I recently had a discussion with a musician friend of mine which has left my mind pondering the evolution of church music ever since. Like most people my age, I grew up in a church where there was a song leader who led the congregation in hymns every Sunday morning. You knew these hymns forwards and backwards: every note, every word, every melody. It was not what I would call worship. It was singing songs. It was the routine.
During my high school years, I became friends with some kids who attended a more progressive church and I learned some music from them that was apart of the new wave of Christian/Religious music called Praise and Worship. I grew to love songs like "Shout to the Lord," "Open the Eyes of my Heart," "Refiner's Fire," and "In the Secret (I Want to Know You More)." I was drawn to the emotional connection I felt to the Holy Spirit when I sang these songs. Quickly it seemed, the Praise and Worship genre was becoming a sort of movement or revelation. Music ministers and song leaders were replaced by what was called worship leaders. Hymns were replaced by praise choruses. Pianos and organs were replaced by keyboards, drums, guitars, etc.
When I went away to college at EIU in 2002, the movement of Praise and Worship music was in full swing and had taken the Christian music world by storm. You were hearing praise and worship music in more and more churches everywhere. I was involved in a campus ministry at EIU called Christian Campus House. There, we had a worship leader and sang contemporary praise and worship music. On occasion, Ben (the worship leader), would include a hymn. This was a far cry from the style of hymns I was used to singing in my home church. It was the same lyrics, but put in a more contemporary musical setting. I loved it. Worship was becoming more and more real to me every day and music was a big part of that.
Due to my Mother's battle with cancer and rapidly deteriorating health, I left EIU and moved home in 2005 because I was needed there with my family. I loved my life at EIU and hated leaving, but it was clear to us that my Mother's days on this earth were quickly coming to and end and I wanted to spend whatever time I could with her while she was still with us. So there I found myself at home and back in my home church. This was a place I loved with people I loved and had known virtually all my life. And I felt suffocated. I felt discouraged. My faith had grown in massive ways in college and CCH and here I was in a church that was focused on numerical growth and traditions and routine, not spiritual growth. I found myself praying to be content with where God had me. To appreciate my home church for what it was and find a way to worship Jesus through the boring hymns I had sung all my life.
God began to speak to my heart about studying hymns and finding the value in them so I could find a way to worship with them. So I would find myself sitting with a hymnal and my Bible trying to figure out what God was trying to get me to see. Through prayer and examination, I started to develop a great love for these beautiful hymns. I couldn't get enough of them. It became overwhelmingly evident to me how much theology was in these hymns that I once called boring. How these lyrics were portable little bits of theology set to music that we could carry with us in our minds and access when we needed a bit of Truth.
Nowadays, I have a love for both hymns and praise and worship music. There are hymns where you can read through the entire Gospel story in one song, With praise and worship music, it's often centered on a piece of Scripture and built around that or a song built around our emotional response to God and what He is doing in our lives. Both styles of music have their appropriate place in our worship and both are beautiful.
It is fascinating to me to see how church music has and continues to evolve. Today, we even have people that call themselves "Modern Hymn Writers" such as Keith and Kristyn Getty, Bob Kauflin and Stuart Townend. Though it is possible to connect the growing popularity of
those new hymns with the general boom in Celtic music (where would PBS pledge
drives have been without Riverdance and Celtic Woman?), I think the more telling reason is how
wonderfully those new, modern hymns bridge the gap between contemporary and traditional
mindsets in the church.
These new hymns work well with modern instrumentation,
traditional instrumentation, folk instruments, and/or orchestral instruments;
the melodies are singable and easily learned thanks to their roots in the folk
hymn tradition; and the texts are full of fresh language and theological
substance. These writers and others have helped to open the door to many other creative people
and groups to offer us new hymns, old hymns with new tunes, old tunes with
fresh arrangements, and in general I think have raised the bar as far as the
depth of contemporary music for the church.
To me, it doesn't matter as much what style of music it is. I'm drawn to a depth of lyric. I love seeing Scripture come alive through music. Songs that these "modern hymn writers" are penning are beautifully melding Scripture and song. You can look at their songs and point to specific verses of Scripture and that's what I love most. I've dissected the song "In Christ Alone," written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend as an example at the depth of Scripture-based songwriting we're seeing out there right now. It's incredible. I believe it is SO important to know the Scriptural truths in the songs we sing, so that our worship is not empty and void.
Please join me and meditating on the Biblical truths in the powerful song "In Christ Alone." If you'd like to take a listen, check out this link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLy8ksqGf9w
VERSE 1
In Christ alone my
hope is found;
Lamentations 3:24
I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
1 Timothy 4:9-10
This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance
(and for this we labor and strive), that we have put our hope in the living
God, who is the Savior of all men, and especially of those who believe.
He is my light, my
strength, my song;
Exodus 15:1-2
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD : “I
will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has
hurled into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my
salvation. He is my God, and I will
praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
This cornerstone,
this solid ground,
Ephesians 2:19-22
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but
fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the
foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief
cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a
holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become
a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Firm through the
fiercest drought and storm.
1 Corinthians 3:11
For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already
laid, which is Jesus Christ.
What heights of love,
what depths of peace,
1 John 4:10
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins
When fears are
stilled, when strivings cease.
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love.
But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with
punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
My comforter, my all
in all—
Colossians 3:11
Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised,
barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
Here in the love of
Christ I stand.
Galatians 2:20
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
VERSE 2
In Christ alone, Who
took on flesh,
John 1:14
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have
seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full
of grace and truth.
Fullness of God in
helpless babe!
Luke 1:30-35
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have
found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you
are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of
the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and
he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” ″How
will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered,
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.
This gift of love and
righteousness,
John 3:16-17
″For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For
God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the
world through him.
Scorned by the ones
He came to save.
Mark 15:12-14
″What shall I do, then, with the one you call the king of the
Jews?” Pilate asked them. ″Crucify him!” they shouted. ″Why? What crime has he
committed?” asked Pilate. But they shouted all the louder, “Crucify him!”
Till on that cross as
Jesus died,
Luke 23:33
When they came to the place called the Skull, there they
crucified him, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his
left.
Luke 23:46
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands
I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The wrath of God was
satisfied;
Matthew 27:46
About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi,
Eloi,lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?”
Romans 5:9
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more
shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!
For ev’ry sin on Him
was laid—
2 Corinthians 5:21
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him
we might become the righteousness of God.
Here in the death of
Christ I live.
Romans 5:8-10
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his
blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if,
when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his
Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
VERSE 3
There in the ground
His body lay,
Matthew 27:59-60
Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and
placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big
stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away
Light of the world by
darkness slain;
John 8:12
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the
light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will
have the light of life.”
Then bursting forth
in glorious day,
Mark 16:4-5
But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was
very large, had been rolled away.As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man
dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
Up from the grave He
rose again!
Luke 24:1-7
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the
women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the
stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the
body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men
in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the
women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why
do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!
Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:’The
Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on
the third day be raised again.’ “
And as He stands in
victory,
1 Corinthians 15:55-57
“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your
sting?”The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks
be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Sin’s curse has lost
its grip on me;
Romans 8:37-39
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither
height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate
us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For I am His and He
is mine—
Romans 8:15-16
For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave
again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry,
“Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s
children.
Bought with the
precious blood of Christ.
Acts 20:28
Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the
Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God,
which he bought with his own blood.
VERSE 4
No guilt in life, no
fear in death—
Psalm 23:4
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of
death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they
comfort me.
This is the pow’r of
Christ in me;
2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my
power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly
about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
From life’s first cry
to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
No pow’r of hell, no
scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand;
John 10:27-30
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow
me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch
them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all;
no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”
Till He returns or
calls me home—
Revelation 22:12-13
“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will
give to everyone according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
Here in the power of
Christ I stand.
Jude 1:24-25
To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present
you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only
God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our
Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
