Originally posted by JonathanDT:
First, wow. I didn't realize my comment would have such a reaction. I apologize if it offended anyone, DrBob asked for where we thought the future of music was heading, and I gave my opinion.
No offense here.
For the hymn books, let me explain. I don't think that they will be totally removed from the church, they will still reside there, but will be rarely used as the words will be put on the projector.
Again... the hymnal has the music, not just the words. You are cheating the congregation unless you give them the opportunity to sing parts and contribute beauty to the worship experience. I am not opposed to the projector, but I am opposed to the way hymnals are routinely dismissed as irrelevant by "projector-loving" churches. The worship leaders often send a clear message to the congregation that the hymnal is of little use, and nothing could be further from the truth.
While many of the latest "praise" choruses lack multiple vocal parts (as well as theological and corporate meaning), worship leaders should still find a way to provide the music to the congregation.
As I said will be better for most since they don't know how to read music anyway,
Lots of people know how to read music! Ask around, you might be surprised. But I have noticed that people who *do* know how to read music often avoid "projector" churches because they are very musically unfriendly to those who want to do more than simply sing the melody. When a person has musical understanding, they want to be able to use that understanding to glorify God -- not just sing the lowest common denominator kind of music.
and they don't hold the hymnal correctly(Look around in church sometime and see how many times people look up and down because of where they hold the hymnal).
I have. Most people in my congregation know how to hold the hymnal because we have a long history of using it! Frankly, I learned how to hold music in public school -- it is a simple technique that takes 30 seconds to teach. The worship leader could take a moment before worship one Sunday morning and talk about the importance of giving God our best and give a 1 minute lesson on posture, breathing and the proper way to hold a hymnal -- I have witnessed such a lesson in 2 churches. I doubt anyone would be offended and the worship experience of the entire congregation is enhanced.
As for paring the number of hymns to 70, how many do we really sing over a 6 month period? If the number of hymns sung for service is reduced to 2 per service, which I think it will be in most churches, 70 hymns will still allow you to go 8 months without repeating a hymn; to me that sounds like a fairly long time. FYI I wan't including most Christmas carols and such in that 70, I believe that most of them will be included in a seperate booklet which will be easy to use for caroling.
Our church easily sings approximately 200 hymns a year, not to mention some contemporary music and music written by members of our congregation. A better question would be, why should we pare down our music selection at all?
BaptistBeliever, I understand if you think of the praise & worship as '70s lounge music, but my generation doesn't.
"My generation"?

Now I have gotten old! Congratulations on being the first person to say there is a generation gap between me and the latest crop of youngsters!
I'm afraid you've mistaken me for a fuddy-duddy!
I don't know how old you think I am (I still feel like a person in their early 20s), but I'm only 37. I listen to radio and keep up with the latest trends in music. My love is a professional musician (electric guitar, classical guitar, acoustic guitar, electric bass guitar, lute) and she keeps me informed of all the musical trends that I have missed on my own. We go to concerts about 8 to 9 times a year (all kinds of music including Christian and "secular") and we write music together (I do lyrics, she writes the tunes).
I'm hardly a fuddy-duddy!
We aren't old enough to remember that music, and to many of us praise and worship has a distict sound that we haven't heard in the secular world. I guess different generations + different experiences = different worship styles.
It's too easy to say it is a generation thing... There are some differences of course, but many people in "my generation" like what is known as "Praise and Worship" music with the projector. A number of teens I know who have been exposed to a wide variety of music also enjoy a more traditional style of worship.
I have some appreciation for contemporary Christian music and praise and worship choruses, but too many times it seems the choruses are repeated over and over like a mantra in order to achieve some sort of emotional response instead of moving both the heart *and* mind to contemplate God and worship Him in majesty. There is a local Bible church that does an excellent job with their contemporary worship (using a projector and everything), but most of the time it seems to be something much less than transcendent.
But that's cool, and I don't believe that God prefers one style over another, just that we glorify him with everything we are.
Yes, but to glorify God with everything we are, we need to strive for excellence and opportunities to enhance our worship experience.
[ October 10, 2002, 12:37 AM: Message edited by: Baptist Believer ]