one, it surely is the duty of all to sing... those therefore who have musical faculties and neglect to improve them are living in sin, for it is an ordinance of Gods' worship in which all are commanded to join."

God has given us a gift and Caldwell reminds us that we must use that gift to the best of our ability. I found this article freeing as it pointed out the duty we have to sing and to sing correctly by critically learning the science of music. I'm sure the rest of you can see how, as a music major, I appreciated and was challenged by this article. What a perfect summary for this class and challenge to a beginning of a semester.

Total Neglect

“The Total Neglect of Singing Psalms, by many serious Christians, for want of Skill in Singing Psalm Tunes. There are many who never employ their Tongues in singing God’s praises, because they have not the skill […] It is to be feared Singing must be wholly omitted in some paces for want of skill.” (180) Although I believe the main reason we no longer sing hymns and psalms is an artifactual reason I do believe that in one sense we don’t sing them because we now lack the skill. We no longer know how to read music and in many cases we no longer know how to read deep texts with understanding. How did this happen? I believe Thomas Symmes struggled with the same problem when he wrote, “The declining from, and getting beside the Rule was gradual and insensible.” (182) Just like Thomas we need to strive to teach our brothers and sisters and lead them back to the greener pastures we wandered from.

Gotta love the Sixties!

I believe we all covered most of the main points yesterday in our discussion. However, I personally felt the lack of being able to see the difference between modernism and post-modernism. Most of the changes that occurred happened when I was too young to notice the difference. I can now theorize about what the differences are but pragmatically I really don’t remember and have absolutely no knowledge of what it was like before “my time.” That being said, I found it very interesting that both Best and Williams stated that Sally’s “radical” view was not radical at all and was actually very similar to what happened in the 1960s “when virtually every sense, conviction, and passion could be illustrated in gesture, metaphor, sit-in, teach-in, walk-on, an street art. What was missing then seems missing in emerging worship: simplicity, directness, and sparseness.” (235) Williams wrote, “Her proposals for the deconstruction and reconstruction of worship sound radical. In fact, virtually all tried in the late 1960s and early 1970s as mainline churches felt the crush of counterculture and the new winds of liturgical renewal.” (246) Williams goes on to say that these changes were brought about because of culture and changed as soon as culture moved on. He also wrote that the 60s movement was shallow in theology, history, and constantly tented to the bizarre. I get the feeling like the 60s was the same story in that the church conformed to the world.

Keep the Psalms Too!

I know that there wasn't much information per se, but I could resonate with Jonathan Edwards here on what he felt for his congregation. "When I came home I did not like their making some use of the Hymns: but did not like their setting aside the Psalms..." (184) Coming from a church background with no Psalm singing whatsoever, I'm glad that even in a more modern setting with hymns, that Edwards wanted to see his people keep the songs and not neglect them. Oh how I hope to come to love the Psalms and psalter for their place in my worship toward the God who they're all about!

The Future of the Church and Culture

Robert Webber is a pretty smart guy, isn't he? He very clearly summarizes something that I think is crucial and key to how the church must deal with culture, something that's a major theme of Sally's article. "The ancient church teaches us three relationships to culture all at once: It is part of it; it is antithesis to it; it is called to transform it. These relationship are always held in tension with culture. And depending on the condition of culture, they change in the intensity from place to place and time to time."(148) These three categories sounded very familiar to me. Mark Driscoll posted a blog about culture that is very helpful (I'll put the link at the bottom). His three categories are Receive, Reject, or Redeem. Sound familiar? Through this grid, I think Sally is very right where many churches should be scolded for their holding on to tradition for tradition's sake and not looking be cultural at all. These people are not "Receiving" culture at all, which is a problem. The problem that I (as well as most everybody else) is that Sally doesn't seem to want to reject anything in culture. She says "come on in! The water's fine!" But is that what we should be doing? Finally, I think there certainly is a third way, a good way, (perhaps even the best way?), "Redeem". For this, I look to Driscoll's church, Mars Hill (Seattle). I personally know that much of the music that comes from his church is God-honor, Christ-exalting, Spirit-enabled worship, but comes through as hard rock (such as a rendition of Depth of Mercy) or contemporary (a rendition of Love Lifted Me). How can we, being the next generation of faithful, Gospel-centered believers help shape our churches around properly receiving, rejecting, and redeeming culture?

http://theresurgence.com/2010/12/07/why-christians-go-postal-over-facebook-jay-z-yoga-avatar-and-culture-in-general

http://theresurgence.com/pages/kenosis-depth-of-mercy

God-given gifts

William Billings said, “But thus much would I say, That he who finds gifted with a tunable Voice, and yet neglects to cultivate it, not only hides in the Earth a Talent of the highest Value, but robs himself of the peculiar Pleasure, of which they only are conscious who exercise that Faculty.” (186) Music is a gift from God and it is very powerful indeed. So powerful that it can even become a god. God gave us the gift of music and the ability to enjoy and use it, especially to His glory. I agree with Billings that if we develop those God-given attributes and use them to glorify God and serve other people, great things can be accomplished. However, if we neglect or attempt to use our gifts in ways that God did not intend, our lives will be filled with frustration and failure. This sentence reminds me that God has entrusted His people with these wonderful gifts and when He comes back, I want to be a person who is found ready, who does not waste the gift He has given me.

Staying relevant

Horness said, “In short, we must constantly remind ourselves that to stay relevant and meaningful to people we really love and care about, we have to grow younger or our church will just grow old.” (241) It is true that we have a lot to learn about this generation but do we necessarily have to go with the flow just to become more and more like a “seeker sensitive” church? We should be extremely cautious about putting to much emphasis on meeting one’s emotional or “felt” needs rather than preaching the Gospel. How the younger generation feels on issues regarding worship, the program and the teaching environment is too much focused nowadays that the foundation, which the Word, the Gospel is placed as secondary (At least, that is what I am seeing happening) As the younger generation is searching for answers all over the place, should we not go back to the only thing that is relevant, the Bible?

A Fitting Summary

William Caldwell's words provide a beautiful summary to everything we have discussing for the past two weeks. "The giver of every good and perfect gift has been pleased to bless us with singing faculties, and to music we are indebted for one of the most refined and exalted pleasures which the bounty of heaven ever permitted to gladden the hearts of the children of men. Then, most certainly, it is the reasonable that we improve those faculties of our nature as we have opportunity that we may be prepared to exercise them in accents of acceptable praise to our Creator. (198)" Caldwell rightly viewed the singing of God's praises as both a duty and a pleasure.

As we prepare to enter the Spring semester of 2012, may this quotation remind us that Hymnology was much more than three academic credits. This course has given us some great tools that we can use to worship God throughout the rest of our lives.

The Future Well-Being of Society

In Robert Lowry and W. Howard Doane's essay, they state, "The music of the Sunday School is now acknowledged to be an important factor in that grand educational force which is levering up the rising generation to a plane of personal morality and Christian enlightenment. It is admitted that the Sunday School is more potent in providing for the future well-being of Society, than any other instrumentality that affects to mould the coming constituents of the Commonwealth; while no one questions that the saving truths of the Scripture are nowhere brought to bear with greater converting power on the minds of our children, than in the Sunday School. How important, therefore, that the material of a Sunday School Song Book should be made up of the "Pure Gold" of God's Word, with the truths of that Word concreting themselves in Christian experience and life!" (204)

Well, I would have to agree with Lowry and Doane. I never really thought of how important Sunday School is for the souls of our children until this year. Instead, I thought "it's probably unnecessary because it is extra-biblical". However, now, I believe it's vital to have the "milk" of the Gospel being offered to the children during Sunday School. And, along with that, how important it is that children learn catchy, gospel-filled songs!! I pray that many more good, gospel-filled songs will be written for kids. In our desperation to create a good, God-honoring, adult, church worship service, let us not neglect the children, who are, as the authors rightly stated, the "future well-being of Society."(204)

The Emerging Burnout

In response to Sally's description of an emerging worship service, Webber states, "Yes. I would love to be at this service. Once, maybe twice a year. But every Sunday? The burnout rate of the worship creators (yes, creators, not planners) would be excessively high, as would the burnout for the worshipers. Nobody could take this week after week after week. Why not? It is too much like the world in which we live. What we need in worship is not more of the culture in which we live. This only continues the failure of contemporary worship." (248)

After I read this paragraph by Webber, I thought to myself, "Hey that's what Stephen was talking about!" In fact, Stephen and Webber are exactly right. We don't need more of culture in our worship services, but rather, the "counter-cultural nature of the Christian faith and community." (248) As for Webber's statement about the "burnout rate of the worship creators", he is, again, right on track. How long can worship creators entertain their congregations with their extra-biblical creativity? Why don't we help ourselves out by looking PRIMARILY to the Bible which is "old, yet ever new." (note: I am not arguing that we shouldn't use some creativity, but that we should base our services off the Word of God which is able to reach any culture in any day and age.)

Pay the Piper

Where to start? This article by Sally Morgenthaler has so many different branches that we could discuss! I think what most impacted me though is this: we played the song, now we have to pay the piper. Sally in her article talks about how the church for so many years was functioning on a misconception of where the people were. She basically presents that the church functioned in a modern way. Modern in the sense that based on all the discoveries of that time period and economic growth we finally understood how life functioned and that it would only be a short while before we figured everything out. I believe the church did in fact conform to that idea and that it bought into it. Then when suddenly (suddenly in our human perspective) the world turned upside down the church’s, and all of the United States’, view of life changed. Sally writes, ”Surprise! We are neither masters of our destinies nor masters of ourselves. We are not, as we imagined mere decades ago, one government program or one scientific discovery away from utopia.” Exactly. I agree completely! The sad thing about that statement though it that the surprise wasn’t for the un-churched alone, the church was also caught. Speaking of the effect 9/11 had, Sally wrote, “Suddenly our enforced-happy, you-can-control-your-world services could no longer maintain the illusion of relevance. Easy-answer, religion-as-personal-project Christianity came up short-way short.” Again, I agree full heartedly. However this is where we split ways. Sally Morgenthaler explained the effects very well but she didn’t explain the reason. The reason we were caught unawares was precisely because we conformed to the world. We bought into the idea that man was going to figure out life. If we had preached the bible, would that have happened? If our songs had reflected man’s true nature would we have been surprised that man doesn’t hold the answer to the universe? Of course not! So what now? Where does that leave us? Sally Morgenthaler would say that now we have to realign. Realign with what? The bible? Amen! But that’s not where she would have us align with. Sally believes we have to align with culture and post-modernity! WHAT? Isn’t conforming what got us here in the first place? Why would we turn to a cosmo-vision that, when the knowledge of the bible is the lowest it has ever been, we would allow the average Joe believe what he wants and have none to correct him. This article is by far the saddest to me because we haven’t learned. We played the song and had to pay the piper. Why are we playing it again?

My Hymn

1^st Verse
You are the Sovereign King
Creator of all things
Who dwells in light unseen?
Removed from all unclean
You are the Holy One
Worshiped in Zion
God above all unknown
Reigning upon the throne
Chorus:
Who am I to call you Father?
Who am I? You’re my Defender
You're words are to wondrous for me
Who am I that you know my heart?
Who am I to be set apart?
O God, we worship you.
2^nd Verse
For my sin You did die
Paid the price that was high
Lamb of God Crucified
Dying for all mankind
But the grave did not reign
Because death You have slain
Salvation freely gained
Redemption unconstrained
Chorus:
Who am I to call you Savior?
Who am I? You’re my Redeemer
You're words are to wondrous for me
Who am I that you know my heart?
Who am I to be set apart?
O God, we worship you.
3^rd Verse
You reveal all man's sin
Disclose the guilt within
Expose unrighteousness
The Lord's one true witness
But with you came the truth
To glory whom it’s due
God's gift to guarantee
That we have been set free
Chorus:
Who am I to call you Counselor?
Who am I? You’re the peace giver
You're words are to wondrous for me
Who am I that you know my heart?
Who am I to be set apart?
O God, we worship you.
Bridge:
It’s not who I am
It’s not through my plan,
It’s not what I do
It’s because of you
It’s not what I’ve done
Nor what I’ve become
That my sins are now paid
But the power of your name
It’s not through me
That I am set free
It’s who you are