Featured Does CCM belong in the church

1) Do you know of ANY church that has sung EACH & EVERY hymn in their hymnal?
I don't know of ANY church that can make that claim! If that's the case, why do churches spend $$$$ on hymnals if they only use. say, 50% of the hymns contained within the front and back covers??? Seems like a rather questionable example of the proper stewardship of the Lord's money to me. To put it another way, if a church were to spend, say, $40,000 dollars in a car for general usage of her staff personnel, but then the car only gets used 50% of the time, there would probably be an uproar over that, don't you think?

I respectfully think this is a weak point. (And I'm exceedingly respectful of your opinion of J.S. Bach, my favorite composer.) Our church van often spends much of Mondays-Saturdays parked, but it's also an important tool of our ministry, not just on Sunday but on periodic church-sponsored trips and on each spring's college trip halfway across the country to visit solid Christian post-secondary schools.

I'd agree that probably no church has sung every single song in their hymnal. Our hymnal has about 880 hymns, spiritual songs, and choruses, and I'd venture that we've sung about 2/3 of them during my 16 years attending this work. I don't think that means we've wasted 1/3 of the funds God provided for purchasing the hymnals, mainly because I see no practical alternative if we wish to provide the congregation with the tools to sing, as described in the "15 reasons" article posted above. Short of building our own hymnal, with all the attributions and copyright processes required, having "partial-use" hymnals seems the most logical thing to do.

Having said all that, I appreciate your contributions to this thread, and think we are much alike in our musical preferences.

 

Wow. Don't say that -- it makes too much sense. You probably use an NIV or ESV too.

 

Interesting ... The large Baptist churches in our area have much more contemporary music than we do.

 

I think it does belong to church as long as the lyrics are belonging to church! I think God loves any kind of worshiping Him, if you sing about praising Him, he doesn't really care if it's the traditional church music or a modern music! What's more important than the music is what you are saying while singing!!

 

This is very true!

 

If the music points to Christ, is scripturally sound, and meets my personal preference for music, I have no problem with it being in church. If it is played in church though, it needs to be clearly understandable. No point in having lyrics in church if no one can be lead to Christ by them.

And to the previous comment about whether the music makes you want to sing or want to dance - There are several scriptures regarding dance as a form of praise. There is a time for music that leads us to contemplation, kneeling in prayer, and worship. There is also a time for music that leads to joyful praise, excitement over God's message, and inspiration to move.