What Music Should Be Used in Worship

The Parish Paper is a simple two-page bi-monthly newsletter that is always well worth time spent in its reading.  Its editors Herb Miller and Lyle Schaller, describe their publication as providing "Ideas and Insights for Active Congregations." This week's edition brought many notable insights on one of the great issues that has befuddled and baffled church leaders for centuries -- what music should be used in worship. Below is an illuminating portion of the article (Part I, as there will be a Part II)

"I just love the old gospel hymns," exclaimed Helen, the oldest choir member, after the choir finished practicing "His Eye Is On the Sparrow."

Carol, a choir member in her mid-sixties, asked, "But aren’t some of those gospel hymns theologically unsound?  I prefer the really old hymns like 'Holy, Holy Holy.'"

Bill interrupted with, "I'll take the contemporary praise songs over those oldies every Sunday.  I first heard ‘Father I Adore You’ at an Emmaus Walk Weekend back in the 1970’s and that really spoke to me."

"But those are actually old contemporary songs," said Amy, a thirty-year old choir member.  "The praise songs written in the 1980’s, like 'Change My Heart O God,' are much more meaningful"

The youngest choir member, Jacob, interrupted Amy with, "That type of praise song is too old to call contemporary! Songs written during the last fifteen years, like ‘You Are My All in All,’ are what’s happening now!"

Which of these five choir members is right? All of them! Many factors - such as the denomination in which we grew up or our ethnic origins - influence our hymn-type preferences. But more than any other single factor, the year we were born determines what hymns we like. That is an interesting find.

A high percentage of American Protestants born before 1927 prefer the old gospel hymns (predominantly written between 1870 and 1935).  Why do so many people in that age range prefer this hymn-type?  We "bond" to music, both sacred and secular, between age sixteen and twenty-four.  Thus, when most people born before 1927 sing the old gospel hymns they feel God’s pre-sence in a special way.  Three examples of old gospel hymns:  Blessed Assurance, Jesus Is Mine! (1873); Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus (1882); and In the Garden (1912).

At least three-fourths of American Protestants born from 1927 through 1945 prefer the great classic hymns (predominantly written between 1520 and 1870).   When World War II ended in 1945, 16-million Americans took off their uniforms.  Between 1945 and 1960, Gallup Poll Surveys indicate that U.S. church attendance (as a percentage of U.S. population) rose to levels never seen before or since.  The sanctuaries that these people filled to overflowing resounded to the great classic hymns, pipe organs, and choirs.  That generation’s "bond" to these hymns will never come unglued.  Three examples of the great classic hymns:  A Mighty Fortress (1528); Holy, Holy, Holy (words 1826/music 1861); The Church’s One Foundation (words 1866/music 1864).

So here's the "big challenge" for churches!  Many people born since 1960 view most of the hymns in both hymn-types noted above as boring, devoid of meaning.  This viewpoint appeared in the mid-1960’s, as the Vietnam War began.  Many age-18-to-44 adults were developing new music preferences.  As a new hymn-type arrived on the scene, the public began describing it with the following words: "non-traditional", "contemporary", "praise songs", "modern praise songs", and "praise and worship songs". As the next four decades unrolled, many mainline clergy and worshipers viewed this new hymn-type as a single preference.  But that is far from accurate!  The people who like "praise songs" are NOT one group that prefers "contemporary". That tragic mispercep-tion produced declines in mainline worship attendance, and in some instances, the gradual disappearance of entire churches!

Mmmmm, very interesting.  In the next issue (as we are space limited) I will provide a second-part from this article that will reveal more about the hymns we sing, individual preferences we hold, and the complicated nature of this interesting, befuddling and baf-fling issue for our --and every-- church.  For this is no small problem -- like everything else that comes along as we, in the church, work diligently to live out the faith to which we are called. The historian Philip Schaff said it this way: "Seek simplicity -- and distrust it." 

See you Sunday,
E. Taveirne