I find the weekend a good opportunity to change subjects (even if only temporarily).\u00a0 Most of us will be attending worship services this weekend.\u00a0 What kind of music will we hear and sing?\u00a0 As a theologian I am dismayed at the turn taken in worship music (especially congregational singing) in the last two to three decades.\u00a0 As a professor of theology teaching mostly Christian undergraduates and seminary students I\u2019ve noticed a very definite decline in their understanding of Christian doctrine and ability to recognize and use biblical imagery.\u00a0 I think the two trends are linked together.<\/p>\n
When I was growing up in church we sang hymns and gospel songs and choruses.\u00a0 It was the hymns that piqued my curiosity and interest in theology and the gospel songs that kept me informed about biblical imagery.\u00a0 I attribute much of my youthful interest in theology to the music we sang in church.\u00a0 My father was a pastor and made a conscious effort to get his congregations to think about the words they were singing.\u00a0 He led the singing and would often stop between verses of a hymn or gospel song and comment on the message.<\/p>\n
I recall riding home from church and asking my father about some of the phrases in the hymns and songs.\u00a0 \u201cDad, what\u2019s an Ebenezer?\u201d\u00a0 \u201cWhy did that song say we are worms?\u201d\u00a0 My dad always had a ready answer.\u00a0 Of course, later, I filled in some of the content missing in his answers as I studied theology.\u00a0 But it was the songs and his answers to my questions, as much as the sermons, that stimulated my interest and informed me about our beliefs.<\/p>\n
Many of our evangelical churches are non-creedal. That is, we do not have formal, written creeds or statements of faith that we learn in a catechism class or repeat in church.\u00a0 For most Pentecostals, Baptists and other Free Church evangelicals, the hymn book served as our book of beliefs; singing hymns and gospel songs was how we passed the faith (in terms of beliefs and symbols) along to the young.<\/p>\n
I believe the cessation of singing hymns and gospel songs has greatly contributed to the general ignorance of doctrine and biblical images and symbols among evangelicals who grew up in the 1980s and since.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been teaching theology, including basic doctrine, in three Christian universities for almost 30 years now and I\u2019ve seen this general ignorance growing.\u00a0 I think it is at least partly attributable to the fact that my students know very few hymns and gospel songs.\u00a0 (I should say for the benefit of my students reading this: You\u2019re wonderfully bright and intelligent and quick to catch on.\u00a0 That you didn\u2019t grow up singing hymns isn\u2019t your fault.\u00a0 My comments here are not a reflection on your intelligence!)<\/p>\n
I take my classes to the seminary chapel and have them sing great hymns and gospel songs that relate to the doctrines we are studying.\u00a0 For example, I always have them sing Charles Wesley\u2019s hymns (especially \u201cAnd Can It Be?\u201d) and sometimes I have them sing 20 or more verses.\u00a0 When they wince at the length of some of his hymns I say \u201cI\u2019d rather sing 20 verses of a Charles Wesley hymn that sing\u00a0the same chorus 20 times.\u201d\u00a0 Of course, they laugh at me and probably consider me an old curmudgeon and a fuddy-duddy.\u00a0 They would say \u201cold school,\u201d I suppose.\u00a0 I admit it.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not just because I like that music (that I make my students sing it).\u00a0 It\u2019s because hymns like Charles Wesley\u2019s and Augustus Toplady\u2019s and even Charles Gabriel\u2019s gospel songs convey profound truths in powerful images drawn from Scripture.\u00a0 Of course, there are the occasional lapses.\u00a0 Some songs have such bad theology I use them as illustrations of what NOT to believe.\u00a0 (For example, \u201cWe\u2019ve a Story to Tell to the Nations\u201d is a blatantly postmillennial hymn.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
I think the shift away from hymns and gospel songs to choruses in congregational singing has been much more deleterious than most people suspect.\u00a0 I\u2019m not against praise and worship choruses; they have their place.\u00a0 (When I was growing up those places were youth group meetings and\u00a0youth camp chapels.)\u00a0 I think blended worship is fine.\u00a0 But when we never sing the great hymns of the church, because we have no other means of passing the faith along to the young, we should not be surprised at the resulting drought of doctrinal knowledge and awareness of the rich images of Scripture.<\/p>\n
Of course, not all hymns are doctrinally sound or biblically correct.\u00a0 As an Arminian, I despise William Cowper\u2019s (pronounced \u201cCooper\u2019s\u201d) \u201cGod Moves in a Mysterious Way.\u201d\u00a0 I would expect a Calvinist to like it.\u00a0 John Piper says he has it framed and hanging over the fireplace in his living room!\u00a0 Good for him.\u00a0 If I were to frame a hymn and put it over my fireplace it would be Wesley\u2019s great hymn \u201cAnd Can It Be?\u201d\u00a0 (Ironically, the one time I visited Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis where Piper is pastor the congregation sang this thoroughly Arminian hymn!)\u00a0 I think the whole gospel is very beautifully expressed in it.\u00a0 And so is prevenient grace (\u201cLong my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature\u2019s night; Thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.\u00a0 My chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose, went forth and followed Thee.\u201d)<\/p>\n
I urge music ministers and worship leaders to re-introduce hymn singing in churches.\u00a0 But don\u2019t just have the congregation sing these great songs of the past and present (Brian Wren has written some wonderful contemporary hymns) in a perfunctory manner.\u00a0 Use them as teaching tools.\u00a0 Lead them with passion and enthusiasm and comment on the words so that people will awaken to their meaning.\u00a0 Too often congregations sing songs without even thinking about the words or the messages.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I find the weekend a good opportunity to change subjects (even if only temporarily).\u00a0 Most of us will be attending worship services this weekend.\u00a0 What kind of music will we hear and sing?\u00a0 As a theologian I am dismayed at the turn taken in worship music (especially congregational singing) in the last two to three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":58,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-51","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n