Hymnology??

Julie at LONE PRAIRIE wrote an interesting ironic article about hymnology. I think.

I was going to just comment but thought, what I have to say about all this is a bit more than a comment. Besides, this counts as a “Ping”.

I grew up in a hymn based church. Full on Lutheran. The big controversies were about which hymnal was better, red or green. I liked the old black one. It was arguing about the color of the vestments in 1917 as the Bolsheviks were at the door. Foolishness.

I got saved at 33 years old and began attending a Pentecostal Church in Fargo. I loved the old choruses. They were ditties I could sing in my quiet time in my head or under my breath. I still enjoy them. “From the rising of the sun…..”

But some things go around and come around. I attended a wonderful Sunday school class where the instructor just hauled out an old hymnbook and read the texts of the hymns and we would talk about what they meant. Some of those discussions were powerful. You can learn a great deal about theology by reading the old hymns. Now if we sing one of those hymns I get much from them. They mean something to me now.

I pity the one who sings them without apprehending the depth of meaning each word carries.

Of course there are bad hymns. Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s good. I don’t revere something that is old simply of it’s antiquity. I love opera. Some old opera is banal.

Some old hymns are banal.

But the ones that are not are rich.

So now, what of today’s music in the Church? Some banal, some rich. Nothing changes.

Julie talks of the Jesus as my Boyfriend music. There is some of that. But there is a level of the genre that is Jesus as my lover that is more genuine. Same concept different depth. If Jesus Lover of my Soul is right then the Jesus as my Lover stuff is right on. Heather Clark is a rich source of this material.

Then there is new music that rips the guts out of anyone who Loves Jesus from it’s passion. I was listening to a Hillsong CD a few days ago. There is a song, More than Life, The refrain was, I love you Lord, more than LIFE. The song before that is called Take all of me. Now, that is the stuff of modern Hymnody that I’m talking about. I could want “I love you more than life” played at my funeral. That’s how rich that kind of music really is.

Music played at a communion service can be so focused that we never lose sight of twhat is happening. The old Hymnals in the past did that, today we treat the music selection so much lighter in the modern Church during Communion. Hillsong addresses this focus in the Songs for Communion CD.

There is so much really GOOD music in the mix today. And there is so much really BAD music. We have a Christian music radio station in our market. K-Love. It’s ubiquitous. I almost never listen to it. It’s dumbed down spiritually. There is another national Christian music station out of California, Air One. Hard loud rock passion. My kind of stuff. Then there is the Flagship Christian Station out of Chicago. 80% is unlistenable except for Saturday PM when they have pure praise and worship on. The rest is almost beyond the pale for me. I have heard teaching on this station that makes my spiritual skin crawl. Doubt and unbelief.

I want to hear music in my head. I hear I love you lord more than life right now. I hear Heather Clark, Take me away, I hear Misty Edwards, You were always on his mind.

I think that as the revival I believe for develops, we will begin hearing better deeper richer music. Better than bad hymns, much better than some (not all) of the Chris Tomlin tunes everybody plays in Churches today. We need better heart touching stuff. We can go deeper, we can come up higher.

And, if I have my guess right, some will be hymns. Come thou fount of every blessing touches me whenever it is done. Read the story of how Robinson drifted from the faith after writing such a wonderful hymn. Now I raise my Ebenezer.

So, let’s find the deeper places and go there. Admit to ourselves that bad church music has existed since the beginning of time. Let’s do good music. People respond to GOOD music, be it hymns or Choruses or some strong lead guitar, a hammer down drum beat, a great bass player and a Hammond B-3. Now that's hymnody.

And to Julie, a well written essay. You are in good form.