Featured Tell me about your church's music in the assembly?

Underwhelming and is the preaching

 

We sing hymns. We don't have a pianist or organist so we literally play pre-recorded piano/organ files through a cheap sound system.

 

We sing hymns, mostly pre-1950 but the newest hymnal edition has some from the current century. Piano accompaniment on Sunday morning, evening and Wednesday sometimes piano, sometimes a capella. There's a small orchestra that varies over time - currently 2 trumpets, 2 violins, flute, psaltery, piano. Offeratory sometimes other instruments but usually piano. Pastor's wife likes the "Hymnworks" arrangements (so do I) that meld classical pieces with hymns - this past week was "Amazing Grace" with Grieg's "Morning Mood."

 

pretty contemporary, but nothing flashy.

we don't do lights, fog, backdrops nothing like that. just a band and singers on the stage. the songs we do range from contemporary songs that came out last month to hymns that were written 200 years ago. The range is really great. The best of the new and the old.

 

Ok grandpa

 

AMAC please. AARP has a far left socialist agenda.

 

Unfortunately, if you don't stay relevant you may see your church empty. I will not compromise doctrine, but I have no problem modifying style to reach the younger generation.

 

Has it not always been that way to a great degree? The difference is the technology explosion simply moves the change at a much faster pace today. I remember when I was a kid, the pastor integrated the cutting edge slide projector into his sermons. When that first electric organ came into the church, it caused no small stir. When we installed our first real sound system, the old people cackled like hens laying double yolked eggs.

 

They began mailing invites when I turned 48 (maybe it was 47), but after 5-6 years of my tossing those into the woodstove, AARP finally gave up.

 

My church's music is a mixture of contemporary songs along with hymns. It does include instrumental music, but the sound systems do not blow your head off and there are no smoke machines or disco balls etc.. I once visited a church in which I felt like I was at a hard rock concert and the band there were playing so hard and so loud that I was waiting for Ted Nugent to come swinging down from the rafters and start singing. lol It was too much for me.

I've heard people who attend the church of Christ say that the New Testament is silent on instrumental music, so they simply sing acapella. In Ephesians 5:19, we read -..speaking to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.." and correspondingly Colossians 3:16 says to, "..admonish one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs." The word "psalm" in the Greek dictionary, definition (#5568): "A set piece of music, i.e. a sacred ode (accompanied with the voice, harp, or other instrument)." The root word of psalm is "psallo" which means to means "to twitch, twang or pluck," such as pluck a string of a musical instrument.

Musical instruments, if used with care, can enhance the singing of praise to the Lord. Musical instruments were obviously considered a help to praise in the Old Testament. (Psalm 150:3-4; 2 Chronicles 5:11-14) It seems strange to say that something God thought was a blessing in the Old Testament is now unacceptable in the New Testament church. If the church of Christ (or any other church) wants to leave out musical instruments in their worship, that is their prerogative. But I don't believe that it would be right for anyone to judge other churches who choose to use musical instruments in their assembly.

 

And what does the younger generation want?

 

Church is about God.

 

What is "relevant" to the younger generation? If I cast my mind back to my teenage years when I joined a Bible class the immediate attraction was simple singable songs & choruses which were a welcome contrast from the formal liturgy & chants of the Church of England. At last I could sing relevant songs & I was converted at 18.

Over the past 60 years our worship has been largely traditional hymns & modern hymns with conventional verses & rhymes - basically easy to play & sing, with tunes that can be remembered & sung unaccompanied - and taken home in heart & mind.

A year ago we moved to a new area & a church with sound Gospel preaching BUT the music is different & I'm not enjoying it. Mostly modern singer/songwriter worship songs written for guitar, projected on a screen & accompanied by a piano, without a song leader.

I''ve always used the music versions of hymnbooks, but you can't do that with a screen. Guitarists write for the instrument & include music between lines, so we don't know when to sing, & there's no way to remember & take home the hymns in memory.

On most occasions when we do have an old hymn we find the tune has been modernised & given a new chorus. But occasionally we have a familiar old hymn which we can really sing with heart & voice.

I can still remember & sing hymns I learnt decades ago but I can't see that happening with modern worship songs with a constantly changing repertory.

I think the church is losing badly with modern worship.