Ponder Anew’s Top 5 Posts of 2014 This week on Ponder Anew, we are counting down the top 5 posts of 2014, while Jonathan rests his brain and awaits a liturgical and personal Epiphany. Be sure to check this post each day to see the next one in the list. Or, better yet, like us on Facebook, and see the list there! 5. Dear Traditional Worshipers 4. Killing the Church with Sunday School 3. 11 Reasons to Stop Offering Different... Read more
If you’re like me, you’re sick and tired of hearing the commercial Christmas music that’s been playing everywhere for over a month now. Well, cleanse your musical palate with a few of my favorite choral pieces for the Advent-Christmas-Epiphany cycle. Here they are, in no particular order. 5. There Shall a Star from Jacob Come Forth (from Christus) – Felix Mendelssohn This fantastic little number from Mendelssohn’s unfinished oratorio captures the excitement and drama of Advent. Rich with onomatopoeic value... Read more
…and it’s not because I hate it. Responsive Reading I read a post today from this group called “The Fools,” entitled “Why I Lead the Worship Music You Hate, and Why I’m Going to Keep Leading It.” Normally, I wouldn’t pay a whole lot of attention to this kind of thing, but it’s receiving some notice on social media, and in a way, I was actually a bit intrigued by it. This well-meaning fellow appears to be dead serious, but... Read more
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnIqTjl8aGw Opening Sentences I think now it’s easier to write worship songs which are basically like teenage love songs, and there’s a lot of worship songs which are basically about me and Jesus falling in love. That’s fine, but as I’ve often said to teenagers, the point of falling in love is it’s like striking a match, which is a very exciting thing to do, in order then to light a candle with it. A candle is not as initially... Read more
Introit Why is contemporary worship obsessed with the second person? Opening Hymn of Third Person Praise I was reminded of this strange phenomenon recently while working on a comparison of traditional hymn and contemporary texts. It’s true. When you look at the top contemporary songs, almost all of them speak directly to God instead of about God. In fact, out of the top ten songs on the current CCLI chart, only one, “Cornerstone” by Mote, Liljero, Myrin, Morgan, and Bradbury... Read more
I’m always a bit frustrated when I see articles like this one from Cathy Lynn Grossman on the Religion News Service, entitled “Many church choirs are dying. Here’s why.” They never tell the whole story. It’s accurate that many churches have traded the traditional choir for a more contemporary ensemble in their services. I don’t think we can argue with that. But what the article doesn’t say is that there are many churches in which the choral art still grows... Read more
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Prelude After reading my 15 reasons, many of you chimed in with your own. Here’s what some of you had to say… Hymns of Response We should use hymnals because… “…hymnals give a a sense of unity as a body. This goes beyond the corporate worship of the local church. When I am able to travel and visit different churches, the hymnal, even if it is not the same one I am accustomed to, gives me a sense of unity... Read more
Unfortunately, many churches have done this with their hymnals, but I think they are important symbols for worshiping congregations. Here are some of the reasons why. Hymnals actually teach music. We’re making less music than ever before. Oh, to be sure, there’s lots of music going on around us, but very few people are actually making it. We’re just consuming it, or at the very most, singing along with music someone else made first. But even an untrained musician can... Read more
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